Equal pay cannot be separated from equal opportunity

International Equal Pay Day, observed on September 18, is an opportunity to rethink gender equality in India’s labour market. The issue extends beyond equal wages to who gets better jobs, who can remain employed, and who can advance. India has made progress: the Economic Survey 2025-26 reports that female labour-force participation rose from 23.3% in 2017-18 to 41.7% in 2023-24. But participation alone is not empowerment; job quality, security, and earnings matter equally.The structure of employment illustrates this challenge. According to the Periodic Labour Force Survey for 2023-24, only 15.9% of female workers were in regular wage or salaried employment, compared with 24.9% of male workers. Conversely, 67.4% of female workers were self-employed, compared with 53.6% of male workers. These figures suggest that the challenge is not merely equal pay within jobs; women also have less access to regular, secure, and potentially better-paid employment.The wage evidence reinforces the concern. The SDG National Indicator Framework Progress Report, 2025, based on PLFS data, reports that the ratio of female-to-male average wage or salary earnings among regular wage and salaried employees was 0.75 in 2023-24, compared with 0.76 in 2022-23. In other words, women’s average earnings were about three-quarters of men’s in this employment category. The gap has narrowed little despite rising female labour-force participation.But the headline wage gap does not capture the full story. Earnings depend on occupation, sector, hours worked, career progression, and interruptions caused by family responsibilities. The International Labour Organization estimates that women globally earn about 20% less than men, while pointing to occupational segregation, discrimination, and unequal care responsibilities among the factors behind the gap.Unpaid-care economyIndia’s unpaid-care economy is particularly important. The Time Use Survey, 2024, conducted by the Ministry of Statistics and Programme Implementation, found that 81.5% of women, compared with 27.1% of men, participated in unpaid domestic services for household members. Among those who participated, women spent an average of 289 minutes a day on such activities, compared with 88 minutes for men. Women spent more time on unpaid caregiving — about 137 minutes a day, compared with 75 minutes for men. This unequal allocation of time can constrain women’s ability to take up full-time work, travel for employment, or pursue career advancement.This is why equal pay cannot be separated from equal opportunity. A woman may receive the same hourly wage as a man but still earn less over a year if unpaid care responsibilities restrict her working hours. Similarly, career interruptions associated with motherhood can weaken earnings and advancement over time. The labour market can, therefore, reproduce inequality even without an explicit rule paying women less for identical work.India’s policy response must consequently address the architecture of women’s employment. First, pay transparency should be strengthened, particularly in larger and formal workplaces. Clearer wage structures can make disparities easier to identify and address. The ILO has repeatedly highlighted transparency, collective bargaining and stronger institutions as tools for narrowing gender pay gaps.Second, India needs more pathways into regular and productive employment for women. Rising female labour-force participation will have limited developmental value if employment remains concentrated in low-productivity or insecure activities. Greater access to manufacturing, modern services, skilled occupations, digital work and managerial positions can improve both earnings and productivity.Third, the care economy must become part of labour-market policy. Affordable childcare, safe transport, maternity protection, parental-leave arrangements and flexible work are not merely welfare measures. They are economic infrastructure that can enable women to remain in paid employment and progress within it. Reducing unpaid-care constraints can expand the effective supply of women’s labour while improving household welfare.Fourth, women’s self-employment should not automatically be equated with empowerment. The fact that 67.4% of female workers were self-employed in 2023-24 may reflect entrepreneurship for some, but limited access to regular wage employment for others. The real policy objective should be to expand women’s choices among different forms of decent work, rather than simply increase employment numbers.Equal pay is ultimately about more than a wage slip. It is about economic agency, bargaining power and mobility. A labour market cannot be considered genuinely equal if women participate but remain concentrated in less secure occupations, carry a disproportionate burden of unpaid work, and have fewer opportunities to reach higher-paid positions.India has made progress in bringing more women into the labour market, but the next challenge is ensuring better jobs, higher earnings and greater economic independence. Equal Pay Day should therefore ask not only whether women receive equal pay, but whether they have equal opportunities to enter, remain in, and advance through better-paid jobs. Until then, equal pay will remain only one part of India’s unfinished journey towards economic equality.Sushanta Kumar Mahapatra teaches economics at ICFAI Foundation for Higher Education, Hyderabad; Madan Meher teaches economics at Amity University, Chhattisgarh, Raipur