Rural-urban, male-female income inequality rose in 2023-24: PLFS data

Gender disparity in income rising

India’s urban-rural income gap has increased over the last seven years, as urban incomes have outpaced rural areas for both salaried and self-employed people, according to a Moneycontrol analysis of periodic labour force survey data.

In 2023-24, income for the salaried class was 44.2 percent higher compared with rural areas, while the difference was just 36.2 percent in 2017-18.

While rural women continue to earn far less than their urban counterparts, urban incomes were 65.4 percent higher than rural women compared with 62.9 percent in 2017-18; it’s the men that have pulled further apart from rural peers.

In 2023-24, urban men earned 41.4 percent more than rural men, compared with 32.9 percent a decade ago.

It is not just rural areas that seem to have lost out, women seem to be at a loss as well. The male-female earning gap has also widened over seven years.

Men earn 29.4 percent more than women in urban areas, while they earn 51.3 percent more in rural areas.

The corresponding ratios were 23.6 percent for urban and 51.4 percent for rural in 2017-18.

In the case of self-employed, the gap had become much wider.

Self-employed men in urban areas and rural areas in 2023-24 earned nearly three times as much as their female counterparts. Their earnings were double that of female employees in 2017-18.

The situation arises when there is an increase in the number of self-employed men and women, especially in urban areas.

In urban areas, self-employed people also earn much less in comparison to the salaried class in 2023-24 than they did a decade ago.