Bengaluru techie gets 7.5% pay hike, rent goes up by 10%: 'Rent will become more than my salary'

The software engineer agreed with an X user when he said that for most IT employees in Bengaluru and Hyderabad, half of their salary goes into paying rent. (Representational image: Grok)

A software engineer in Bengaluru has shared that he received a pay hike of 7.5 percent during the recent appraisal but his landlord increased rent by 10 percent. Noting the increase in the rate of expenditure than income, the techie identified only as Ray said that if the trend continued, someday his rent would be more than his salary.

"Salary hike I received was 7.5 percent. Meanwhile, Bengaluru landlord increased the rent by 10 percent. If this goes on, someday my rent will become more than salary," he wrote on X in a post that struck a chord with several users.

"Welcome to the modern urban scam: Salary growth crawls, rent hikes sprint," commented investor and entrepreneur Vivek Khatri. "This is true for most IT employees in Bangalore and Hyderabad. Half of our salary goes into paying rent, and the other half goes into paying taxes," added another X user, Neo (@kumar_mks23). Ray agreed. A third user, Abhishek Nair (@abhisheknaironx) added, "Getting a job in Bangalore onsite is getting lesser and lesser profitable..."

While some users commented that they have, or they know people who have, received salary hikes even lower than seven percent, a few others commented that under the current rate of inflation, companies should offer at least a 10 percent hike. "Anything less than a 10 percent salary hike is criminal," said Ishwar Singh (@IshwarBagga). "Authorities suppress inflation data, and companies use it to justify minimal hikes. Meanwhile, rent, groceries, and other basic items' increase by 10 percent YoY are becoming the norm. Time to face our metro cities realities!"

A couple of curious X users even asked Grok if Ray's rent could ever become more than his salary and according to the AI assistant, it is a possibility.

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Gokul (@gokulnk) March 28, 2025

"Grok says (under some standard assumptions), it will take 23 years for your rent to become more than salary," X user Krishna Mohan (@KiMoJiRa) replied to Ray.