Female Labour Income In India Stands At 18%: World Inequality Report

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The Logical Indian Crew

Female Labour Income In India Stands At 18%: World Inequality Report

In a country with absolute equality between women and men, the female labour income share would be equal to 50%.

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In a startling revelation, women capture a mere 18 per cent of the total labour income in India. Meanwhile, men dominate the overall share with 82 per cent holding, according to World Inequality Report 2022.

The report was released recently and throws light on the gender inequality in global earnings, as reported by The Hindu.

Breaking It Down

The female share of the total labour income is the national aggregate labour income earned by women relative to the total aggregate labour income within a country.

In countries, where women and men enjoy equality, this share would be 50 per cent. But in the case of India, it is just 18 per cent which is much lower than the standard. The report data from 180 countries between 1991 to 2019.

The report also explained that the labour income share held by women depends on their labour participation compared with men and the gender earnings ratio. In India, the female labor participation rate had fallen to 20.3 per cent in 2019 from more than 26 per cent in 2005, according to World Bank estimates.

Where Does Other Countries Stand?

As many as 11 countries had values above 30 per cent.

Looking at other neighbouring countries — Bhutan stood at 17.5 per cent, Bangladesh (16.9 per cent), Pakistan (7.4 per cent), and Afghanistan (4.2 per cent); those who performed better were Nepal (23.2 per cent), Sri Lanka (23.3 per cen) and China (33.4 per cent).

Eastern Europe had the highest female labour income shares, with the average female share standing at 41 per cent. Moldova had the highest female labour income in the world at 45 per cent.

The report also stated that unpaid care work was likely to prevent women from participating in the labor market, and, when they do work, to prevent them from attaining high-paying positions.

However, when paid and unpaid work were combined, women's contribution to work increases substantially and thus makes the female labor income share appear even more unfair, as per the World Inequality Report.

There has been an increase of more than eight percentage points since 1990 in India's female labor income share. The report also observed that the deregulation and liberalization policies implemented for India's economy since the mid-1980s have led to "one of the most extreme increases in income and wealth inequality observed in the world".

Also Read: Offering Namaz In Open Spaces Will Not Be Tolerated: Haryana CM


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Writer : Rafia Tasleem
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Editor : Palak Agrawal
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Creatives : Palak Agrawal

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