India suffers from a gender pay gap of 27%, with men earning an average gross average salary of Rs 288.68 per hour, when women earn Rs 207.85, according to a new report. The manufacturing sector was found to have the highest pay gap at 34.9%; the banking, financial services and insurance sector and that of transport, logistics and communication have the lowest pay gap at 17.7%, according to the Monster Salary Index.

The report includes a sector-wise analysis of the gender pay gap. It states that while the IT services sector pays the highest median gross hourly salary at Rs 337.3, the gender pay gap in the field stands at 34% – men in the IT services sector earn Rs 360.9 per hour, while women earn only Rs 239.6. Also, despite being one of the main criteria taken into consideration while deciding salaries, the education sector was found to pay the least, PTI reported.

The analysis comes amid worldwide debate on the matter, with eminent sports personalities, political and business leaders and artistes speaking out against it. Preference for male employees over female employees, promoting a higher number of male employees to supervisory positions and women opting for career breaks for reasons such as parenthood were some of the reasons behind gender pay gap, according to the report.

The Monster Salary Index is an initiative by online career and recruitment solutions provider Monster India, in collaboration with Paycheck.in, which is managed by WageIndicator Foundation. The Indian Institute of Management-Ahmedabad was part of the project as a research partner. The report compares figures of wages and working conditions of the calendar years of 2013 and 2014 and the January to September period of 2015. It involved 31,193 respondents.