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Barring agriculture, all major sectors have witnessed an increase of around 3 per cent in real wages annually in the past decade and a half, even though the monthly earnings remained to be low in general, according to a report released by Azim Premji University here on Tuesday.
The report titled ‘State of Working India’ also revealed that 82 per cent of male and 92 per cent of female workers in the country earn less than Rs 10,000 a month.
According to the report, employment generation has more or less remained weak in India and the country has struggled to convert high rates of economic growth into good jobs, particularly for its educated youth.
It further mentioned that while wages in most of the sectors have shown a steady growth, the caste and gender disparity remain high.
Another major finding of the report was that women constituted only 16 per cent of all service sector workers. Around 60 per cent of domestic workers, on the other hand, remained females.
Similarly, persons belonging to Scheduled Castes (SC) cornered 18.5 per cent of all jobs. On the other hand, their percentage among leather workers was as high as 46 per cent.
“We see this report only as a first step, with deep, continuing and on-the-ground research required. Collaboration across institutions and sectors will be key for developing a robust and detailed understanding,” said Anurag Behar, Vice-Chancellor, Azim Premji University.
Interestingly, in the past decade the organised manufacturing sector has performed better. Several industries (especially big employers like plastics, knitwear and footwear) have delivered on wage growth and job growth. One of the reasons for this was that workers were no longer being replaced by machines as fast as they were in 80s and 90s in these organised manufacturing sectors.
“The report analyses the structural problems that have prevented adequate employment generation over the past several decades, and does not limit itself to just the past few years,” said Amit Basole, lead author of the report.
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