Technology Induced Inequalities at Workplace – an Indian Experience

Inter-industry  variations in compensation packages has since long been a normal phenomenon in industrial circles as it comes to be determined by the functional importance of respective industry and the levels of skills and expertise required.  The paper deals with recent trends toward increasing inequalities in earnings in Indian work organizations.  It is assumed that  growing complexity of knowledge and skills required, length and cost of training requisite for operations, increase in capital expenditure requirements and growing sophistication and competition in industrial spheres are  the functions of technological innovations and their dispersion through forces of globalisation and these developments have  implications for compensation packages across the industries resulting in increasing inequalities in wages within and across industries.  The analysis of data pertaining to variations in pay and allowances in 16 labour intensive and 14 technology intensive manufacturing establishments in India over a period of 20 years indicate that differential emphasis on technology and innovations in different industries has brought about unprecedented inequities in the levels of income between the industries and even within the industries across the cadres.  Such inequalities are further accentuated by elimination of moderately skilled workers on grounds of obsolescence and redundancy.    The findings further indicate that the technology induced variations in income in Indian Industries vary significantly with sector of industrial operations and its functional importance for economy on the one hand and its potential for creation of wealth on the other.