Maternity breaks, workplace bias drive gender pay gap in India — Report

NEW DELHI — Nearly half of jobseekers (45 per cent) believe that India’s gender pay gap exceeds 20 per cent, with maternity-related career breaks and workplace bias cited as the top drivers, a survey report said on Thursday.

According to a Naukri survey across 80 industries, 51 per cent of professionals identified maternity breaks as the primary cause of pay disparity between genders.

Around 27 per cent pointed to workplace bias -- the way women are perceived at work.

The views of respondents were strongest in IT (56 per cent), pharma (55 per cent), and automobiles (53 per cent) sectors.

Professionals with 5-10 years of experience (54 per cent) and those with 10–15 years (53 per cent) reported the most pronounced impact of career breaks, the report said.

Half of all surveyed professionals flagged IT as the industry with the widest gender pay gap.

Sectors like aviation (57 per cent), education (52 per cent), far outpaced real estate (21 per cent), FMCG (18 per cent), and banking (12 per cent) in terms of pay gap perceptions. Traditional industries such as Oil & Gas and Retail offered a more positive outlook.

The perception of the gender pay gap was particularly strong among younger professionals, freshers, and mid-level professionals, identifying IT as the biggest offender, the report said.

Technology hubs Hyderabad (59 per cent) and Bengaluru (58 per cent) topped concerns about IT pay inequities.

The survey found that senior professionals view the gender pay gap more starkly. Nearly half of respondents with 10-15 years (46 per cent) and 15+ years (47 per cent) of experience said the gap remains above 20 per cent.

Professionals overwhelmingly responded that performance-led promotions could bridge the pay gap. Bias-free and transparent hiring (27 per cent) and transparent pay practices (21 per cent) were also widely endorsed, particularly in city clusters like Noida and Gurgaon, where calls for pay transparency were the strongest.