This article elucidates the wage differential between formal and informal workers across different sectors, gender, occupation, and industry by using the 61st (2004–2005) and 68th (2011–2012) Rounds of National Sample Survey Office (NSSO) unit-level data. The study emphasizes two things: first, identifying the existence of the absolute wage gap between formal and informal workers and, second, finding the intensity of discrimination in wage between formal and informal workers. The vast body of literature available on this issue identifies gender, caste, religion, and region as the factors causing wage discrimination. This literature makes a shift from these traditional concepts by explaining the importance of job contract as a basis of wage discrimination. This study utilizes the percentage relative gap (PGR) to work out the absolute wage gap between the two types of workers (formal and informal) and thereafter decomposes it to arrive at the source of the wage gap. The study applies the threefold Blinder–Oaxaca (B–O) decomposition method, which categorizes the total wage gap into three parts. The dependent variable chosen for the equation is the natural logarithm of daily wage. While the wage gap between formal and informal workers did not significantly fall during the study period, the results, on the other hand, indicate that the component of discrimination is larger than the component of endowment. This explains the discrimination perpetrated against informal workers in the Indian labor market. Tackling such discrimination necessitates implementation of more proactive policies for achieving wage equality in India.

The article presents empirical observations regarding the private household expenditure on male and female students incurred by Indian households at the disaggregated level of education. By using the data sets of two consecutive rounds of National Sample Survey Office (NSSO), that is, 64th and 71st, which were based on social consumption survey of health and education, the article explores the bias in household expenditure on education by the variable of gender. The result presents a different analysis when compared to the findings of earlier studies, in terms of persisting gender gap in expenditure on education at different levels of education like higher, technical or at diploma levels as compared to elementary level. The study finds that the biasness in expenditure decreases and, in some cases, even higher for female students for technical and diploma level of education. For the analysis of data, the statistical tool of percentage relative gap has been used.

This paper examines critically the economic package announced by the Indian central government to counter the challenges of lives and livelihood in the Covid‐19 pandemic. This paper estimates the shares of the fiscal economic packages in two phases as per the shares of the vulnerable workers and number of Covid‐19 cases in the Indian states. The recent data on labour market are used from National Sample Survey Organization and data on Covid‐19 cases from Ministry of Health and Family Welfare. This paper recommends alternatively a fiscal stimulus package of Rs. 10 lakh crores (5% of GDP) with an immediate effect to counter the present problems of health, food and unemployment in the pandemic and should be extended to Rs. 24 lakh crores (12% of Indian GDP) to the Indian states for at least 1 year to protect the lives and livelihood of the most vulnerable, informal and migrant workers. The populous and poor states like Uttar Pradesh and Bihar have higher share of vulnerable workers and highly industrialized states like Maharashtra, Gujarat, Delhi and Tamil Nadu have higher number of Covid‐19 cases. Due to the unplanned lockdown in India, there has been a surge in Covid‐19 cases across the country that in turn led to an increase in vulnerable workers in poor states due to reverse migration from industrialized states to populous and poor states during the pandemic. Furthermore, the paper explains the five significant factors that justify the adoption of an expansionary fiscal policy rather than monetary policy.

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Despite nearly three decades of ostensibly proemployer economic reforms in India, trade union membership and density in India appear to have risen.Although similar trends have been reported and investigated in other emerging economies such as China and South Africa, the union revival thesis in India is yet to be fully explored. Using large-scale official survey data from 1993-1994 to 2011-2012 and primary data collected through 56 interviews with key stakeholders, this paper investigates the patterns of union membership growth in India. Findings indicate varying degrees of growth in union membership across all industrial sectors and employment types. We draw upon theoretical insights from economic theories of union growth, comparative politics and social movement unionism to explain union membership growth in India.