Parliament Question: Wage Gap between Male and Female

GOVERNMENT OF INDIA MINISTRY OF STATISTICS AND PROGRAMME IMPLEMENTATION LOK SABHA UNSTARRED QUESTION NO. 2963 TO BE ANSWERED ON 05.08.2026 WAGE GAP BETWEEN MALE AND FEMALE 2963. ADV. CHANDRA SHEKHAR: Will the Minister of STATISTICS AND PROGRAMME IMPLEMENTATION be pleased to state: (a) the current average daily wage gap between male and female workers in casual labour and regular wage employment as recorded in the latest Periodic Labour Force Survey (PLFS) gender-wise; (b) whether the Government has taken steps to improve the statistical measurement of women's unpaid and subsidiary economic activities in official labour force statistics and if so, the details thereof; and (c) whether the Government proposes to conduct the Time Use Survey (TUS) at regular intervals and utilise its findings for strengthening national statistical accounts and if so, the details thereof? ANSWER MINISTER OF STATE (INDEPENDENT CHARGE) OF THE MINISTRY OF STATISTICS AND PROGRAMME IMPLEMENTATION; MINISTER OF STATE (INDEPENDENT CHARGE) OF THE MINISTRY OF PLANNING AND MINISTER OF STATE IN THE MINISTRY OF CULTURE [RAO INDERJIT SINGH] (a): National Statistics Office (NSO) under Ministry of Statistics and Programme Implementation (MoSPI) conducts Periodic Labour Force Survey (PLFS) to estimate various labour market indicators in the country. Based on the latest Annual Report of PLFS 2025, the estimates of average wage earnings for regular wage/salariedemployment (during the preceding calendar month on CWS basis) and casual labour other than public works (per day on CWS basis) disaggregated by gender (male, female, person) at all-India level are given in the table below: Table: Estimates of average wages (in Rs.) disaggregated by gender (male, female, person) at the all-India level from PLFS 2025 status in employment male female person (1) (2) (3) (4) regular wage/ salaried employment 24,217 18,353 22,699 casual labour 489 324 453 (b): PLFS collects information on the usual principal activity of a person as well as on any subsidiary economic activity undertaken during the reference period. As per PLFS, persons who assist in the operation of an economic activity in the household farm or non-farm activities are captured and their activity status is termed as unpaid helpers or contributing family workers. Further, MoSPI also conducts Time Use Survey (TUS) to measure participation of men and women in paid and unpaid activities. (c): MoSPI has conducted two rounds of TUS during January- December 2019 and January-December 2024 respectively. TUS is an important source of information on the time spent by household members on unpaid caregiving, volunteer work, and unpaid domestic service-producing activities. It also provides information on time spent on learning, socialising, leisure activities, self-care activities, etc., by the household members. *****