Monster Salary Index shows reasons for hope but concerns remain

The just released Monster Salary Index (MSI) giving median gross hourly wages, across eight sectors, gives reasons for hope in the fast changing workplace scenario in India. But it also shows that concerns remain. The report, a joint initiative of Monster India, Paycheck.in with the Indian Institute of Management , Ahmedabad (IIMA) as a research partner, analyses median wages across 8 sectors -- construction and technical consultancy; education and research; financial services, banking, and insurance; healthcare, caring services, and social work; ICT services; legal and market consultancy, business activities; manufacturing and transport, logistics and communication.

Here are some findings of the survey.

• The highest median gross hourly wages were paid in the ICT services sector standing at Rs. 317.6 per hour in 2017. The study is based on an analysis of over 20,000 profiles across different industry verticals, functions, roles and educational background.
• Median wages remain relatively stable across the three studied years -- 2015 to 2017 -- in ICT services, manufacturing and education and research. Median wage growth of Rs 19.2 compared to 2016 has been recorded in the manufacturing sector. Moreover, it says, "Manufacturing remains the only other sector in 2017 paying wages above the Rs 200 benchmark and, thus, the second highest-earning sector in the Indian economy."
• The lowest median gross hourly wages of Rs 133.1 were received in transport, logistics and communication, where wages have decreased by almost one half compared to 2015 and 2016. A notable decrease, it finds, were recorded in financial services, banking and social work. While in 2015 and 2016 the median wages were on average Rs 369.5, they fell to Rs 144.3 in the sample population in 2017.
• Median wages in 2017 decreased slightly in the lower tenure groups and remained stable for workers with more years of experience. In the tenure group with 0-2 years of experience the average median wage across all sectors was 108.3 per hour, while in 2015 it was Rs 115.1 and in 2016 it was Rs 122.5. Wages in the highest tenure group of employees with 11 and more years of experience remain stable. While in 2015 the median was at Rs 498.1, in 2016 and 2017 it was Rs 505.
• Besides tenure, the educational level could be identified as a key determinant for hourly wages. On average, in India, bachelor graduates earn Rs 132.8 per hour. This is nearly twice the hourly wage of an employee with secondary education only (Rs 58.5). Master degree holders receive an additional 69.9 per cent per hour with Rs 270.6. In 2017, the wage-gap has grown to master's degree holders being paid than 4.5 times more and bachelor degree holders being paid more than double than secondary education graduates per hour. Again highlighting the importance of higher education in the Indian labour market, relative wage decreases were lowest for master graduates and highest for employees with secondary education only. This again highlights the growing importance of graduating not only in a bachelor's but in a master's programme.
• The overall gender pay gap, it says, worryingly remained at 23.1 per cent (Rs 52.8) on average between 2015 and 2017 but decreased from 28.5 per cent in 2015 to 20.0 per cent in 2017. Women, the study says, are under-represented in the Indian work force (amounting to approximately one fourth of it) and they are under-represented also in the sample, where men represent more than 80 per cent.
• In most cases partly or wholly foreign-owned companies paid more than twice as much per hour as wholly domestically owned companies.

In 2017, employees were most satisfied with the relationship with their colleagues scoring 92.5 per cent. Pay satisfaction came in last after a continuing decrease to 48.6 per cent. Indicating a rather satisfying work life, pay and life-as-a-whole-satisfaction were the only other values below the 70 per cent benchmark. Job satisfaction (with the exception of pay) rose over the years observed in all categories - job security (+6.4 percentage points) and life-as-a-whole-satisfaction (+6.5 percentage points) saw the strongest increases