The Manufacturing sector is the lowest paid according to Monster Salary Index

Amidst concentrated efforts towards making India a manufacturing hub,Monster.com’s Salary index suggests that Manufacturing is the lowest paid sector with a median gross salary of ₹211.7.

The report highlights that despite economic growth, the median hourly salary decreased by 16.0%, going from ₹251.9 in 2014 to ₹252.1 in 2015 and 211.7 in 2016. The rate at which the salaries in the sector is dipping could pose a challenge to attract new talent entering the marketplace.
Manufacturing sector is the backbone for a mature economy as it fuels growth, productivity, employment and strengthens agriculture and service sectors. In India, the manufacturing output contributes about 16% to the overall Gross Domestic Product (GDP) and employs nearly 12%-13% of the labour force. Additionally, there is an ambitious target of increasing the GDP contribution of manufacturing sector to 25 per cent of by 2025.
Manufacturing typically is a labour intensive sector. Taking hint from this overall structural transformation, there is an immediate need for India to marry human skills with automation in order to fulfil its ambition of becoming a manufacturing powerhouse. The focus should now be on re-skilling, upskilling, building relevant capabilities and creating jobs for the reportedly 10 million young people who enter the job market every year.

At a supervisory position on an average, employees in the Manufacturing sector earn 34.7% more than their subordinates. This strong pay gap observed can be attributed to the pay gap between male and female supervisors. Manufacturing sector is the worst paid in India, however, there has been a subtle increase in the employees’ satisfaction with pay from 50.8% to 53.5%.
Among other job intensive sectors, the highest median gross hourly salary has been observed in the Banking, Financial Services, and Insurance sector at ₹433.0 in 2016, followed by IT at ₹386.8 and Healthcare, Caring services and Social Work sector at ₹242.5. The median gross hourly salaries in Education sector stood at INR 204.1 in 2016.

Salaries by sector

Source: WageIndicator Foundation


Analysing various parameters, MSI highlights that employees in the Manufacturing sector with only secondary education earn ₹101.4 which is 62.6% less than master graduates at ₹270.8.

Male employees in the sector earn ₹256.6 on an average and female employees earn ₹179.8, constituting a 29.9% gender pay gap.

Additionally, wholly and partially owned foreign companies pay more than double than that of domestic companies at a median gross hourly salary of ₹349.7.

This indicates that improving the gender balance in labour force participation and managing the spate of automation could be an important step for India’s development.

Median hourly wage with respect to educational attainment in the manufacturing sector

Source: WageIndicator Foundation