Published on: 21st April 2026
Authored by: Kartikey Thapliyal
Jagannath Vishwa Law College
Introduction
We can define the gender pay gap as simply the difference in mean total hourly rate between men and women over an organisation or economy, this displays one of the most deep- rooted forms of economic inequality in modern wage markets. Different from entire wage inequality, where two persons are doing the same jobs and maintaining the same standard but are paid on the basis of gender, the gender pay is a matter of discrimination in our modern economic civilization.
Some departments show this gap more boldly than high banking and finance. In short, women are stuck at the roles that does not pay them well because of gender bias. Whereas men are the incharge of high-paying jobs like investment banking and trading. A 2023 World Economic Forum[1] report has justified that finance in one the defeated sector for this kind of unfairness, regardless giving a number of women a women jobs at a junior level.
This article is going to compare two non-identical ways to address this gender pay gap by studying one used in UK and one in India and will see which method to all intents and purposes works better. Speaking of India, people have strong laws and rights in our constitution that protect equal pay. In order to do so, an under paid women has to stand for herself and file a complaint and then prove that she is being treated unfairly by her organisation, but nothing would be done unless an official takes an action. Whereas the UK takes a bold approach. Their organisations has to publicly bring out their gender pay information every year and they are legally obliged to do so.
Understanding this variation is crucial for any significant conversation on how to end the gender pay gap in the indian banking and finance sectors.
The Indian Legal Landscape
The legal structure of India on gender pay justice is, in terms and constitutionally reasoned. The services that say about the equal pay for women are not entirely some lawfull ideas. They get their lawfull authority form the constitutional documents of the Indian Republic alone.
- Legal Framework
Article 14[2] of our constitution ensures equality before law and the protection should be given to all persons in the same way and degree. While this arrangement does not convey pay specifically, this has been clarified by the Apex Court, suppressing discretionary discrimination, unfairness on the basis of gender, in employment state of affairs. More direct bearing on Article 39(d)[3], the fundamental priciple of state policy, which urges the state to address its policy to provide equal pay for both the genders. In spite of the fact that Directive Principle are not obligatory as basic rights in seperation, the Supreme Court of India has as seen in Randhir Singh v. Union of India(1982)[4], stated that concept of equal pay for equal labour is understood in Article 14 study with Article 39(d), and is consequently legally enforceable.
The seriousness of this constitutional bridge should not be restrained. It means that the right to equal pay according to equal labour in India is a constitutional right. Not just an assurance that is statutory. Although the actual force of this assurance depends solely on a person’s readiness and ability to present this in front of a court or a labour tribunal.
The Equal Remuneration Act, 1976[5]
The principal law that makes body that rules gender pay equality in India is the Equal Remuneration Act, 1976. The ERA forces a direct order on employers to pay equal salary to men and women labours for the same work or work of an equivalent nature. Section 4 of the Act states that no employer will pay the salary differently to any worker than those who are doing the same amount of work just because they do no belong to the same gender. This Act to a greater extent forbids the inequality in employment, promotion, training, and transfer on the basis of gender.
The ERA settled a system of implementation via government recruited authorities entitled to hear complaints. If any employer is caught doing this activity, then they would face a fine and in some cases, imprisonment. On paper, these are major discouragements. In the practical world, the ERA’s implementation record in the private banking field had been negligible. The legislation was made in the first place with industrial and blue-collar organisations in mind.
An additional restriction is that the ERA’s definition of same work or work of equivalent nature has been understood strictly by some courts and such tribunals, making it hard to question pay gaps that comes not from straightforward unfairness in a independent position but from the planned lowering of worth mainly by women. As incentives in banking can form a major part, an employer who is paying same basic wages to both men and women while issuing the incentives not equally may run away from the letter of the Act completely.
The Code on Wages, 2019[6]
The Code on Wages, 2019, part of India’s high growth intent over 40 central labour laws into four integrated codes, including the ERA and its updated provisions. Section 3 of the code prevents gender based inequaliry in salaries and the environment of practicing for work of the same or similar nature.The code expands elaboration of wages to bring in basic wages, DA, and stay bonus, a major advancement over previous structure that could be avoided by arranging unequal pay via allowance and benefits not covered in the ERA’s strict salary definition.
