US vs INDIA Salary Slip Compare

Imagine this. You’re sipping coffee in your living room abroad. Your phone rings. It’s a recruiter from India offering you 35 LPA salary and you have 24 hours to accept it. Panic sets in. What’s a good salary in India? Are you being lowballed? And what’s this CTC thing they keep talking about instead of the word salary?   If you’re moving back to India, you better know these salary and hiring hacks—or risk making a mistake in the magnitudes of ₹10’s of lakhs. I’ve spent thousands of hours interviewing and hiring in India, and If you’re thinking about job searching in India from abroad, let me break down what this world means for you. Learn with me to understand your new pay slip, salaries and negotiation, and what recruiters are looking for— all this, so you don’t get blindsided. 

You know what's shocking? Imagine getting rejected for a job because you’re an NRI! Sometimes in india, Managers or recruiters assume ki yeh NRI hai to usski your salary expectations bohot high hogi. Now we want to prevent this from happening, so let’s start bottoms up. 

Lets first let’s break down your offer for ₹35 LPA that you got in the living room.

We start with looking at the difference between the US salary slips, called paystub, and Indian salary slip and I promise I won't make it boring. Imagine an NRI man, let’s call our protagonist, Ankur Gupta, who has a 100k salary in the US. This is what he sees during paytime. 

Ankur gets a biweekly paycheck. USD 100k a year divided by 12 is roughly 8000 USD a month but of course a lot of that money gets distributed before it reaches him. 401k retirement fund gets $600-700 of his income, then uncle sam takes federal and state tax which is about 500 and 200 usd each and also social security which goes to the govt who promises to return it at retirement time, and then insurance bhi chaiye to that takes $30 to $50. Then there are state level taxes like say California has a disability tax. So now Ankur has in hand like $2.5k per bi weekly paycheck, depending on what he chooses to do with his optional deductions. 

Now imagine Ankur applied to this indian company who offered him a one third salary which is 35 LPA. This is what to expect on the pay slip. Firstly In India, our protagonist Ankur won’t get that bi-weekly high. He will get a monthly salary, so  he’s feeling rich on June 1st but feeling poor by June 26th. 

The salary in India is called CTC (which stands for Cost to Company)—let’s break it down. It’s basically your actual salary plus a bunch of extra toppings that may or may not mean anything to you.

At its core, there's Base Pay and variable pay. The base pay is further split into Basic Pay and a mix of allowances on top of that—housing, books, internet, yeh woh. 

But why? Why make a tiered cake out of your salary? Take a guess.  It saves Companies money. A few payments the company has to make to you are a function of your basic pay, like PF is 12% of basic pay. So a lower Basic Pay means they pay less for long-term benefits.  Smart right. Gratuity also has some mysterious formula and is an example of what gets to you after N years of working in a company, so ideally it's a loyalty pay and not yearly pay. Don't use it in your calculations for monthly income. In all of this, don’t assign evil intentions to the company. They’re doing what everyone else does. Feel free to ask them: ‘What will actually hit my bank account every month?’ Because you can’t pay rent with ‘gratuity’.

One tip is, check if you can opt out of PF because mostly you can't even log into the PF website. I'm serious. There are certain rules about opting out of PF so before you make that decision ask your company to guide you and im saying this assuming you’ve already saved a lot in life. 

In india Taxes are mostly income tax, and some states have a tax called professional tax (so for eg karnataka state cuts 200 rs for god alone knows what, funding potholes?). 

Ok on negotiations. You can negotiate on the base, variable, ESOPs, and reimbursements like internet, cab. For leaves, you’re on the lines of 18 days off and 12 days sick which is the government suggested at least in Karnataka, and it’s standard, so take it as it is. 

But now the tricky part that i've mentioned in another video, is that If you’re coming from a $400K salary in the US, asking for a ₹500 phone reimbursement it might seem petty—so decide what actually matters to you. At bigger companies, perks are structured, so go ahead and negotiate. But narrow minded founders or HR’s might just think, “Why is this highly paid person haggling over small expenses?” so choose your battles.

Now for 35L, the take home pay for Ankur will be ₹ 2 ish L

Of which Ankur will spend anything from 1-1.5L a month depending on his lifestyle, so he saves about .5 to 1 L a month! Not bad! So 35 LPA is a great amount! For all those saying they want 1 cr, are mostly just looking at a number not a need. 

Let me raise your antenna about taxes. For those who live in the US, Uncle Sam loves you and If you’re an NRI moving back, you might still have to pay taxes in the US.  And you will have to pay taxes in India for stocks you sold abroad. 

Please please Don’t try to figure it out on your own—just hire someone who knows cross-border taxation. Usually it's an Indian CA who teams up with a CPA abroad. And they charge anything from $400 for US and 15k rs for india to whatever. 

