Remote work - India's unseen pay hike and lifeline
Summary
The Chinnaswamy stampede highlights the daily risks the Indian salaried class faces. We’re in the eye of a perfect storm - rising inflation, stagnant wages, a poor job market, burgeoning debt and employers who invite us into death traps by announcing RTO diktats. While there is no silver bullet solution to these problems, remote work can provide Indian knowledge workers some relief from these stresses.
AI’s impression of the RCB victory
This week was bittersweet for me. After 18 long years, my team, the Royal Challengers Bangalore, finally lifted the IPL trophy. Bangalore fans are the eternal cricket tragics, and for those of us who live in Bengaluru (I don’t), it was an opportunity to celebrate together after many years of heartbreak. When our team returned with the trophy, a victory parade was in order. Our joy was short-lived, though. As fans burst into the Chinnaswamy stadium to celebrate with their heroes, a stampede ensued. At the time of writing this article, I’m reading a report that says 11 people, including a 14-year-old, lost their lives in the stampede. This tragedy, born from a moment of collective joy, is a grim reminder of the daily risks Indians face, not just in moments of celebration but in the mundane routine of their daily commute.
Once a garden city with over 80 lakes, Bengaluru’s now infamous for its traffic snarls. Disasters like the one at Chinnaswamy are like ticking time bombs waiting to explode. The story of these 11 deaths hurts more than usual because it came on the back of such a happy occasion. However, the fact is that in India, our infrastructure, or the lack of it, is deadly. Let me provide you with a few data points to support my case.
462 people die in road accidents every day in India - that’s 19 people every hour, five people every minute.
Bengaluru’s roads are death traps. Here are the accident statistics from 2024.
871 deaths - a little over two deaths every day.
4,784 crashes - 13 each day.
Even pedestrians aren’t safe in Bengaluru. 768 pedestrians have lost their lives in road crashes over the last three years.
My hometown, Pune, is hardly safer. In 2024:
320 people died in road accidents.
1,320 people were injured.
While no loss of life should be acceptable, I want you to compare Pune and Bengaluru to a much bigger city, London. As compared to the British capital, I’m three times more likely to die on a road in Pune and eight times more likely to die in Bangalore’s traffic.
Here’s the bottom line.
Commuting to work in India is life-threatening.
The deaths in Bengaluru should give us a reason to pause and reflect. Many bosses want employees back in the office. The often-touted benefits of RTO mandates, such as the 'five Cs'. — culture, collaboration, coaching, camaraderie, and community — remain unproven. Meanwhile, people allocate nearly 9% of their household spending to transportation. Office commutes account for a majority of these costs. Should people pay to wade through death traps each day, for unproven management theories?
Oh, and by the way, our infrastructure is so inadequate that we’re spending 15% more time on the road each day. You know, for that extra chance to die.
Road safety aside, my thoughts have veered towards how difficult a time this is for India’s salaried class. Saurabh Mukherjea, CIO of Marcellus, recently highlighted how income has stagnated over the last decade, while inflation continues to erode our purchasing power.
In major cities, school fees have increased by 50-80%.
Rent now accounts for almost 7% of household expenses, compared to 4.5% at the turn of the century. My own renegotiated lease is 30% dearer than it was in 2023.
In fact, the disparity between expenses and salaries is so stark that it reflects in the amount of debt people are seeking.
According to the 2023 Saral Credit survey, 2 in 3 Indian families seek personal loans to bridge the gap between their incomes and needs.
Household debt is now at 43% of the country’s GDP.
Young people are particularly vulnerable - more than half seek debt before hitting 30.
Debt isn’t inherently a bad thing, but when you see the sharp fall in household savings, you know that salaried class Indians are hurting.
Let’s not forget, by the way, that we Indian’s pay the sixth highest taxes amongst 91 countries and get very little in return — no universal healthcare, no social security, no public housing, no high-quality, universal education either. Our government builds infrastructure using our taxes and then makes us pay to use that very infrastructure. So, for the most part, the salaried class must fend for itself, in their prime, in poor health and old age. Most Indians:
and don’t have enough saved up for a secure, dignified retirement.
These financial pressures aside, the IT industry in India is facing its own crisis. Demand for talent, particularly at the entry level, is down by 20%. Whether due to AI or profitability pressures, job losses are rampant.
In short, the salaried class is in the eye of a perfect storm — a poor job market, rising inflation, stagnant salaries, shrinking savings, and burgeoning debt.
These are complex problems. I don’t expect corporations to solve all of them. That said, I hope corporations can demonstrate empathy towards their employees and do their best to reduce unnecessary household burdens and stress. I argue that tech employers now have almost a moral obligation to support a remote-by-default way of working.
A virtual pay hike for knowledge workers
You’re as wealthy as what you save. I understand that corporations may feel hard-pressed (despite some of their massive cash reserves) to increase people’s salaries in line with inflation. But even if an employer can’t raise wages, they can reduce people’s expenses and give them a virtual pay hike through potentially higher savings and lower debt.
A remote-first worker can access different means to save.
They needn’t spend money on a commute or vehicle maintenance. That could result in a 7-10% savings for many households.
If they don’t have to go into an office, they can work from a low-cost location. For example, living in a city like Coimbatore is 23% less expensive than living in Bangalore.
Eldercare and childcare costs can decrease if people can be closer to their families and don’t have to rely on full-time nurses, daycare, and babysitters.
Other, minor expenses also decrease. One doesn’t need to purchase a full-fledged work wardrobe. People can eat at home, save money and stay healthy. They have more time to exercise and reduce health risks associated with exposure to pollution and an otherwise sedentary lifestyle. The healthier they are, the cheaper their health insurance is and the more secure they’ll be if they need specialised healthcare.
And yes, these remote workers needn’t wade into death traps each day. Of course, I understand that being a knowledge worker is a privilege and not every worker can work remotely. Isn’t that all the more reason for allowing remote work where it's technically feasible? Fewer workers on the road will lead to a lower burden on our overstretched infrastructure. Every individual working remotely is one less person contributing to this daily strain. Is there a case to compute these societal benefits? I’ll give you two stats to chew on.
In 2020, when India imposed a lockdown, Bengaluru reported 334 traffic accident-related deaths. Horrid enough.
By 2023, RTO diktats had reached a crescendo. The number of road accident deaths went up to 882. That’s 2.5 times the number of deaths in 2020.
As I mourn the deaths of my fellow Bengaluru fans, I hope employers realise that their RTO diktats are no better than subjecting their people to risks similar to a Chinnaswamy stampede. It’s time for corporations to show genuine concern for the state of our cities and the health, safety, and financial well-being of their employees. In India, remote work is no longer an optional perk - it’s a societal imperative.