Hiring of permanent employees dips by 61 per cent during this period while salary payouts to gig-workers increase by 153 per cent
The changing dynamics of the start-up ecosystem have resulted in massive shifts in hiring patterns in the last 12 months.
The Annual Insights Report by RazorpayX Payroll, the business banking platform of Razorpay, has derived interesting insights by analysing payroll data from Oct 2021 to September 2022 of over 25,000 employees across more than 1000 Indian start-ups from 20 sectors who currently use RazorpayX Payroll.
On the one hand, facing a capital crunch, start-ups are experiencing the great normalisation of hiring, limiting their hiring of CXOs and permanent employees. On the other, start-ups are increasing payouts to existing employees.
With many start-ups facing the chills of funding winter, most are cutting back on their hiring. The hiring of new permanent employees has dipped by 61 per cent as compared to Oct 2021.
The dip in hiring is seen across seniority, with the CXO hiring noticing a massive normalisation, dropping by 93 per cent since Oct 2021. While hiring across departments has decreased, hiring in technology has been least impacted.
Technology-related jobs have managed to marginally increase their contribution to the overall workforce by 4 per cent while the hiring trend is slowing down in general.
While hiring permanent employees has seen a fall, giggers are the preferred way for start-ups. Payments to gig workers have grown 153 per cent since Oct 2021.
The total number of enterprises that have shifted to a semi-gig workforce model has increased by 15 per cent since Oct 2021. Semi-skilled gig workers who are paid less than Rs 20,000 have the highest contribution to the entire pool of gig workers being hired by start-ups, followed by those who earn anywhere between Rs 20,000 to Rs 40,000.
However, these workers are one of the slowest-growing cohorts growing at 26 per cent and 52 per cent, respectively. However, skilled gig workers who earn between Rs 85,000 to more than 1,50,000, although contributing the least to the overall pool, have seen the highest growth in the last year.
Gig workers who earn between Rs 85,000 to Rs 1,50,000 have grown by 62 per cent, while gig workers who make more than 150K grew by 69 per cent in the last year. This shows that gig workers are gaining more popularity among start-ups than hiring full-time employees.
While overall hiring has decreased, salary spending have increased by 64.7 per cent since Oct 2021. Contrary to previous trends, salaries across different levels have been rising gradually but not exponentially, at an average of 12 per cent.
However, salary growth is very different across different scales of gig workers. While the median salaries of gig workers have increased by only 19.9 per cent in the last year, wages in the 99th percentile of gig workers grew by a whopping 58.3 per cent.
While salaries are rising, they are distributed unevenly across genders. Gradual growth in salaries is seen in both genders. However, the increase in wages earned by males is higher at 29 per cent compared to 22 per cent by women.
Moreover, salary gaps seem to get wider, and the higher one goes up the salary bracket. While the median salary gap between men and women was 46 per cent in the last year, the salary gap between the two genders in the 95th percentile salary bracket was a whopping 70 per cent.
This salary gap is accompanied by lower participation of women in the workforce; for every two men that were hired in the last one year, one woman was hired.
Shashank Mehta, vice president and head, RazorpayX, said, “The Indian start-up ecosystem has been facing headwinds in the past few months, but they have been nothing short of resilient and adaptive to such a dynamic environment. The data from RazorpayX Payroll indicates that start-ups have been optimising their workforce by building leaner yet stronger teams, keeping in mind the macro-forces.
Moreover, compensating their existing employees for their contribution towards building sustainable runways, in the long run, shows that companies have been looking inwards, alongside the increasing adoption of giggers. Coupling this trend with rising salaries across key roles, we will soon see a new era of work among start-ups.”
However, he mentioned that the existing gender gap in workforce ratio and pay remains a challenge every start-up needs to counter on priority. Only through equitable participation and pay can the workforce become truly productive.
However, local auto unions dubbed this meeting as an eyewash
In his speech, Prime Minister Narendra Modi also praised Indian industries for their participation in bringing innovations to the space sector
In 2022, Google acquired eight companies
