Gender-based discrimination is the reason for 98 percent of the employment gap between salaried males and females in urban areas, according to a new report released on Thursday. The employment inequality faced by women in rural areas goes up to 100 percent, as per the report.

According to Oxfam India's 'India Discrimination Report 2022', the periodic labour force survey (PLFS) data for the year 2019-20, men have a significant advantage in the labour market compared to women in terms of benefitting from their endowments (i.e. variables such as years of education, age, and household head).

“Societal discrimination explains 98 percent of the total gender gap in employment at all the three points of time (2004-05, 2018-19, 2019-20) for the two age groups considered in the study,” it said.

The report indicates that women in India, despite their same educational qualifications and work experience as men, will be discriminated against in the job market due to societal and employers' prejudices.

The report finds that if a man and woman start on an equal footing, the woman will be discriminated against in the economic sphere where she will lag behind in regular/salaried, casual and self-employment, news agency PTI quoted Amitabh Behar, CEO of Oxfam India, as saying.

“Endowment factors improve the probability of men getting decent employment much more than women. Furthermore, although the probability of getting employment at higher ages is higher for both genders, the improvement is greater for men. This implies that there is a disproportionately higher chance of more educated men at higher ages getting jobs than women in similar positions,” it noted.

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The lower wages for salaried women are due to 67 percent of discrimination and 33 percent due to lack of education and work experience, the report said.

It also revealed that the level of discrimination in accessing regular and self-employment is extremely high in urban India and has remained unchanged for one and a half decades under consideration.

Self-employed males earn 2.5 times more than females, and 83 percent of this gap is attributed to gender-based discrimination, according to the report, which adds that 95 percent of the gap between the earnings of male and female casual wage workers is due to discrimination.

Meanwhile, male casual workers earn Rs 3,000 per month more than females, and 96 percent of the gap is due to discrimination, the Oxfam report said.

Oxfam India has reached out to the government to ensure active enforcement of measures for the protection and right to equal wages and work for all women. The report said that the government should also incentivise women's participation in the workforce, including enhancement in pay, upskilling, job reservations and easy return-to-work options after maternity.

The findings of the Oxfam report are based on the government data on employment and labour from 2004-05 to 2019-20, it said. It refers to unit-level data from the 61st round National Sample Survey (NSS) data on employment-unemployment (2004-05), the Periodic Labour Force Survey in 2018-19 and 2019-20 and the All India Debt and Investment Survey by the government.