Now, let's go back to the start where you’re in your living room.

How do you know if the 35 LPA is right for you? What if you are talking to a new companies recruiter and he asks what’s your expected ctc what will you even say? How do you know what salary to quote? Remember, you’re still in a living room abroad and the clock is ticking– there isn't time to do homework. Here is my advice on how to quote an expected salary. First quickly check levels.fyi or glassdoor for salary ranges. Your response then should be either “I’m looking for 40L a 15% variable on top of that.“.” Or you can be safe by quoting a range say, “Im looking for a range between 40-60L depending on the role” or feel free to ask “What’s the budget for this role?”. That’s another std way to put it. If you’re still confused, take your base salary abroad and quote 33% of it. If you’re still feeling low balled or confused after this, it’s ok. You will reach your dream salary eventually. Or contact me and I can help you narrow it down. 

Ok back to you in your living room. You have this need to go back to india. And you have one question Where do I even start searching for a job? The first place you should look to find a job? In your own backyard! Your own company. Then, your network is your best bet. If that fails, LinkedIn is your next weapon. 

Now, Let’s talk about optimising to get found. Recruiters find you through filters, and the “Open to Work” setting in linkedin is helpful in getting into their search results.  A friend of mine who is a software engineer had “code monkey” as his linkedin headline. The problem. Because the only real estate exposed to recruiters in their search results is that headline. Imagine a recruiter searching for a data analyst and seeing two profiles—one says “ Data Analyst | Python” and the other says “Tech Enthusiast | Code money”. Guess which one is clearer?

 So ditch the buzzwords—and keep it as an elevator pitch.  

In India, job searchers often use the term “Immediate Joiner” to indicate that they are, aheam, free to join anytime, in other words, berozgaar. Recruiters here love “Immediate Joiners” because companies want people, like,  yesterday. It’s not my recommendation to write that, especially for the audience of this video. So don’t bother tweaking your status—it’s not a deal-breaker. 

So linkedin is great but Should you apply through a company’s website? You won’t believe it, but back in 2007, I actually landed my job at Google by applying through their website. So no, I’m not saying don’t apply online but a huge chunk of hiring is done through agencies.  

If you want to get noticed, you need to optimize for getting found. That means making your LinkedIn profile sharp, or that your salary expectations and notice period are filled in these job websites like iimjobs or instahyre, so agencies know quickly if you fit a role. If you have a gap in your resume, explain it upfront. For example, if you took a four-month break to transition back to India, feel free to point it out.

Let me tell you about dealing with recruiters. And dealing might be the right word. Ok There are wonderful recruiters out there, some of my friends are recruiters who are sweet and smart, and logical and kind. I hope you get to work with them. But you might find recruiters in India not as polished as the ones you’re used to abroad. 

Now when you do get shortlisted, you’ll notice one of the first questions recruiters may ask you “ what is your expected CTC?”. This directness might be jarring and you’ll be left in a sudden shock. So let’s understand them– why do they ask for CTC upfront? This happens because vetting norms in India are not the same as abroad. Due to lack of standardized indicators like levels, we need a proxy for level and that proxy is usually years of experience or salary.

Another experience you might find is that recruiters ask questions that would get them sued in any other country,  ‘Are you planning to get married soon?’. Yep, I’ve had that asked.Then someone was asked “‘how will it work if you have to travel here and your husband’s office is far away?’. You might question– are these recruiters a bit cuckoo. But they’re not, and let me explain. These questions are a reflection of their struggles– they have attrition because people unrakistic conditions ke liye haan bol detein hai just to get the job and then leave the company because of reasons, like the office is too far from home, or husband didn’t move, or they got married and relocated. Some companies don't want to invest in mostly predictable outcomes and so recruiters try to predict risks upfront—even if their methods are wildly inappropriate.

To deal with this, I’d say, first of all forgive them . Maaf karo. Try not to take their questions as an indicator of the company's culture. To completely circumvent this, the best way is through the top down approach where your resume has come from a manager or CEO who told the recruiter about you. They’ll understand your seniority better that way. 

To level the job search playground for you. The primary difference between job hunting in India vs abroad is of course that the pay slip looks different, but it’s in the soft skills of the people you interact with. Other than this, the basic rules of job search are the same everywhere– and it’s hustle hustle hustle, network network network, and pray. 

So, what’s the final takeaway? Getting a job in India is about hustle, luck and not judging the judgemental questions. 

So tell me. Would you move to India for ₹35L? Or would you hold out for ₹1Cr? Drop a comment below with your dream salary, and let’s see what’s realistic. And if you’re still confused about negotiations, send me a message—I’ll help you figure it out