Nevertheless, the code on pay protects the fundamental framework of the ERA: it lasts a reactive, complaint driven structure. There is no system in the code which requires the employers actively to gather, study, or disclose the gender specific data. Neither the government has any idea nor the public, how broad the gender wage gap initially is until and unless someone files a complaint or the court orders to the disclosure in the proceedings.
The Silent Gap in Indian Private Banking
The negligence of necessary pay in India’s private banking sector mean that the real scale of the gender pay gap is just invisible in the official sourced information. The reserve bank of india(RBI) gathers high level control and oversees the information on banking sector execution but it does not requires the banks to outline gender disaggregated remuneration figures.
The systematic negligence in the remuneration gap is itself a failure of regulation without the compulsory notification and reporting, there is no accountability framework, no grounds for tracking, measuring, and evaluating development against a set of standards between the associations, and no prestigious incentives for bank for anticipating needs. A lone women who sees that they are being underpaid tackles the wall of knowledge inequity, they potentially have no idea how much their male fellow workers earn, provided the classified pay structures universal in Indian private banking and the individual and qualified cost of filing a grievance or litigation in an organisation where progress rely on recognize loyalty and friendliness. The result is a judicial structure that is techincally rigorous bur dormant around most of the private banking sector.
The UK Legal Landscape
The United Kingdom proceeds towards the gender wage equality has developed outstandingly over the past five decades, progressing from starting fair treatment policies to an advanced structure that takes ones rights with compulsory information disclosure. The UK model is of special importance as it shows an intentional strategic shift to aid complaint based framework, a step that no major growing economy has taken so far.
The Equality Act 2010
The Equality Act 2010[7] is the organic law that oversees all forms of inequalities which also includes wage inequality, in UK profession. Earlier than its enactment, only the equal wage was mainly controlled by the Equal Pay Act 1970[8], which had been changed multiple times over the course of time. The 2010 act combined this fragmented set of laws into an individual rational structure and inaugrated a crucial theoratical explanation that united the place of applicant.
Under the Equality Act, a worker is permited to equal wage if they can show that they are doing equal work compared to the equivalent colleague of opposite gender in the same job. Equal work encircles three different categories: work of equal value, work that is identical, mentioned as like work; and work of similar worth, where an evaluator role of diversed subject can be represented to be identical, in terms of labor, proficiency, and strategic planning. This last category is top priority in banking, where the character is mostly dominated by the women, such as oversighting, client management, and HR, maybe of similar worth to male dominated front offices roles but are counterbalanced.
Under this Equality Act, a bank can explain why a woman is being underpaid than a man for the similar task if they can show an important consideration- a particular, neutral reason for the impartiality. Standard safeguards in the banking sector covers following market rates, rewarding higher incentives, or adhering to collective agreement rates. While these motives are prima facle valid, curts are now seeing significantly closer if they are spoiled by structural partiality.
Enforcement by the Equality and Human Rights Commission
The Equality and Human rights Commission[9] is a liberated body in the UK in charge for making sure that companies are following the gender pay regulations. They have the authority to look over the companies that do not outline their statistics[10], they enforce them to obey, and even take them to court. At the beginning, the EHRC was cooperative and provided companies suggestions, but not long ago they have started public exposure and humiliation the businesses that denies to go along with these rules and regulations.
This arrangement design a much rigorous enviroment than what lives in Inida. In UK, everyone can see who has and who has not synchronized their data to the government’s official portal. If any company does not attatch their reportm it straight away makes a bad impression to their citizens, investors, and media. On the other hand, India’s existing system is generally elective. This actually means that if any indian company does not want to share the data about their gender pay scale, there are no legal punitive actions, no inquiry, and mostly no damage to their reputation.
Comparative Analysis
After deeply understanding the laws of both the countries, we can now differentiate that how skillfully they are executed. We will brighten the light on three fundamental aspects: how the orders are enacted, why there is an interval between ordinances and existence. How both country’s heritage has overblown its legal system. This differentiation assists us understand even if these laws have the authority to actually repair the obstacles they were made for.
