May 1st was International Labour Day and a seemingly good time to address the grievances of workers from across the world. Seemingly ‘good’ because it is one day when everyone seems to be willing and ready to listen to what the often-neglected section of the society has to say. ‘Seemingly’ good because there should be no appropriate time to address the grievances of the section that practically runs the society.
So, the good folks at Bengaluru-based babajob.comdevised a simple survey to address what is only the tip of the iceberg. The survey looked into just how much domestic helpers get paid in the major cities of the country.
To begin with, even the middle to upper class Indians survive on very low salary according to global standards. So, it might seem obvious that domestic workers do not earn much either. But just how much is not much?
To make things easier, we came up with this graph showing the results of that survey. The figures featured in the graph gives the average figures.
The figures also depend on the average salaries of the cities with Kolkata fetching the lowest and Mumbai the highest. In return, Mumbai appears to be the most generous to its domestic workers. Delhi manages to fare in the medium range.
As reported in WSJ, Vir Kashyap, co-founder and chief operating officer of babajob said “There may be fewer people working in a particular job in one city, driving up demand and salaries, while there are too many in another, leading to employers having more choice and thus, more power in negotiation”. “Mumbai has a significantly higher average cost of living, but salaries are lower for maids due to the significant number of people migrating there to find work,” he further added.
Design Credit: Lakshya Vij