Tier 2 salaries caught up. Metros are officially a scam now.
Just read a report that the tech salary gap between metros and Tier 2 cities is down to just 5-10% this year. Let's be honest, staying in Bangalore, Mumbai, or NCR is just financial suicide at this point.
I know guys in Jaipur, Indore, and Kochi making 30-35 LPA. That’s almost exactly what I make at my company in BLR. But guess what? They aren't paying 45k rent for a damp, matchbox 2BHK. They aren't spending 2 hours every day breathing toxic fumes on ORR or fighting with Rapido guys. They eat fresh home food, pay 15k for a luxury flat, and save literally double what I do.
We are grinding our asses off in these cities just to pay off some greedy local landlord's third EMI. For what? The "startup vibe"? The overpriced microbreweries? It's a joke.
If where you work allows remote or has a Tier 2 hub, pack your bags tomorrow. That extra 5-10% CTC you get in a metro is completely wiped out by insane deposits, Zomato, and lifestyle inflation. Stop being broke in a big city when you can build actual wealth in your hometown. The metro dream is dead.
What about serendipity and growth, 4 years ago me and my friend(started from same company) was at same package 40LPA he moved back to indore while I stayed in Bangalore, felt the same thing.
But now I have more than 3x of his salary, And much more in terms of knowledge and confidence on my skill.
The difference: he was at top 1-2% in indore and I am at 30-40 percentile in banglore, which kept me hustling putting those extra hours which compounded in growing at higher rate.
Hope you understand soon.
I don't understand why govt promotes overcrowding in tier 1 cities, govt should ask companies to open offices in tier 2 cities and allow employees to work in a distributed manner from nearby offices.
Man or woman or whoever you are... Life itself is a scam and everything in life is a scam. Every individual life is just trying to play the survival game in its own way. That's the gist of it. Think deeply and you'll see every effing thing is for the take if you have the power and access.
Agreed. Maybe more people moving to Tier-2 cities would be the catalyst for increased spending for these cities and transportation infrastructure. And it would help ease the burden on ‘Metro’ cities as well.
Also developing sister cities next to metros: my favourite being Navi Mumbai and Mumbai. Living in Navi Mumbai was insanely affordable (like 2-3 years ago) and you could easily commute to work using local or by car even. You had mumbai level salaries and exposure + the chill life on weekends with an option to go to mumbai if you felt like it as well.
Living in Bangalore is exhausting man. The commute, the insane rent I pay, the fact that on weekends every decent place is so crowded - on some days I don’t even feel like stepping out. Weeks are bleeding into each other here, and all days feel like the same day.
The news is out. Tier 2 guys are the best kept secret in 2026.
So damn freaking true. Kochi is a beautiful city. Miss the place alot. Everything was super affordable.
100%
Agree
Doing WFH with Bengaluru salary 😉✌️
To each their own. Some hate tier 1 cities, some won't think of living someplace else.
