This question usually arrives in one of two forms, and they have different answers. "A man doing my job is paid more" engages a statutory prohibition. "The person who joined after me is paid more" usually does not. Sorting out which one you have is the whole exercise.
The statutory right
The Equal Remuneration Act, 1976 was repealed by the Code on Wages, 2019 along with the Payment of Wages Act, 1936, the Minimum Wages Act, 1948 and the Payment of Bonus Act, 1965, and the equal pay rule now sits in the Code itself. It says:
- there shall be no discrimination in an establishment or any unit of it among employees on the ground of gender in matters relating to wages by the same employer, in respect of the same work or work of a similar nature done by any employee;
- no employer shall, in order to comply with that requirement, reduce the rate of wages of any employee; and
- no employer shall discriminate on the ground of sex while recruiting for the same work or work of a similar nature, or in the conditions of employment, except where the employment of women in such work is prohibited or restricted by or under any law.
Two features are worth noticing. The prohibition runs to employees, and the Code's definition of employee includes managerial, administrative, supervisory and technical work, so it is not confined to shop floor grades. And the second limb closes the obvious escape route: an employer cannot equalise downwards.
What you are actually comparing
Not the basic pay line. The Code's definition of wages excludes house rent allowance, conveyance allowance, overtime allowance and remuneration under an award or settlement from the general computation, but the second proviso to that definition puts those four items back in for the purpose of equal wages to all genders. So the comparison is against the fuller figure. That matters in practice, because an employer that has equalised basic pay and left a differential sitting in allowances has not answered the provision.
Where the answer is different
- A colleague of your own gender is paid more. The Code's prohibition does not reach it. Pay differences based on experience, negotiation at hiring, market premium at the time of joining or a retention adjustment are not unlawful in private employment merely because they are unequal.
- Public employment. Equal pay for equal work has long been applied to State employers as an aspect of the constitutional guarantee of equality, on a comparison of duties and responsibilities. It does not translate directly into a private sector pay claim.
- You are on a fixed term contract. Here there is a specific parity right. Fixed term employment is defined in both the Industrial Relations Code, 2020 and the Code on Social Security, 2020 with a proviso that the hours of work, wages, allowances and other benefits of a fixed term employee shall not be less than those of a permanent employee doing the same or similar work. That is a parity right that does not depend on gender at all.
- Your contract or a published policy promises parity or a band. Then it is a contractual claim, and it stands or falls on the document. Our guide on what an Indian employment agreement should contain explains which of those promises are drafted to bind and which are drafted to look as though they do.
Building the claim
- Identify a real comparator: same employer, same establishment or unit, same work or work of a similar nature
- Set out the four statutory factors side by side: skill, effort, experience and responsibility, under similar working conditions
- Compare total wages on the equal wages basis, not basic pay alone
- Collect the job descriptions, the organisation chart, the appraisal ratings and the offer letters you can lawfully access
- Put the comparison to the employer in writing and ask for its explanation of the differential
A claim arising under the Code goes to the authority appointed under the Code on Wages, an officer not below the rank of a Gazetted Officer notified by the appropriate Government, which in Bengaluru means the Karnataka Labour Department. The application may be filed by the employee, by a registered Trade Union of which the employee is a member, or by the Inspector-cum-Facilitator. It is ordinarily to be filed within three years of the claim arising, and may be entertained later on sufficient cause being shown. The authority may order compensation in addition to the claim, up to ten times the amount determined, and is to endeavour to decide within three months.
Two cautions. Do not build the case on documents you were not entitled to see, because how the comparison was obtained becomes the argument instead of the pay gap. And check whether the differential is in wages at all, or in variable pay tied to individual targets, which is a harder comparison to run. For what else moved when the four codes commenced on 21 November 2025, see our overview of what the four labour codes changed for employees.