Bengaluru: While service aggregator platforms continue to assert the value of the jobs they create, their own data shows that these jobs do not offer much upward mobility.
Per data released by home services platform Urban Company on Wednesday, its top 5% professionals spent an average of 167 hours a month working for the platform, nearly double the hours logged by the average Urban Company ‘partner’. These hours are measured as ‘time logged in’, including both active hours and time spent waiting for more orders. The net earning per hour was flat for the entire cohort at around ₹310-313. The data is for April to December 2025.
While top performers earned an average of ₹51,673 per month, compared to ₹28,322 for the average professional, the data suggests that the earnings are higher primarily due to longer working hours and greater volume, rather than improved productivity or higher pay rates.
In a press release, Urban Company said its service professionals earn as much as, and sometimes more than, entry-level salaried professionals in the information technology (IT) and IT-enabled services sectors.
“Our focus remains on nurturing that ecosystem by strengthening demand, improving efficiency, and investing in the long-term career progression of service partners on our platform,” Urban Company's chief executive officer (CEO) Abhiraj Bhal said in the statement.
However, discontented gig workers and the unions representing them point out that unlike 'white collar' salaried work, gig work does not offer higher pay for better skills or a ladder to upward mobility. Urban Company's own data shows even the top 5% of its workers make more almost entirely because they serve more orders, not because they are compensated better for their skills.
Quality jobs?
Days after major gig workers' unions organized a strike on New Year's Eve, Deepinder Goyal, vice chairman and director of Eternal Ltd (parent of aggregators Zomato and Blinkit) defended gig work as good for the economy.
“I repeat—gig workers is one of the largest organized job creation engines in India,” he said in a post on the social media platform X. “And we provide insurance, fair, timely and predictable wages. Gig doesn’t need more regulation, it needs less regulation. It will bring more people into the fold, who will be able to earn some money, upskill themselves and later join India’s organized workforce,” Goyal said.
In its December FY26 shareholders’ letter, Eternal said its delivery partners typically earn around ₹18,000- ₹22,000 per month on an average, while top performers can earn upwards of ₹30,000, depending on the hours worked, order volumes and incentives.
However, gig workers and their unions say there is no long-term value in working for aggregator platforms, even if salaries are higher than those of entry-level IT professionals.
One beauty services partner, who has worked with Urban Company since 2018, said, “I don’t have fixed monthly earnings anymore. When I started, I used to earn ₹55,000- ₹60,000 a month, but last month I earned only ₹13,000.”
The partner said service prices have decreased significantly as competition rises, while costs have increased. “A service that was earlier priced around ₹1,400 is now at close to ₹800, even though the costs of beauty products and travel have risen sharply. Commissions of the platform have also gone up. Previously, from an earning of ₹600, about ₹30 went as commission; now nearly ₹59 goes as convenience fees, and what used to be a ₹30 cut has become ₹100,” the service provider said.
“Urban Company workers are being pushed to work longer hours for a shrinking take-home pay, and yet they still lack basic dignity at work,” said Nirmal Gorana, national coordinator of the Gig and Platform Service Workers Union. “Many of them are not even allowed to use restrooms at clients’ homes. Earlier, they had the option to decline jobs, but now they feel compelled to accept every request, and if they cancel five services, their IDs can be blocked."
Women workers face other issues as well, Gorana said. "They don’t even have access to paid menstrual leave. These are not just earnings issues; they are fundamental labour rights concerns.”
Some reform
For the first time, India’s new labour codes, implemented in late 2025, formally recognize gig and platform workers and expand social-security coverage to them, a major structural shift after years outside formal labour law.
Aggregator platforms such as Eternal, Uber and Urban Company are now required to contribute about 1-2% of their annual turnover toward a Social Security Fund for these workers, with a cap of up to 5% of the total payments made to their workforce. Workers are also to be registered with Aadhaar-linked accounts to enable portability of benefits.
“The narrative around gig work is shifting,” said Kartik Narayan, CEO of Apna Jobs Marketplace, adding that while gig roles remain largely contractual and episodic, the introduction of social security provisions marks an important structural shift.
“It won’t change everything overnight, but it does create a base layer of protection that didn’t exist earlier,” Narayan said, referring to measures such as insurance and formal registration of gig workers.