
Income levels of salaried class in India have stagnated in recent years
The HinduLast week, Niti Aayog member Arvind Virmani said in an interview that while employment is increasing, real wages for regular salaried jobs have not kept up with inflation over the last seven years. An analysis of the earnings data for salaried workers, casual labourers, and self-employed persons from Periodic Labour Force Survey reports shows that when adjusted for inflation, wages for salaried workers in India have stagnated since 2019. Real wages for salaried jobs Real wages for salaried jobs were 1.7% lower in the 2024 June quarter compared to the pre-pandemic 2019 June quarter. Real wages for casual labour were 12.3% higher in the 2024 June quarter compared to the pre-pandemic 2019 June quarter. Professor Menon explains that demonetisation and implementation of the Goods and Service Tax were significant ‘negative shocks’ to the economy which led to a rise in unemployment and “at the very least, ensured that wages did not grow as fast as it would have done if these policies were not implemented.” Dr. Roychowdhury adds that wages have been stagnant since 2018 and the idea that economic growth is ‘robust’ is not entirely true because the government is implementing various policies to provide a boost to economic growth and domestic demand.
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