salaries in India

what kind of salaries exist in India?

say, large Indian group (like TATA or Sahara) or foreign controlled Indian subsidiary, consumer goods or retail or media or industrial sector (not banking or financial services)... manager/professional level.

MBA/Masters degree and/or professional qualification

i also understand salaries have been evolving in the recent years, growing at much faster rate than in Europe/US

I have been wondering the same thing. I am interested in what a high school teacher would be making a month in India. Or how much would you need per month (net) to live a lifestyle that a teacher in Canada lives.

This from TIME magazine:

"The National Council of Applied Economics Research estimates that the number of people living in households that earn at least $1,800 annually--considered the minimum for middle-income families--has increased 17% in just the past three years, to more than 700 million. At this level, Indian families can purchase motorbikes, televisions, and refrigerators."

In my own observations, a senior professor at a college or university will earn about twice that figure. People in for-profit endeavors, obviously, would earn more.

Check this out

A few of the standard organized professions are listed.


A high school teacher earns about 9000rs a month (also approx. 2 months paid summer holidays!)

A policeman earns about 6000rs.

A junior doctor is paid about 8000rs in a govt. clinic

A junior call center staff earns about 8000rs. About 5 year experienced sr. executive can earn up to 35000rs.

A BPO executive earns about 15000rs a month.

An entry-level software programmer can start with about 15000rs in a mid to large size firm.

Mid level software engineer earns anything from 25000 to 60000rs a month. Other engineers about 30 to 50% less.

A truck driver earns about 8000rs a month if he get a fairly long-distance assignment for the month.

A biotech junior scientist can earn about 10000 to 15000rs a month.

A special tribute to the train driver.

A train driver earns about 10000rs. But practically they bring home about 20000rs a month, if they are on ‘running’ for about 20days in a month. It is high skilled jobs require special mindset. He is responsible for the life of about 2000 lives.

They are qualified with certificate or diploma in diesel/electrical machines from technical institutes. Railways then train them to become qualified drivers. Typically their career start with training/shunting yards, goods trains and finally become the fully trained employee. In the beginning they work for many years as assistant driver with the experienced driver. The express passenger trains are driven by the most matured drivers of the railways. Your train is driven by a man with at least 10 to 15 years experience in the job.

This is only a male job (except 1 or 2 female drivers in the whole of Indian railways!).

We do not remember him when traveling by train as we generally do about a pilot in a plane! (may be because he doesn’t announce how the weather is)

Okay!! For those who want to calculate the local cost of living do a small calculation. An egg cost about 1 ½ rs in India! You can make a small purchase power parity (PPP) calculation, as I think an egg is a simple commodity everyone buys and there is not much of variation globally!!!

Anybody interested in any jobs???


Disclaimer: It is a very broad generalization. Just to scratch the itch roughly.

The pay varies drastically from places to places for the same kind of jobs. The difference could be as high as three times in certain types of jobs. Don’t shoot me !!!

A small piece of advice in an Indian context: Never ask a man his income and a woman her age!

I have a few extra:
a maid earns 2.500-3.000 rps a month
a driver earns 5.000 rps a month
an assembly worker earns 3.000-4.000 rps a month
But there are huge differences on maid/driver just in the same town and assembly workers from state to state/factory to factory.
I prefer to use a samosa as PPP - that cost 4 rps

All of these salary scales vary by region. A driver in Chennai, for example, earns far more than one in Patna but less than one in Mumbai.

As for me, I got a visiting student research position in Mumbai with Rs. 9000 monthly.

An extra in a Bollywood film gets about 500 to 800 per day + meals and accommodation if on location. Commercial work is about 700 + per day, but the rate goes up if the clothing comes off (IE: bathing suits and dancing pays more, nothing lewd).

I believe that government teachers earn less than 1 lakh a year but foreign teachers in private schools earn more I think (plus perks like accommodation etc).

An army officer doctor say might be on about 3 lakh a year? A good salary for a succesful male professional seems to be about 3 lakh a year. And anything above 5 lakh is really getting to be very rich.

I'm not sure about these figures, they are just approximate.

I think a groundsman (like a caretaker at a government site) gets about 2000 rupees a month.

2 or 3 lakh per annum and above seems to be in the success bracket for a male especially if you are married to a female teacher, doctor, dentist or lawyery earning about 1 lakh or above also.

I was just reading this article in Time Asia about the new upwardly mobile 'middle class' in India. Its a pretty interesting read and give a sort of perspective on salaries.

http://www.time.com/time/asia/magazi...477977,00.html

www.time.com/time/asia/magazine/article/0,13673,501030901-477977,00.html

Indian IT salaries among lowest in world

Friday, 11 June , 2004, 09:28

The IT industry may be among India's top paymasters, but salaries for IT professionals in India are among the lowest in the world, according to a report released earlier this week by Mercer Human Resources Consulting.
(fullstory at Sify)

Maybe interesting example for Volga.
On india.ru there is a person who work second year in Chennai, and he is very happy about it. He is a programmer from Moscow and was invited to work in India, USA and Japan to choose, and he chose India. I don't know exactly his salary, but he said that to spend 700$ a month is little for him. However it is a western company.

The salaries may be low on an absolute scale, but such a comparison is meaningless without considering cost of living, taxes, etc. Such comparisons are difficult to make, though.

But consider this: From the above posts, a high school teacher in India makes about 9000rs a month, or about $2,400US per year. From that report, a senior manager in an IT firm makes $39,000 per year, or about 16 times what the teacher makes. There aren't many (any?) places on earth where senior managers make, on average, 16 times what a teacher makes.

Compare this to the US, where a typical teacher earns about $45,000 per year. There aren't many senior managers earning more than $720,000 per year, 16 times the teacher salary.

So, in this sense, I'd say that Indian IT salaries are easily amongst the highest in the world.

yes, slowbus, the income distribution is unique in India, it's the only country i have been to where you can get a chapati for Rs 1 or Rs 90, depending on the place where you get it (and it tasted the same to me).

the relatively low salaries - vs the outside world - come into play where you have graduate school debts to pay (if educated outside India). that is why i think so many indians end up working in the west these days even if they would have liked to go back to India because India is growing into a much more interesting market (emerging market!) - and not only for the IT industry.

aghori, thanks, but since i posted that question i have studied the payroll of my office folks in India and i was thinking more of an expat salary that is a different matter anyway.