In 2024, the average monthly salary was 36.7 thousand Indian rupees in Mumbai city of India. The average monthly salary in the capital city of Delhi was around 36.6 thousand Indian rupees. In comparison, the average monthly salary was over 28 thousand Indian rupees in Madurai during the same year.

As of 2024, employees with doctorate degrees earned an average annual salary of 2.75 million Indian rupees, the highest among other educational qualifications. Employees with high school or below high school level degree earned average salaries of just over a million rupees in a year.

The average salary for male employees in urban area was the highest during the months of April to June 2020 at about 21 thousand Indian rupees. The average salary drawn by female workers was the highest in the months of April to June 2020, however, lesser compared to their male counterparts. Unsurprisingly, the urban earnings in terms of wages and salaries are always higher than rural employees. Urban versus rural employment The gender gap in salaries was more prominent in rural areas, where, the male workers earned nearly an average of 1.5 times more. However, urban employees just earn a few thousands more than their rural counterpart, while, the cost of living in cities is twice as expensive as villages. Moreover, a majority of the Indian households belonged to the middle-income bracket and this is expected to increase in the future. Wage disparity Wage inequalities are present in almost every sector and widens with higher skill levels. With the evident gender disparity in the country, women with lower educational qualifications, such as a high school diplomas continue working despite the pay gap. This is among women who primarily come from the lower economic sector. Moreover, the social mobility index for fair wage distribution was 17.8 as of 2020, indicating a need for improvement.

As of January 2024, the state of Uttar Pradesh in India has the highest average monthly salary of about 21 thousand Indian rupees. In contrast, Lakshadweep has the lowest average monthly salary of 14.26 thousand rupees during the same year.

The average wage earning for male casual laborer in rural area in India was 444 Indian rupees per day. Female laborers received lesser wages than male laborers amounting to 299 rupees per day.

According to a survey conducted in 2015 across India, over 60 percent of the surveyed households had an average monthly income up to 10,000 Indian rupees. This percentage varied among the rural and urban areas, where over 75 percent of the rural households and 45 percent of the urban households earned up to 10,000 Indian rupees monthly. India had a high rate of rural to urban migration, as Indian cities provided better standards of living and employment opportunities.

Multiple income generators

For most of the population, income is earned in form of wages or salary, rent from residential or commercial property, interest from financial investments, and profits from family businesses. Most Indian households have multiple earning members to support consumption expenses on a day to day basis. During the surveyed year, around 48 percent of the households had a single earner, mostly the head of the family, followed by about 30 percent of households with two earning members.

Employment scenario

There are a lot of uncertainties in the job market in India. Non-availability of jobs matching education and skills was one of the main reasons for unemployment among Indian graduates. Underemployment was also a problem, and it was higher in urban areas than rural ones. Even though a majority of the population was self-employed, most jobs taken by workers had no written job contracts in both the salaried and casual employment sectors.

The salary increases are expected to decline across most sectors in 2024. The e-commerce industry offers the highest increase in salaries in India at 10.9 percent. It is followed by the financial services sector which has consistently been the highest salary payer. Salary hikes in the sector are expected to be 9.6 percent down from over 10.4 percent in 2022.

The executives (CXOs) have the highest share of variable pay at over 26 percent followed by function heads. Variable pay refers to performance-linked pay in the form of incentive pay, commission, or bonus. It is granted by an employer for an employee's contribution to a company's success.

In 2022, the average monthly salary of men in the regular salaried class was over 20 thousand Indian rupees. This was over five thousand rupees more than their female counterparts. This suggests the existence of a gender pay gap among the salaried class.