Mandatory Disclosure vs. Reactive Complaint
The primary distinction between the UK and India concerning equal wags is that who is the individual who is responsible for the woek to fix it. In India, the regulatory framework relies ont the workers standing up for themselves. A woman has to look into it that she is being paid inequally as compared to her male coworker, which is hard to investigate as these are confidential and cannot be exposed. When she finds out that is being underpaid thenshe has to take the risk to file a legal case against her employer. This is a very time consuming, costly process which can even destroy her career.
The UK relies on revealing model that overturn this authority onto the company. Each year, businesses are obligatory to bring out their pay information for everyone to have a look. This seperates the load form the worker and put it onthe employer. Rather than a person battling a case himself individually, the data is public, simplifying it to compare different companies and evaluating their performance over a period of time. This system acknowledges that discrimination in salary is a massive, regulatory issue that cannot be repaired by only one complaint; it needs uninterrupted transparency from the organisations.
The Glass Ceiling in Both Banking Sectors
The gender pay inequality in banking in both the countries is predominantly induced sue to vertical segregation. Which means while a number of women are doing job in banks, they are mainly offered the junior or mid-level opportunities, whereas all types of seniority is already dominated by men. These superior roles gives the highest wages and incentives, the median wage for men ends up being much higher than for women. This is not certain because of the pay gap, but somewhat a glass ceiling that stops women from conquering the top notch salary levels of the institute.
The primary distinction between both the countries falls under mandatory disclosure. In the UK, jurisdiction since 2017 order banks to show transparency in the information that shows how many women are in every wage category. This opennesss has pressurized the banks to put measurable objectives to develop female respresentation at the peak. In India, as there is no rule and regulation that forces the bank to publically show this information, the full range of the gap is usually unknown. Whithout this clearness, it is difficult to indentify the underlying problems, such as office enviroment or word of mouth that prohibit women from achieving seniority.
Enforcement Mechanisms and cultural Limits
While the law can aid, they cannot directly fix the gender wage gap by themself. In th UK, despite the fact that the banks are not forced to show their information publically, the inequality has not balanced quickly. This represents that transparancy is only the foundation. Just seeing the numbers is not adequate, banks should also change their work enviroment, such as how they should determine who gets an incentives and how they should recommend people. Without an actual dedication to helping women’s jobs and changnig orthodox professional conduct, the inequality remains unchanged as the as the identical type of people keep getting the top-tier, high paying jobs.
India encounters even more difficult challanges that make normal legal modifications complex. Multiple women in India’s banking sector jobs in contractual or commissioned roles that might not be safegaurded by usual labor laws. In addition, powerful behavioral etiquettes usually place the main responsibility for errands and childcareon women,which can decrease their job progress in the course of action a payroll law cannot be changed easily. For any new laws to apply in India, they cannot just make a replica of UK’s framwork; they must be customized in order to fit and work in India.
Conclusion and Recommendations
The research of finance sectors in both the countries underlines a big distinction in how they control the gender wage inequality. India’s existing legislation, like the ERA and the Code on Wages, depends on a problem and complaint handling system. This way the legislation only comes in action if a woman collects proofs and files a grievance. This builds a pressure on the employees who are might be afraid for their jobs and are out of reach to the company-broad salary information. As a consequence, the jurisdiction guarantees to provide equality which is just stated on paper instead of actualizing inthe private banking world.
On the other hand, the UK uses a clarity based structure. Since 2017, laws have pressurized major banks to publically show their pay information each year for everyone to look at. This transfers the power from the individual labour to the bank on its own. By publishing this information, banks tackle force form shareholders, agencies, and the citizens to develop. While it is not going to aid the issue quickly, it has made a transparent picture of where the inequalities are, which is the foundation in promoting actual changes in how women are uplifted and paid.
References
[1] World Economic Forum, Global Gender Gap Report 2023(World Economic Forum 2023)
[2] Constitution of India, art 14
[3] Constitution of India, art 39(d)
[4] Randhir Singh v Union of India[1982] AIR SC 879
[5] Equal Remuneration Act 1976(India), s4
[6] Code on Wages 2019(India), s3
[7] The Equality Act 2010
[8] Equal Pay Act 1970
[9] Gender Pay Gap Reporting: Guidance for Employers(2018)
[10] Equality Act 2006, s. 20.
