Class 101 for the Indian “Middle Class”
Fair Compensation is a Right not a Privilege
Of late, the following post has been gaining a lot of traction on LinkedIn, a popular social media platform meant for “professional networking”.
The above post has garnered a quantifiable amount of appreciation amounting to thousands of people who use LinkedIn. Most identifying themselves as belonging to the “middle class”. The thought seems to have resonated with several youngsters still in college, who are using LinkedIn in hopes of getting a job soon after their course ends. This at a time when we are encountering a miserable job market where stories of job losses has become more common than stories of those gainfully employed. The average age of the Indian population is 28–29 years and the current youth unemployment rate is estimated at a 32% by the Asian Development Bank and the International Labour Organization.
Miserable posts appear daily on LinkedIn feed, of people requesting their connections for white collar job opportunities due to layoffs owing to an economic crisis further fuelled by the pandemic. The white collared middle class workers have been affected in an unprecedented way. It is a shame that accurate data is not available or being released to show the true extent of the damage.
As a highly educated job seeker, I myself have often found companies requiring 5 years of work experience but a “young” professional (well under the age of 30) for jobs which fall into the ‘entry-level’ category. Freshers are often highly qualified students, who chose to pursue higher education instead of entering the job market, in hopes of better pay and position.
People without work experience do not get paid well.They have to settle for low-paying entry level jobs so as to start off their career. This does warrant discussions questioning employment policies and human resource strategies of companies.
It is however unnecessary and immensely insensitive to compare this situation of a white collared fresher to that of a blue collared worker such as a cab driver, a fruit seller or a daily wage labourer.
Here’s why:
1. Your job is in the organized or formal sector. A job offer letter from say a corporate company has a CTC (cost to company). It’s a formal and legally binding agreement that includes leaves, insurance, minimum and maximum working hours, bonus and overtime pay, severance package, terms and conditions of employment, promotion and so on. It’s far more secure.
A cab driver’s income depends on his/her physical ability to drive, the number of hours he/she can put in. Even within formal employment, he/she remains a blue-collared worker with limited entitlements. He/she needs to pay for the wear and tear of the vehicle. He/she can be terminated based on a single consumer complaint. Even the 2–3 lakh Rupees investment on their vehicle could be on a loan they must pay off.
A fruit seller’s income depends on the weather, the quality of the produce, price politics or strikes at the wholesale market, and the mercy of buyers on a particular day.
A daily wage labourer does not necessarily get work “daily”. The minimum wage is decided by the state governments so for example in Uttar Pradesh, an unskilled daily wager earns less than 350 INR per day in Meghalaya, it is a little above 200 INR. Furthermore, a lot of them must pay a percentage of their income to contractors.
2. A fresher does not remain fresher forever. Investment in education is high and the initial returns are relatively low. With work experience, people do get placed in better positions with higher pay and positions. This enables better financial status in terms of savings and future investments.
A cab driver might have no other skill except for driving. A fruit seller may not even be literate. A daily wage labourer does not know if there will be food on his/her plate the next day. These people often have savings in the negative.
As far as investments are concerned, most of these people are migrant workers. They often take loans from moneylenders at arbitrary and steep interest rates to come to live and work in the cities. Their income prospects are limited and growth prospects almost nil. Their life begins on a debt they won’t be able to pay off anytime soon.
3. If you (or your parents) could afford good quality private (english) education and professional courses till the age of 25 that got you through a job interview with a reputed company, you are already privileged.
A cab driver, a fruit seller or a daily wage labourer did not choose the professions they are in. They could be the sole breadwinners of their family. They often have zero savings, very limited access to quality education even at school level. A large number of them drop out due to financial pressures. They are more likely to fall sick and not get treatment. They are more likely to go hungry due to situations beyond their control. They are more likely to be treated as potential criminals by authorities. They are economically, socially and politically far more vulnerable.
The labour grievance of a part of Indian population that identifies itself as “middle class” (but is actually property owning/inheriting elite) is largely about not being able to partake in a competition for a luxurious, dream-like lifestyle of excesses based on blind, inconsiderate consumption. Freshers from this category have little to no liabilities and often readily accept even low paying jobs because they can afford it. They know it. People hiring them know it too.
The labour grievance of the actual non-property owning/inheriting middle income category is to be able to save some part of their income after spending on the basics for a rainy day. These people rarely question their wages despite having difficulties out of fear of being sacked. They could also have others dependent on them financially. If they don’t take that low-paying job, someone else will. They know it. People hiring them know it too.
The labour grievance of the low income classes is about not being able to put food on the table the next day. Their goal is to have a steady monthly income that would allow them to meet their basic needs. They largely work for cash. Many of them often don’t have bank accounts or digital literacy. They are faceless to their employers.
The demand for fair compensation and stronger labour laws is a basic right and not an entitlement of only those who invested in education. If getting better education entitles you to better CTC, then working for longer and unpredictable hours in insecure environments entitles a blue collared worker to free healthcare.
In a society still unable to digest basic equality between gender, caste, class, ethnicity and sexuality, it is probably too much to expect such sensitivity. Clearly, the person who wrote the “viral” post has forgotten these visuals of migrant workers (cab drivers, fruit sellers, daily wage labourers and more) that rightly brought our country to shameful global headlines in the recent past.
If only these people were LinkedIn users!
