Across delivery, ride-hailing and home services, gig workers make average net earnings of around ₹138 per hour — 2.5 times the ₹54 per hour earned in comparable formal and informal jobs, a report by Redseer Strategy Consultants found.
More than 90% choose part-time participation as gig work gives workers greater control over when they earn, alongside a widening layer of welfare protection, the report, ‘Gig Internet Workforce in India: Bridge to ~20 million Livelihoods’ added.
According to the report, India needs to create millions of non-farm jobs every year, and conventional employment alone is not keeping pace. Here, it suggested that gig internet work can bridge close to 70% of this gap by 2030.
On why workers choose gig work, it stated, “Internet platforms enable gig workers to earn roughly 2.5x of fulltime comparable formal and informal jobs, while offering something conventional employment rarely delivers in one package — control over working hours, low barriers to entry, and a growing layer of worker protection.”
The report also noted that welfare coverage for gig workers is comparable to formal salaried employment and stronger than that available across several traditional informal occupations. This includes accident insurance, emergency assistance, skill development, health insurance, maternity support, medical assistance, loss-of-pay insurance and credit facilitation available across parts.
It noted that for many workers, being able to choose when and how much they work is “just as important as what they earn”.
“For India, the value of gig work lies in the room it creates for people to earn around the realities of their lives. These choices matter in a country where people enter the workforce from very different circumstances and with very different ambitions. As earnings, skills and social protection become stronger, gig work can play an important part in improving household resilience and widening participation in India’s economic growth, while bridging the unemployment gap,” Kushal Bhatnagar, Partner at Redseer Strategy Consultants, said,
“For India, the opportunity is to build on what workers already value in the model while strengthening the support around it,” the release added.
Over time, higher earning potential, freedom to choose working hours and better access to social protection can make gig work a useful part of the country’s livelihood mix, “particularly for workers who need income to coexist with another job, education, family responsibilities or plans for what comes next,” it said.
Disclaimer: This story is for educational purposes only. The views and recommendations made above are those of individual analysts or broking companies, and not of Mint. We advise investors to check with certified experts before making any investment decisions.
Jocelyn Fernandes is a journalist and editor with nearly 13 years of experience covering the business, corporate, economy and markets beats in news.<br>
As chief content producer for around three years at Livemint (Hindustan Times), Jocelyn publishes breaking stories, explainers, features and live blogs on a range of business and economy topics, including the Budget, corporate developments, stock markets, income tax, money and personal finance, cryptocurrency, government policy, impact of US tariffs, international developments and more.<br>
Jocelyn's writing philosophy is focused on delivering news in an accurate and accessible format for readers. She thus focuses her news coverage on explainers and FAQs in order to breakdown business, corporate, economic, and policy topics that are of importance to everyday readers.<br>
She holds a Bachelors in Mass Media (BMM) and Post Graduate Diploma (PGD) in Journalism and Communication and has previously written for online business and markets news site Moneycontrol (Network18), Business-to-business (B2B) trade publications — the industry magazines Power Today and Solar Today (ASAPP Media), and the national news agency United News of India (UNI).<br>
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