Gender Pay Gap: IT Sector Tops the List for Disparity, Career Breaks; Workplace Bias Emerge as Top Drivers

Nearly half of job seekers, around 45 per cent of the job seekers, believe the pay gap remains above 20 per cent, a figure that frames the debate and underscores why corporate India cannot treat pay equity as an afterthought. A job hunt platform, Naukri, conducted a nationwide survey drawing responses from more than 20,000 job seekers spanning over 80 industries and eight cities, has laid bare persistent perceptions about the gender pay gap in India and the forces that sustain it.

IT Sector Tops the List for Pay Disparity

Half of those surveyed singled out the information technology sector as having the largest gender pay gap. This perception significantly outstrips concerns in other sectors such as real estate (21 per cent), FMCG (18 per cent), and banking (12 per cent). That the perception of IT as the worst offender is strongest among younger entrants, freshers, and early-career professionals suggests both lived experience and rumour contribute to the narrative. Technology hubs such as Hyderabad and Bengaluru reported the highest levels of concern, at 59 per cent and 58 per cent respectively.

This is an important detail. IT’s prominence in these responses signals sector-specific dynamics rapid hiring cycles, project-based work, and a talent market that prizes continuous availability that can exacerbate the financial consequences of career interruptions. To be honest, companies in the sector will have to do more than issue statements: they will need robust, measurable interventions if they hope to change perception and reality alike.

Career Breaks as Key Reason For Gender Pay Gap

More than half of respondents 51 per cent identified maternity-related career breaks as the single largest contributor to pay disparity between men and women. Workplace bias followed as the next most-cited factor, selected by 27 per cent of respondents, indicating that structural perceptions about women’s commitment and capability still influence compensation decisions. This concern about maternity breaks was not confined to one age or experience group; it was most pronounced among professionals in their mid-career stages, those with five to 15 years of experience, precisely the period when many of the surveyed professionals expect or take parental leave.

The pattern is clear. Employers, consciously or otherwise, are seen as penalising interruptions in career trajectories. In other words, the economic penalty for childbirth and caregiving is both real and widely acknowledged by the workforce. That admission comes from respondents across genders and industries, which lends weight to calls for policy-level and company-level fixes rather than piecemeal measures.

Perceptions Vary by Experience and Industry

Perceptions about the size of the gender pay gap harden with seniority. Nearly half of respondents with a decade or more of experience reported that the gap remained above 20 per cent, and professionals in sectors such as aviation and education reported particularly stark views 57 per cent and 52 per cent respectively about inequality. Conversely, traditional industries like oil and gas presented a different image; a notable proportion there considered the gap negligible.

That divergence matters. It shows the pay-gap conversation is not uniform; the context, structure, and history of particular industries shape lived realities. Those at the top of organisations should thus resist one-size-fits-all solutions; what works in retail may not translate to aviation or pharma. And yet the common threads of career breaks and bias recur enough to warrant cross-sector strategies.

Solutions Suggested by Professionals

Survey respondents were not merely diagnosing the problem; they proposed remedies. Performance-led promotions were rated the most effective single solution by 34 per cent of respondents, rising to 39 per cent among senior professionals. Other popular fixes included bias-free, transparent hiring practices 27 per cent and pay transparency 21 per cent. Notably, calls for transparency were strongest in National Capital Region clusters such as Noida and Gurgaon areas, where job markets are highly competitive and where workers appear more willing to press for open compensation policies.