January 22, 2026

Unequal Pay: Discriminating Against Women

By Linus Garg
First publised on 2022-04-21 08:17:43

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Linus tackles things head-on. He takes sides in his analysis and it fits excellently with our editorial policy. No 'maybe's' and 'allegedly' for him, only things in black and white.

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Indeed is the top job portal in the world. In a bid to highlight unequal pay for women and promote pay parity, it has come out with a series of brilliant ads which use graphics of products like burgers, ice cream candy, comb, umbrella etc. that have been cut by 16% (see lead picture) and asks the question whether the buyer will accept 16% less of a product for the same price. Then it goes on to say that why women should accept less.

It is a sad fact all over the world that women with same education and experience are paid lesser for the same job, and here we are not even talking about the gender pay gap which is entirely different. Although the unequal pay gap is closing in several Western countries, in India it still remains high although the International Labour Organization (ILO) says that women work more even for the lesser pay.

The earlier excuse of women being less educated doesn't carry weight as the gender gap in education has closed remarkably all over the world and more so in India. More and more women are getting the same degrees in the same subjects from the same colleges and yet even in campus placements, they are offered lesser pay for the same designation and job profile. This is nothing but discrimination.

Does a woman coder, engineer, doctor, banker or even sales person work less, or less diligently, than her male counterpart? Does she not apply her mind or grasp things as well as him? Is she not as productive? Then why pay her less? As long as this mindset that men work better than women continues, true pay parity will never be achieved.