What is a reasonable pay? Reasonable return on investment? Equity as pay? Minimum wages for the unskilled, semi-skilled and skilled are defined. Rs.178 per day (Rs.5340 per month of 30 days) is the national floor level minimum wage that no state government can set below. Minimum wage varies across the country, across the industry, across the occupation, and across the skills. What can be the token amount to a volunteer who comes in to give casual help, apprentice, or intern? Living stipend to explore and learn. What can be the maximum pay entry level? Can it be 5 times minimum wage, 10 times, 100 times, and 1000 times? How does it grow, 10% every year, 20%, 50%, or 100% every year? What can be the peak payment – Rs.1 lakh a month, or a Rs.1 Crore, or Rs.100 Crore? Do we expect development workers at a lower pay, as a norm? We hear Government pays a max of Rs.3.0 lakh a month to its officers plus they got equivalent or more via furnished home, home-office maintenance allowances, maintenance support, and support staff. President of India draws only Rs.5 lakh per month and this is tax-exempt. The cost of President, Prime Minister may run into Crores for staying, upkeep, security, executive staff, travel, etc.
Development cadre on ground get minimum wage stipend, honorarium, living wage, etc., most often. Let us say, Rs.5,000 or 6,000 a month. A volunteer may get paid for the expenses one incurs. An executive/manager or an entry level professional with a graduation/PG may get Rs.15,000-Rs.50,000 a month. And a CEO, Director may get 2-3 times this. In a CSR or a philanthropy or a consulting/tech support/research organizations, the pays go up as they move up the career. It can multiply further in international organizations. I came across: a manager who gets more than a million rupees a month; a country director gets 3 million a month. National donors are slightly modest – the CEO of a large organization is talking about only a million a month. International or national high-end consultants get some Rs.75,000 a day or more. And more, say this gets doubled, if one becomes full-time consulting manager/lead/director. I am not talking about equity stakes offered.
Of course, all this looks peanuts when we look at the pay of international tech, fin, management organizations, or the Indian large corporations. This is not including the equity. For example, Satya N got Rs.56 Crore a month; Sundar P got Rs.200 Crore a month.
Given this, how do we get talent into LPRD-PVM – livelihoods, poverty reduction, development of poor, vulnerable, and marginalized domains? Average income of PVM in India is less than Rs.15,000 a month; a whopping 80% live below Rs.40,000 a month. How do we handle this large contrast?
Kindness. Inherent to us, human beings, becomings. Generosity, consideration, and support, responding with concern, random or otherwise, without expecting payback as a necessary part of our lives. Without expecting praise or reward in return. It improves our wellbeing and makes us better beings. It discourages enemies, opponents. Some of it is transferred down in the family, in the school, from seniors, leaders; and some requires some teaching-learning. Mostly, in the first 20-25 years, and to an extent later. This may be the way forward frame for us. Can we take these ways, methods, and tools?
Yes, we can. If we coexist, flowing. Definitively kind flows. In N? Adhodhaarayoga for 7L.
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