Gender Differential in Occupation and Income among the Elderly in India

The paper sheds light on changing occupation pattern and income and gender gap in the real earning of elderly 60 years and above in India. It is found that work participation of elderly in India has increase from 13.3% in 2004–05 to 16.4% in 2011–12 and for males the increase is significant from 19.4 to 23.3% while that for females is marginal from 7.1 to 10.1% during this period. Occupations classified as agricultural and animal farming, labourer, business, salaried and professional and part time worker constitutes 17.8, 55.9, 8.4, 12.8 and 5.1% respectively in 2004–05 and corresponding figures for 2011–12 are 17.6, 53.2, 2.7, 12.2 and 14.4% respectively. The mean annual earning for elderly engaged in the aforesaid occupation in order are Rs. 14,277, Rs. 19,315, Rs. 32,932, Rs. 93,880 and Rs. 44,811 in 2004–05 and the corresponding mean earning in 2011–12 after adjustment of inflation are Rs. 11,719, Rs. 27,591, Rs. 30,896, Rs. 109,673 and Rs. 21,078 respectively. The gender gap in earning is significant and has not change over time. Multigenerational living arrangement and residing rural areas are found to have deterrent effect on annual earning, while household income quintile has significant enhancing effect on annual earning but age and incidence of long term morbidities have no significant effect on annual earning. Contribution of endowment factors in gender in earning gap decreases.