By Anurag Tiwari
Indians earning between Rs. 5 lakh and Rs. 1 crore yearly, considered middle-income, have had a 0.4% CAGR in earnings over the past decade. In contrast, food costs have risen roughly 80%, and inflation has progressively eroded buying power.
India’s Middle-Class Salary Scam: Bengaluru CEO Calls It the ‘Biggest Scam
India’s middle class is burning at both ends, with growing expenses on one side and stagnating wages on the other. They continue to fly once a year, buy new phones, and pay off their EMIs. However, underlying this appearance of steadiness lurks a gradual hemorrhage.
Savings are being skipped. Doctor appointments are being postponed. Every Zomato order demands mental calculation. It appears to be progress—but it is actually silent financial decay.
Ashish Singhal, CEO of a company located in Bengaluru, is calling this out frankly. “What is the biggest swindle that no one talks about? “Middle-class salaries,” he said on LinkedIn, highlighting one of the most overlooked economic realities of the last decade.
His data-driven fury is difficult to ignore. Indians earning between ₹5 lakh and ₹1 crore yearly, considered middle-income, have had a 0.4% CAGR in earnings over the past decade. In contrast, food costs have risen roughly 80%, and inflation has progressively eroded buying power.
“This isn’t a collapse,” Singhal states. “It’s a well-dressed decline.” Households continue to consume, but it is supported more by credit than income. Credit card debt and EMIs are rising, while actual salary growth remains unchanged.
This is not a little portion, either. According to current surveys, India’s middle class accounted for 31% of the population in 2021 and is expected to reach 38% by 2031 and 60% by 2047. Despite this development, long-term middle-class workers are experiencing little improvement in their financial stability.
While the destitute are assisted by government programs and the wealthiest expand their riches via investments, the middle class is expected to bear the shocks. There are no subsidies or bailouts here; only growing school fees, healthcare costs, and gasoline expenses. The end outcome is persistent financial hardship concealed beneath aspirational lifestyles.
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