Indian women get 16.1% less pay than male counterparts, but fare better than the UK, the US: report

Women across the globe make on-average 16.1 per cent less than men, the same as in India, says the Korn Ferry Global Gender Pay Index analysis. The global consultancy has come out with its index analysing gender and pay for more than 12.3 million employees in over 14,000 companies in 53 countries.

India did better in comparison with other countries on other parameters as well. For instance, the gap between women and men employees at the same level was just 4 per cent in India as against Brazil (15 per cent), the UK (8.3 per cent), the US (7 per cent) and China (5.8 per cent).

And in the ‘same level, same company’ category, India emerged at the top with a mere 0.4 per cent gap between female and male employees, while it was higher in most other nations: Brazil (5.5 per cent), Germany (3.2 per cent), France (3 per cent) and the UK and the US (2.6 per cent).

It was even lower in the ‘same level, same company, same function,’ category. The difference in India was just 0.2 per cent, whereas in Germany (2.3 per cent), France (2.2 per cent), Brazil (1.9 per cent), the UK (1.3 per cent)        and the US (0.9 per cent) it was higher.

“Pay parity is still a very real issue, but it’s an issue that can be addressed if there is an ongoing effort to enable, encourage and select talented women to take on and thrive in challenging roles,” said Jane Edison Stevenson, Korn Ferry's Global Leader for CEO Succession. “Our research shows women have the skills and competencies needed to ascend to the highest levels within organisations, and it should be a business imperative for companies to help them get there.”