It’s official now. India’s information technology (IT) sector, famous for doling out luxury perks, has emerged as the top paymaster and the most lucrative sector in the country with an average gross salary of Rs 341.8 per hour, according to the Monster Salary Index (MSI).

Overall, the Index shows that the median gross salary in the construction sector stood at Rs 259 per hour; for education at Rs 186.5; healthcare Rs 215; legal (Rs 215.6) and manufacturing and transport Rs 230.9 per hour. The report brings to light the fact that employees in the education sector get the lowest hourly salary. This can be attributed to the fact that there are relatively more women working here than in other sectors — they are paid Rs 18 per hour less than men in the same sector, the report said.

Commenting on the findings of the report, Monster India Managing Director (India/Middle East/ Southeast Asia/Hong Kong) Sanjay Modi said, "The country is on the verge of a new wave of development that is expected to deliver jobs and prosperity to millions. This has a direct correlation to salary/income."

Meanwhile, gender continues to play a significant role in determining the wages in the Indian labor market. On an average, men earn Rs 259.8 per hour whereas female colleagues earn just Rs 190.5, that is, about 27 per cent less. Some reasons behind this gap in earnings could be preference for male employees over female employees, preference for promotion of male employees to supervisory positions, career breaks of women due to parenthood duties and other socio-cultural factors.

An additional factor influencing wages is the nature of ownership of the company. Workers in domestic companies earn about Rs 115 per hour less than workers in firms partially owned by foreigners. The highest wages are enjoyed by workers in companies fully owned by foreigners. They earn Rs 150 per hour more than workers in firms with mixed ownership and Rs 268 more than in domestically owned companies. The workers in the wholly foreign-owned companies enjoy international standards in terms of work environment as well as comparable wages.

Finally, size of the company also plays an important role. The average wage in small firms with 10-50 employees is just above Rs 150, in companies with more than 50 employees it is slightly above Rs 190, and in big companies with at least 5,000 employees, the wage is above Rs 320. A general observation can be made that with increase in the size of the company, the average wage paid to the employee is higher.

MSI is a joint initiative of Monster India and Paycheck.in. IIM-Ahmedabad is the research partner in the study.

The report looked into overall average wages in India as well as several key sectors for the period between the first quarter of 2012 and December 2014. The sample used for the analysis consists of 35,929 respondents — approximately 85.7 per cent of which were men — and captures the organized sector.