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Pay Parity Discussions moving beyond Gender
Pay Parity Discussions moving beyond Gender

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The Global Inclusion Summit

Nasscom organized its Global Inclusion Summit on August 8th, 2024 with the underline these of "Get Real - Embrace Diversity, Elevate Together”. The event brought together thought leaders from diverse sectors to explore and lead discussions on key areas of inclusion.

The Pay Parity Discussion

Being part of the event I had the opportunity to attend the roundtable on gender pay parity which was attended by over 20 industry leaders in the D&I and HR space.

While we can not negate the gender pay parity bit across industries, for me the key takeaway was that the pay parity discussions are moving beyond gender now.

It was interesting to know that in some industries such as Hospitality, Healthcare, and even for some BPM companies there is a reverse gender pay gap, while real estate does not have much pay gap. One of the BPM companies highlighted because of the soft skills that women bring to the table, some women employees are paid higher compared to their male counterparts.

This clearly hints that the pay parity today depends more on the skills required for the job.

The Gender Pay Gap Parity

However, for industries and organizations that continue to battle for gender pay parity, some reasons were highlighted:

  • Hiring is at the same level when it starts from campuses, women dropouts, sabbaticals sometimes creates a career break which derails the career progression
  • Women normally prefer more stability compared to their male counterparts and thus when they stay longer in an organization, they lose out on the growth that they might have received had they been switching jobs just for money. To solve this the group suggested a “tenure bonus” to maintain parity.
  • Women, when it comes to salary negotiations are considered bad negotiators – though recent research and company experiences don’t support this. One of the manufacturing organizations highlighted they have seen women declining offers because of not meeting expectations at the pay levels
  • All of this feeds into biases and stereotyping, which could be playing a spoilsport

How Organizations are Closing this Gap

Organizations are working towards closing this gap by focusing on paying according to the job requirements based on the skills and work experience required:

  • Not asking for the applicant’s current take home, when organizations are conducting lateral hiring. In turn the organisation decides on the grade/pay levels basis the person’s skills and work experience
  • Some organizations set up a minimum level of grade/pay levels in line with the job requirements below which they would not hire. This way you correct the deviation at the time of hiring.
  • Some organizations are making sure that they compensate their employees in line with the lateral hiring so that there is no dissatisfaction and pay gap between the new hire and the

The Pay Parity Discussion is shifting away from Gender

The whole discussion today is shifting away from gender pay parity to pay parity basis meritocracy.

To support meritocracy for women the organizational culture plays a big role by focusing on women-friendly practices, including work-life balance rather flexibility. Today women do give importance to their careers and ambition and they tend to stay but all they need is support at the right junctures of their personal as well as professional life.

On the lateral hiring bit specifically at senior levels the importance of the right succession planning was also discussed, which in a way will limit lateral hires at leadership levels where most of the pay parity gets disrupted.

An interesting point that came up by European companies in the room, is the EU directive that is pushing for gender pay parity and companies are keeping separate budgets for the same and have:

  • Stopped job evaluation
  • Started securing the ratings for female employees before females they go on for their maternity. The focus here is on rating based on the work that has been done, as post-maternity breaks there are higher chances of having a bias. This is to make sure that the person is protected for the longer run
  • Normalized Breaks - Everybody can be on a break male or female – what is important is the context and it is a personal choice, the reasons could be many.
  • Started focusing on outliers looking at the context, and applying it to everybody, and are not setting on generalizations to understand what is stopping the women from taking the role.

The Societal Challenges

Unfortunately, the whole challenge on the women's front is more of a societal problem that needs to be addressed at the broader level.

In India women continue to remain the primary caregivers, the idea when it comes to women is “You can do anything “but unfortunately it means you have to do everything. So what society needs to understand that for a woman to succeed we need to “share the load”; for those who cannot relate please see the Whirlpool advertisement “SHARE THE LOAD”. Cause physical stress that comes with multitasking cannot be ignored.

Gender bias starts early, this is reflected in the lower number of girls enrolled in schools and colleges across the country, so let’s bring up kids in a world without bias. Another challenge that pulls them back is the lack of female participation in decision-making on financial matters, and limited or no access to technology for a large segment of women, especially in rural areas.

I think the time has come where the need is to focus more on mindset change than only hype on gender-focused policies. Addressing the societal challenges is equally important with making gender blind policies.


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Neha Jain
Senior Analyst

Neha Jain

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