Workers in India among the most overworked and paid the least: ILO
An ILO report ranked India as fifth globally when it comes to longest average working hours which is 48 hours a week. Only Qatar, Mongolia, Gambia and the Maldives have longer average working hours than India.
The country also has the lowest minimum statutory wage in the Asia-Pacific region, excluding Bangladesh, according to the ILO report ‘Global Wage Report 2020-21: Wages and Minimum Wages in the Time of COVID-19′.
In addition, the report noted that among the Indian working population, well-paid workers – both salaried and self-employed – work longer hours. Salaried workers in urban areas also work more than their rural counterparts, said the report.
By gender, men in India clocked more work hours than women in both urban and rural settings.
The ILO’s findings were in line with India’s 2018-19 Periodic Labour Force Survey, which showed that better-paid workers in cities work longer than their rural counterparts in the country.
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In comparison, the ILO report noted that an average worker in China works 46 hours a week, while the corresponding figures were 37 hours in the US, and 36 hours in the UK and Israel.
The estimates are deduced from 2019 assessments undertaken by national agencies, while data for some countries pertains to previous years, according to Business Today.
