Why Do You Think People in the Social Sector Are Paid Less?

Let's Start With the Numbers

A 2015 survey by Dasra examined 328 Social Purpose Organisations across India. Women made up 53% of the workforce — making this a female-dominated sector — yet only 34% of women were in managerial positions, and just 19% of these organisations were led by women.

The pattern is troubling and familiar: women are doing the work, but not leading the organisations. (Source: Dasra, "Lost in Transition: Barriers to Women's Leadership in the Indian Social Sector," 2015.)

What Our Instagram Community Shared

To see whether things had shifted since 2015, we ran a quick Instagram poll and got over 100 responses. 57% said women make up more than half of their team. 64% said their reporting manager is a woman. But only 27% said their co-founder or director is a woman.

So while the gender ratio looks "balanced" on paper, the decision-making roles often don't reflect that. (These results reflect individual responses and may include overlaps.)

A Global Pattern of Gendered Devaluation

Globally, sectors where women form the majority — teaching, caregiving, nursing, social work — are systematically undervalued and underpaid. A UN Women report (2020) found that female-dominated occupations tend to be paid less even when they require similar levels of skill, experience and education as male-dominated professions.

Society has historically placed lower economic value on roles that are about nurturing, service and community-building — roles women have long been expected to perform for free or at minimal pay.

The Real Pay Gap

In India, data from Glassdoor, PayScale and AmbitionBox shows the average monthly salary for a social worker ranges from ₹16,000 to ₹29,000. By contrast, an entry-level corporate associate in a tech or finance firm earns ₹35,000 to ₹50,000 a month, despite often having less emotionally and socially demanding roles.

Even within the development sector, male-led organisations tend to raise and control more funding, which translates into higher executive compensation and strategic visibility.

Oxfam's "Time to Care" report (2019) explains how unpaid and underpaid care work is often assigned to women, worsening economic inequalities. The WHO report "Delivered by Women, Led by Men" (2019) found women make up 67% of the global health and social care workforce but hold only 25% of senior roles.

The Gendered Cycle of Power and Pay

In the social sector, leadership remains largely male while the workforce is predominantly women. Women make up the majority of those implementing the work — from community engagement to frontline services. But decisions on pay, recognition and direction are still largely made by men in leadership roles.

The power imbalance creates a cycle: men hold the power, women do the work, and the work stays undervalued. When women are overrepresented in frontline roles but underrepresented in leadership, and when care work is seen as a "natural" extension of a woman's role rather than skilled labour, it's easy to see how gender bias becomes a systemic pay issue.

Men hold the power. Women do the work. And the work stays undervalued.

The Cost of Caring

So when we ask why the social sector is paid less, we must also ask: who is doing the work? Who is making the decisions? And whose labour do we value?

Social workers deserve fair pay for the care and commitment they bring every day.