The estimated per capita income across Sikkim was the highest among Indian states at around 588 thousand Indian rupees in the financial year 2024. Meanwhile, it was the lowest in the northern state of Bihar at over 60 thousand rupees. India’s youngest state, Telangana stood in the fifth place. The country's average per capita income that year was an estimated 184 thousand rupees. What is per capita income? Per capita income is a measure of the average income earned per person in a given area in a certain period. It is calculated by dividing the area's total income by its total population. If absolute numbers are noted, India’s per capita income doubled from the financial year 2015 to 2023. Wealth inequality However, as per economists, the increase in the per capita income of a country does not always reflect an increase in the income of the entire population. Wealth distribution in India remains highly skewed. The average income hides the disbursal and inequality in a society. Especially in a society like India where the top one percent owned over 40 percent of the total wealth in 2022.

The statistic represents the results of a 2015 survey about the average monthly income among salaried or regular wage Indians between April to December 2015. Approximately one percent of salaried Indians across the country earned an average monthly income of 50,001 to 100,000 Indian rupees during the surveyed time period.

In the financial year 2021, a majority of Indian households fell under the aspirers category, earning between 125,000 and 500,000 Indian rupees a year. On the other hand, about three percent of households that same year, accounted for the rich, earning over 3 million rupees annually. The middle class more than doubled that year compared to 14 percent in financial year 2005.

Middle-class income group and the COVID-19 pandemic

During the COVID-19 pandemic specifically during the lockdown in March 2020, loss of incomes hit the entire household income spectrum. However, research showed the severest affected groups were the upper middle- and middle-class income brackets. In addition, unemployment rates were rampant nationwide that further lead to a dismally low GDP. Despite job recoveries over the last few months, improvement in incomes were insignificant.

Economic inequality

While India maybe one of the fastest growing economies in the world, it is also one of the most vulnerable and severely afflicted economies in terms of economic inequality. The vast discrepancy between the rich and poor has been prominent since the last three decades. The rich continue to grow richer at a faster pace while the impoverished struggle more than ever before to earn a minimum wage. The widening gaps in the economic structure affect women and children the most. This is a call for reinforcement in in the country’s social structure that emphasizes access to quality education and universal healthcare services.

The average salary for male employee in rural area was the highest during the months of April to June 2020 at about 14 thousand Indian rupees. Female workers received lesser wages than male workers. The average salary drawn by female workers was the highest in the months of July to September 2019.

As per the Periodic Labor Force Survey (PLFS), the average wage for male casual laborer in urban areas during April to June 2024 in India was 537 rupees per day. Female laborers have consistently received lesser wages than male laborers amounting to 364 rupees per day during the same period.

The statistic displays the average salaries for selected jobs in the information technology industry in India per annum in 2015-16, broken down by type. Entry-level employees working as Android developers had an average yearly salary of more than 1.1 million Indian rupees in the IT sector during that time period.

In 2023, the average mean monthly salary for ethnic Indian employees in Malaysia was 3,354 Malaysian ringgit, an increase compared to the previous year. By comparison, the

According to the survey conducted on work life aspects of young Indians in 2020, over 35 percent of millennials earning more than 100 thousand Indian rupees per month expected their income to rise by more than 75 percent. Furthermore, only ten percent of respondents earning the same income expected their salary to increase by 25 percent.

The statistic shows the value of average daily salary of urban salaried workers across India in 2011-12, broken down by industry sectors and gender. In 2011-12, a female working in the services sector earned on average of 480.74 Indian rupees per day while men earned close to 632 Indian rupees per day.

The statistic illustrates the average salaries of selected senior level jobs in the information technology industry in India per annum in 2015-16, broken down by type. App developers had an average yearly salary of more than 4.2 million Indian rupees during that time period in the IT sector.

As of 2021, India was estimated to reach a GDP (gross domestic product) per capita of just over 11.9 thousand U.S. dollars, whereas the average national income per capita stood at approximately 10.56 thousand U.S. dollars. This reflected a significant increase compared to 2010 from the average GDP of 7.7 thousand and average national income of around 6.6 thousand U.S. dollars. In general, India's average GDP and national income have been increasing constantly since 2010, barring 2020, most likely due to the COVID-19 pandemic.