- In certain job roles, especially the ones spurred by the new economy, freshers are earning higher salaries than their experienced counterparts.
- Bengaluru stands out as a lucrative destination for experienced customer care professionals, telecallers, and field sales executives, while Mumbai is a lucrative destination for experienced back office professionals.
Mumbai, March 14, 2023: Billion Careers, a subsidiary of Quess Corp and the leading digital job platform for blue and grey-collar job seekers, has unveiled salary trends of blue and grey-collar employees in India based on the recruiter job posting data on Qjobs, their digital hiring platform. According to the salary data of entry-level (fresher) hires, it was observed that in certain job roles, the highest pay was being offered to newly recruited delivery executives.
Qjobs caters to the aspirations of over 55 lakh job seekers who look forward to building their careers through hyper-local job discoveries that best match their skills. Qjobs, since its inception in the pandemic, has on-boarded over 10,000+ employers, 20,000+ recruiters and hosts more than 1 million job openings annually.
Commenting on the salary trends of blue/grey collar employees over the past year, Amit Nigam, Chief Executive Officer, Billion Careers, said, “The report reveals a promising landscape for freshers but a challenging terrain for experienced employees. Even though these roles more often go unrecognised, they play a crucial role in shaping customer experiences and in driving business growth. These findings emphasize the need for companies to provide competitive compensation to retain experienced employees and prioritize their professional growth. English language proficiency, multitasking capabilities, computer skills, and soft skills such as communication, problem-solving, and time management are highly valued in these roles. Job retention is equally important as job creation to ensure a more resilient and equitable economy and therefore it is imperative to roll out and encourage participation in upskilling initiatives, which will advance employees’ careers and encourage them to earn more.”
Delivery Workforce in the South receives maximum compensation
Food, retail, and e-commerce delivery boys constitute a major portion of the blue and grey-collar workforce. The data provided on the average salaries of the delivery workforce emphasizes the role of experience in determining the salary of a delivery worker, with those having 4 or more years of experience earning higher salaries on average ranging from 2.24 – 3.68 lakh p.a. Moreover, the data reveal significant differences in salaries across various cities, with the delivery worker in Bengaluru and Chennai earning relatively higher salaries than those in Mumbai and Kolkata. Additionally, in Hyderabad, the data suggest that delivery workers with 4+ years of experience earn higher salaries than their counterparts in other cities with similar experience levels. Finally, the data shows that the average salary for delivery workers does not always increase steadily with experience, which is evident in the case of Delhi, where the average salary for a worker with 1-3 years of experience is lower than that of freshers in the city.
Overall, the data suggest that the delivery workforce in South India generally has higher salaries than those in North India, especially for fresher and mid-level (1-3 years) experienced delivery workers.
Entry-level customer care representatives earn the highest in Kolkata, while telecallers are compensated more in Chennai
The data reveals that in Kolkata, the salary for fresher customer care professionals is higher than those with 1-3 years of experience, while in Mumbai, Pune, and Delhi, salaries increase with experience. The highest salaries for customer care professionals in Bengaluru (2.64 lakh p.a.) and Hyderabad (2.63 lakh p.a.) are offered to those with 4+ years of experience. Salaries also vary within each city based on experience levels, with Hyderabad having the lowest average salaries for freshers and Bengaluru having the highest for experienced.
For telecallers, the data shows that Chennai (2.12 lakh p.a.) offers the highest average salary for freshers, Bengaluru (2.07 lakh p.a.) for those with 1-3 years of experience, and Mumbai (2.47 lakh p.a.) for those with 4 or more years of experience. In terms of average salary across all experience levels, Bengaluru has the highest, followed by Mumbai and Chennai, while Hyderabad has the lowest. Overall, experienced job seekers may prefer Bengaluru and Mumbai for higher salaries, while freshers may prefer Chennai. The data indicate that experience has a greater impact on salaries for customer care professionals than for telecallers. Additionally, salaries for telecallers are generally lower than that for customer care professionals in all cities.
Entry Level Field Sales and Back Office Executives receive the highest salaries in Bengaluru and Chennai respectively
The data shows that the average salary for Field Sales Executives in Bengaluru is the highest among all cities, ranging from 2.30 lakh p.a for freshers to 2.63 for those with 4 years or more experience. Chennai, Hyderabad, and Mumbai have slightly lower average salaries compared to Bengaluru, with a range of 2.24 -2.57 lakh p.a., while Delhi and Pune have the lowest average salaries, ranging from 2.12-2.48 lakh p.a. The data also shows that, in general, salaries tend to increase with experience, with Field Sales Executives with 4 years or more experience earning the highest average salary in each city. However, the difference in average salaries between freshers and experienced Field Sales Executives is not very significant overall, with the difference being less than 10% in most cities, except for Pune, where the difference is over 10%.
The data highlights that the salary trends for Back Office Executives vary significantly depending on both the city and the experience level. Mumbai offers the highest average salary for experienced Back office executives (3.12 lakh p.a.) with more than 4 years of experience possibly due to the presence of many large corporations and financial institutions in the city. Kolkata, Pune, and Bengaluru show a similar salary trend across all experience levels, suggesting that there may not be a significant difference in demand for back office skills at different experience levels in these cities. In terms of fresher Back Office Executives, Chennai (2.46 lakh p.a.) provides the highest average salary, while Hyderabad (1.80 lakh p.a.) offers the lowest. The average salary for Back Office Executives in Chennai does not necessarily increase consistently with experience, similar to the trend observed in the delivery workforce. This may be due to a surplus of experienced candidates in the job market.
Period for the report
The period considered for this data is January 2023.
