At $1 per hour.

Four days ago, "Police lobbied tear gas shells and used 'minimum force'...to quell a factory workers' protest in the Indian national capital's suburb of Noida, which turned violent on its fourth day, with vehicles torched and stones pelted in parts of the satellite city." Perhaps incensed by the news that, "Similar protests in the auto-making state of Haryana last week led to the government ordering a 35% hike in minimum wages." Reuters. Noida is in Uttar Pradesh and so, "Noida police have alleged that two social media accounts in X, operated from Pakistan, played a major role in escalating the April 13 labor protest into violence by spreading false information about multiple deaths during the demonstrations, as per TOI." India's strict labor laws imposed high costs on employing permanent labor. So companies resorted to laborers on temporary contracts, on lower wages and no benefits, supplied by manpower supply companies. Scroll. Last year, "With the four labor codes now live, the government has effectively rewritten the rules for how companies hire outside permanent roles. In plain terms: India's workforce has long run on two parallel tracks, fixed-term direct hires and contract labor via agencies. The codes try to formalize both." MC. However, Noida is not the only place, workers have protested in Faridabad and Manesar in Haryana, in Surat in Gujarat and in Bhiwadi in Rajasthan. Paltry wages, which have stayed stagnant for years, while prices have risen make life impossible. DH. A shortage of manufacturing jobs for unskilled labor forces people to work for low wages. On 31 January 2025, "The sector's contribution to GDP, which has stagnated at 16-17% (of GDP) for years, is projected to drop to 13-14% by 2025." "Supply chain disruptions, cost disadvantages and a tepid export environment have significantly eroded the sector's competitiveness." FE. India produces a large number of graduates, but "graduate unemployment for the 15-25 age group is hovering near 40%", because, "India's elite, hemmed in by its own risk aversion and stifling bureaucratic controls, has shown little ambition to build the kind of mass-employment manufacturing base that could provide an alternative," wrote Andy Mukherjee. Mopping and dusting offer better returns. "At Indian startup Pronto's training hub, women hone their mopping and chopping skills while learning how to send SOS signals if they feel unsafe in customers' homes. They are set to join India's new consumer craze: house help for $1 an hour." "The potential annual earnings from working eight hours a day can be as high as $5,000 - a figure that surpasses India's per capita income of around $3,000." "Similar services can cost around $30 an hour in the United States, and around $7 in China." Reuters. In Noida, most protesters are "non-unionised contract workers employed in small factories across industrial clusters." "They earn between Rs 10,000 ($107) and Rs 15,000 a month - wages that have remained largely unchanged for months. Many are migrant workers, living hand-to-mouth in cramped housing on the city's outskirts." BBC. While women are becoming home helps, men are joining the gig workforce as delivery men. "India's gig workforce is 12 million strong and expected to double to 24 million by the end of this decade." BBC. Given all that, $1 an hour is the highest price for an Indian. Only if you are lucky.