Creators, plumbers could out-earn white collar workers, says IIM alumnus: 'Don't be shocked'

'It’s not about what you studied. It’s about whether the market still needs it,' Lokesh Ahuja wrote.

A viral LinkedIn post by Lokesh Ahuja, an alumnus of the Indian Institute of Management (IIM), has sparked a pointed conversation about the shifting value of traditional white-collar jobs in India. Ahuja argued that skilled tradespeople and digital creators may soon surpass knowledge workers—such as product managers, analysts and coders—not only in income but also in influence.

“If a plumber out-earns a product manager in five years, don’t be shocked,” Ahuja wrote, directly challenging long-held perceptions of job prestige in Indian society. His post came in response to public criticism of a young influencer who reportedly built a Rs 41 crore business empire without a formal degree.

“If a 23-year-old IIM grad made Rs 41 crore, we’d call them a genius. But if a creator does it, we call them ‘cringe’,” Ahuja said, questioning why success in non-traditional sectors often attracts ridicule rather than admiration.

According to Ahuja, the explanation lies in basic economics: demand and supply. “There are over 2 lakh IIM grads in India. But fewer than 10,000 creators have 1M+ followers,” he noted. Of those, perhaps only 100 operate at the top tier. “Their scarcity fuels high earnings. If you’re in that club, you won’t earn ‘fairly.’ You’ll earn disproportionately, just like CXOs or startup founders do.”

To underscore the point, Ahuja recalled witnessing a top-tier creator charge Rs 6 lakh for a single 30-second Instagram reel—booking four such gigs in a single week. “Rs 24 lakh without a single boss. Content isn’t a ladder you climb. It’s a rocket… if it takes off.”

However, Ahuja’s post delved beyond creator economics. He issued a warning about the future of conventional knowledge work, arguing that artificial intelligence (AI) is rapidly eroding its value. “AI is triggering an oversupply of knowledge workers—writers, analysts, even coders—jobs once considered ‘safe’,” he wrote. “And when supply floods the system, value drops.”

In contrast, he suggested that pricing power is slowly shifting toward those in skilled manual trades—fields that, for now, remain largely insulated from AI disruption. “Plumbers. Carpenters. Electricians. They’re not flashy but they do what AI can’t (at least so far). And in a few years, they might have more pricing power than product managers,” Ahuja predicted.

He concluded with a blunt message that challenged traditional assumptions about education and employment: “It’s not about what you studied. It’s about whether the market still needs it.”