Freelancing has gender pay gap too but it’s much less than what it’s in the traditional market

• Overall participation and earnings of freelancers ballooned by 40% in India.
• Number of women freelancers also increased by 5% in 2021 as compared to 2019, as per Payoneer report.
• On average, women are earning only 82% of what men are earning in the freelance market.

The number of freelancers in India grew in the last two years and their earnings too went up by 40%, says the Payoneer Global Freelancer Income Report 2022.

As per the report, women freelancers too increased in number by at least 5% in 2021 as compared to 2019. This is largely due to the fact that women lost more jobs during the pandemic than men.

The earnings of Indian women freelance too grew by 42% since 2020. However, the gender pay gap still persists as women make $19/hour on average as compared to men who make $23/hour, in Asia. The gap is wider globally as a woman gets $23 per hour whereas men makes $28 per hour.

On an average, women are earning only 82% of what men are earning in the freelance market. The World Economic Forum also highlighted that the global gender gap has widened slightly since 2020 globally.

“Overall, they note that the wage gap between female and male workers is 37%, significantly higher than the disparity in freelancing. This suggests that, while women have yet to gain equal access to economic opportunity, the playing field is more level in the freelancing market than in traditional employment markets,” the report says.

The average hourly rates of the Indian freelancing community as a whole saw a jump from $21 in 2020 to $26 in 2022.
Finance, marketing and programming freelancers are the best paid
Finance, marketing and programming freelancers are the highest paid, according to the report.

It necessarily doesn’t mean that freelancers in these profiles are being paid the most but also means that clients are more likely and willing to pay higher rates for professions which are more specialized.

“Likewise, those fields which are more popular and have a large number of freelance professionals in them are more likely to have downward pressure on rates due to higher levels of competition,” says the report.

The demand for customer support, sales and project management freelancers declined during the pandemic.

It is to be noted that younger age groups make up an overwhelming majority of the freelancer market in Asia and Africa, the report said.

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