India’s tech space is known for being one of the best paymasters in the country. But while startups don’t publicly disclose the salaries they pay to their employees, the startups which have gone on to list on the stock markets do publish some data in their annual reports. Companies usually disclose the total number of employees on their rolls, and also their total employee benefit expenses. Employee benefit expenses usually include salaries, wages, contributions to employee PPF funds, and other charges spent towards employees. We divided the employee benefit expenses of listed tech companies with their employee strengths to come up with the average amount spent by these companies per employee. This is how much India’s listed tech companies spent per employee.
Zomato
Rs. 42.5 lakh per employee
Zomato marginally reduced its employee count to 3,440 in FY23 from 3,517 last year, but still had the highest cost per employee at listed startups. Zomato spent Rs. 1,465 crore in employee benefit expenses in FY23, which averaged to Rs. 42.5 lakh spent per employee. This was the highest cost spent on employees among listed startups in India.
CarTrade
Rs. 21.6 lakh per employee
In FY23, CarTrade had 945 employees, and spent Rs. 205 crore on employee benefit expenses. This translated into a cost per employee of Rs. 21.6 lakh per year, which was the second-highest per employee cost at listed tech startups in India.
Nykaa
Rs. 15.45 lakh per employee
Nykaa had 3,177 employees at the end of FY23, and it had spent Rs. 491 crore on employee benefit expenses that year. This translated into an average cost per employee of Rs. 15.45 lakh.
Paytm
Rs. 14.5 lakh per employee
In FY23, Paytm had 25,959 employees, and spent Rs. 3,778 crore on employee benefit expenses. This translated into a spend of Rs. 14.5 lakh per employee per year. Paytm had dramatically grown its workforce last year, growing from 7,278 employees to 25,959 employees.
PolicyBazaar
Rs. 9.9 lakh per employee
PolicyBazaar had 15,467 employees in FY23, while its total employee benefit costs were Rs. 1,539 crore. This meant that the insurance provider spent Rs. 9.9 lakh per employee last year. This meant Policybazaar was the most frugal employer within its cohort, spending the least per employee last year among listed tech startups.