Delivery, ride-hailing and home services — Gig workers earn 2.5x compared to similar formal and informal jobs: Report

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.

Gig work can bridge employment gap by ~70% by 2030

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.

Gig work flexible, gives experience, added income

It noted that for many workers, being able to choose when and how much they work is “just as important as what they earn”.

• More than 90% of monthly active gig workers choose part-time participation, allowing gig internet work to fit alongside a regular job, education or other responsibilities.
• Redseer identified three broad groups within the workforce — comprising those who rely on gig work as a primary livelihood, those who use it to supplement a regular income, and those who turn to it for a limited period while pursuing education, migration or a career transition.
• For example, a factory worker who earns ₹15,000 from his primary job, adds ₹6,000 through ride-hailing on weekends.
• The report also described a nursing student who uses gig work to pay her college fees before moving into her chosen profession.
• Another example found was a cook in Bengaluru, who noted that driving a taxi in the evenings and on weekends, with his gig earnings sometimes exceeding what he makes from cooking.
• Around 70% of surveyed workers believe the experience improved their future earning opportunities, with customer handling, time management, digital tools and navigation among the skills developed on the job.
• Platforms also provide workers with a demonstrable work history and exposure to customers and networks that can support a move into better-paying gigs, formal employment or entrepreneurship.

‘Gig work creates room to earn around realities of life’

“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.