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by yial 2529 days ago
I agree, I think the government guaranteed wage is only 100rs per day if doing roadwork or similar. (Not sure the correct term).

I believe in the Kolkata superb area, many people with a bachelors or equivalent only make $60-80 usd a month. (4000-5500rs)

Of course, there are many many many people who make much more.

If I think of what it costs to eat out in the US, and what it costs to eat out in India... 200rs is probably more equivalent $15-40 dollars in the US. For buying power.

Examples: Throw pillow that would be $30 USD, is 150rs, or 315rs at someplace like Anokhi.

Streetfood that would be ~$10 in the us is probably around 70rs ? But that’s even a hard comparison, as I’ve been able to snack for 20rs, but not a full meal.

A knife I bought to open coconuts, that isn’t pretty, but would probably be $25-$35 in the US, was 325rs, and I probably could have gotten it cheaper.

3 comments

These are some wild numbers. Please recheck. I don't know anyone that can survive in Calcutta on $70 a month. Out of college, people earn about $350-$650 dollars on the monthly.
I will recheck. I actually pulled them off an internal document from an NGO my employer partners with. I’ll have them recheck the data that they provided. (For income data )

But hotel front office:

https://www.indeed.co.in/m/viewjob?jk=169b33826c0225f4&from=...

$188~ USD a month.

But looking around police make ~600 USD a month,

And I’m wondering if the data isn’t as good as it was supposed to be. Because looking on indeed the lowest end seems to be 10000rs

As a rule of thumb, I take the amount in rupees and multiply with 6 to get the equivalent in Dollars.

As an X role in a company if you make 10k per month in India, then working for the same company as X in US, you will likely make 60k.

This is mostly based on salaries info that i have but it gives me a good yardstick for mental models. This also conveniently fits with exchange rate which fluctuates between 55 to 70 INR = 1 USD.

By this yardstick, throw pillow that would be $30 USD will be around $5 (Rs. 300) in India, subject to local revisions.

I mostly use this when I need to roughly calculate how much money I should take with me while traveling.

I have the same rule. Although the actual multiplier I use is 5 based on my experiences. ymmv.
Where are you quoting these figures from? The minimum wage is considerably higher than Rs. 100 per day in most parts of India.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Minimum_Wages_Act_1948

Rs. 200 is not a big amount. Of course, the real comparison will be with respect to the cable TV rate, and the Netflix rate might not be low enough to be a better option.

From what you posted:

“Lack of awareness: Many citizens are not aware of the existence of a statutory provision that ensures a minimum wage rate. "80% of workers earn less than INR 20/day or less than half of government stipulated minimum wage rate (rural INR 49 and urban INR 67)”.[2] On certain instances of doubt among workers on existence of a minimum wage rate, officials have denied claims of any statutory act or legislation.[11]”

“42% of all wage earners in India receive wages below the national minimum wage floor rate.[62]”

“In Mumbai, as of 2017, the minimum wage was Rs. 348/day for a safai karmachari (sewage cleaner and sweeper), but this was rarely paid.[5]”

>Rs. 200 is not a big amount. sorry thats really ignorant. It is not a big amount for the privileged people.
I think this is very correct. I asked some friends who are Indian and currently in India, and they replied with:

“On this I would say that it will be expensive for the maximum population of India as the Percentage of working class people earning good is not on the positive side. Many people still fall under BPL and I as an Indian citizen can absolutely tell you about this thing that we people totally browse it of the web and find things for free even the Netflix originals. This is something not good or praiseworthy but yes most people do that.”

Of course it's expensive for the majority of the population, but that's not the target market here. India has a population in excess of 1b, even 1% of that market would be a good acquisition for Netflix.