IND · India
What each level of education pays in India
IND · 8 education levels · 2025
₹5,43,579INR/YR
Second stage of tertiary education pays the most of any education level in India — ₹5,43,579 a year, about 4.9× No schooling at ₹1,10,304.
SOURCE·ILOSTAT — Mean monthly earnings by occupation (ISCO-08)·CC BY 4.0·REVIEWED 2025
How India publishes this cut, and what twelve times a month means
- ILOSTAT publishes this breakdown as part of Mean monthly earnings by occupation (ISCO-08), classification EDU_ISCED97, 2025.
- The source figures are monthly; they are multiplied by twelve here so they sit on the same annual basis as the rest of the site, and every page says so.
- They cover employees only — a minority of India's workforce, since most people are self-employed or in informal work.
- No row is estimated. Where the agency published nothing for a band, nothing appears.
annual (INR) = published monthly figure × 12
Every education level, highest first
| Education level | Median (annualised) | Share of the highest |
|---|---|---|
| Second stage of tertiary education | ₹5,43,579 | 100% |
| First stage of tertiary education | ₹3,91,033 | 72% |
| Post-secondary non-tertiary education | ₹3,07,669 | 57% |
| Upper secondary education | ₹2,21,365 | 41% |
| Lower secondary or second stage of basic education | ₹1,78,861 | 33% |
| Primary education or first stage of basic education | ₹1,48,470 | 27% |
| Pre-primary education | ₹1,35,319 | 25% |
| No schooling | ₹1,10,304 | 20% |
ILOSTAT · EDU_ISCED97 2025
SOURCE·ILOSTAT — Mean monthly earnings by occupation (ISCO-08)·CC BY 4.0·REVIEWED 2025
And split by sex
| Education level | All | Men | Women | Women's pay as % of men's |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Second stage of tertiary education | ₹5,43,579 | ₹5,87,877 | ₹4,61,256 | 78% |
| First stage of tertiary education | ₹3,91,033 | ₹4,12,039 | ₹3,30,938 | 80% |
| Post-secondary non-tertiary education | ₹3,07,669 | ₹3,16,791 | ₹2,68,827 | 85% |
| Upper secondary education | ₹2,21,365 | ₹2,37,161 | ₹1,54,370 | 65% |
| Lower secondary or second stage of basic education | ₹1,78,861 | ₹1,94,807 | ₹1,14,254 | 59% |
| Primary education or first stage of basic education | ₹1,48,470 | ₹1,69,613 | ₹98,287 | 58% |
| Pre-primary education | ₹1,35,319 | ₹1,62,813 | ₹97,835 | 60% |
| No schooling | ₹1,10,304 | ₹1,44,461 | ₹80,176 | 56% |
This compares the average pay of all men against all women in each education level. It is not a like-for-like comparison of the same job at the same level — it reflects which roles and hours men and women actually hold, which is what makes it worth publishing.
What people ask next
- Which education level pays the most in India?
- Second stage of tertiary education, at ₹5,43,579 a year, against ₹1,10,304 for No schooling at the other end. Figures are 2025, annualised from the published monthly series.
- Are these annual or monthly figures?
- The agency publishes them monthly. They are shown here multiplied by twelve so they sit on the same annual basis as the rest of the site, and they cover employees only — a minority of India's workforce, since most people are self-employed or in informal work.
