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Festive gig hiring booms in small towns, pay gap stays wide
Festive hiring in tier-3 and -4 towns rose 110% year-on-year, but gig workers there earn 15-30% less than metro peers.
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India Inc is leaning harder on smaller towns to staff its busiest shopping season, but the gig and blue-collar workers it hires there still earn far less than metro counterparts. The gap has narrowed since 2022. It remains large enough to sting.
Nitin Dave, CEO of general staffing at Quess Corp, one of India's largest recruitment firms, said the pay disparity between metros and non-metros during the festive season was 38-40% in 2022. It has come down to 25-30%, he said. In retail the gap sits at about 28%. In dark stores it is around 25%.
The bigger shift, Dave said, is where hiring happens. About 39% of Quess Corp's festive-season placements now go to tier-3 and -4 towns. Metros account for 31%. Tier-2 cities take 30%.
"The cost of living does play a part, but getting workers in these cities is now becoming a challenge, and therefore, firms have to offer more," he said.
Migration is the core problem. Workers are leaving smaller towns for larger Indian cities or overseas markets, shrinking the supply of labor available to local employers. Metro workers during the festive period can earn around ₹35,000-40,000 a month including allowances and bonuses, recruiters said. Their smaller-city counterparts get about ₹25,000-30,000.