Urban Company Gig Worker Makes Rs 26,271 a Month on Average: CEO Abhiraj Singh Bhal

Home services platform Urban Company's gig workers earned an average net monthly income of Rs 26,271 between April and December 2024, the initial public offering-bound unicorn's chief executive Abhiraj Singh Bhal said at an event in Bengaluru. 

“If a partner works full-time, about 160 hours a month, their earnings shoot up to nearly Rs 49,318, all net,” Bhal said, pointing to a massive screen breaking down the figures. “This kind of dignified, scalable earning is not possible for a plumber or a cleaner working in the unorganised sector.”

The detailed data presented by Urban Company shows partners delivering services in a minimum of 30 days a month make Rs 33,694 net. The top 20% of service partners, by order volume, earn Rs 40,966 net, the other top 10% earn Rs 46,449, while the top 5% take home Rs 49,318. The average hours worked monthly across all partners is 87 hours, with top performers working up to 160 hours.

The earnings breakdown was part of a broader argument made by Bhal that platforms like Urban Company are enabling formal, stable livelihoods for a workforce often left out of India’s aspirational middle-class narrative. 

Bhal didn’t shy away from the deeper challenges of the gig ecosystem either. “I was naive to think platform and tech alone could solve this. We had to go deep into chemistry, stains, SOPs. We now have over 200 training centres across India,” he said. “This is a category where you need to own the full stack to win.”

Aravind Sanka of Rapido shared a parallel experience from the mobility side of the gig economy. “We recently moved away from the commission model entirely,” Sanka said. “Now, drivers just pay a daily log-in fee. Everything else they earn, they keep.” He shared the story of a Rapido captain in Bengaluru who works four hours a day earning Rs 500 while preparing for a software career, “That’s the kind of flexibility that can change lives.”

Both founders agreed that being rooted in India’s local realities cultural and geographic is a key strength. “We don’t build one solution for 200 cities. What works in Delhi doesn’t work in Chennai,” Sanka emphasized. “That’s how we became the largest and highest-paying platform in our category.”

On the question of whether gig platforms are replacing traditional employment or elevating workers, Bhal was unequivocal. “This economy is still young just about a decade in,” he said. “But it’s already lifted tens of lakhs into formal, respectable employment. The real question is not if it’s good or bad. It’s how we improve it from here.”

The numbers now do much of the talking. As Bhal put it, “Ask any Urban Company partner who’s worked in your home. They won’t say the platform helped. They’ll say it changed their life.”