The World Inequality Report 2022 estimates that men in India earn 82% of labour income while women make only 18% of it. Recently, Gita Gopinath, First Deputy Managing Director, IMF, spoke at the Korea Gender Equality Forum voicing the significance of equal pay scales for women. Ensuring equality in opportunities and potential to participate in the economy can be catalytic for a faster recovery from recent shocks, and a strong engine of growth for more resilient, sustainable, and inclusive economies going forward. Gender equality goes hand-in-hand with macroeconomic and financial stability, can stimulate economic growth, boost private and public sector performance, and reduce income inequality.
Considering the disparity in salary, the corporate sector must prep up its policies to ensure pay parity for the women workforce. It will ensure equal representation and engagement of women in organizational roles. A pragmatic and deep-rooted approach towards assuring parity of salary will establish financial strength for women.
Let’s delve deep into this and see how this can be executed in the near future.
A positive picture
A recent rise and possibility of women adorning the responsibilities not just as employees but also as board members positively emphasizes their robust engagement in an organizational structure. Recent research shows that women make up 16 percent of companies’ boards. This proportion compared to the male counterpart needs to escalate. As India’s economy upsurges, we can expect an increase in women board directors. Such a transformation will be responsible for delegating women’s workforce to more decisive roles. It can spark & begin an era of gender-equal pay scales.
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Striking a parity
There are a variety of provisions that can facilitate an enabling environment for women to retain themselves in a corporate environment. Organizations can initiate and implement these provisions in the long run to nurture the talent, capabilities, and caliber of the women workforce. It is immensely essential and significant for the workplace environment to be women-friendly. Moreover, the priority lies with the employers to consistently provide flexible work options as well as upskilling opportunities. These employer-side initiatives can boost women’s rate of engaging in the professional sphere at large.
Flexible work options
In addition to the above aspects, one of the major reasons for women employees to leave their jobs is lack of workplace flexibility. Similarly, the companies need to step up and become more committed to employee well-being and D&I. In addition to this, working from home and child care facilities at the workplace will remarkably foster a positive scenario for women. As a result, it will manifest a feeling of equality & inclusion amongst the diverse & distinguished women professionals.
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Scaling up through upskilling & society’s support
It is paramount that we equip women workforce with necessary skills. These skills needs to upgrade at regular intervals. It will bolster them across the socioeconomic ladder. Furthermore, it will spearhead the footprint of women employees in the corporate scenario.
Summing it up
The way forward is to consistently amplify & maintain gender pay parity. It can become a reality only with the collaborative efforts of a diverse set of board members across organizations, government and families too.
(By Urvi Aradhya, CHRO, Mindspace Business Parks)