May 01, 2023: Construction tech startup projecthero has launched a wage discovery feature in its app for workers. The feature, which allows workers to discover if they are being paid more or less than the average salaries in their fields, will ensure pay transparency and prevent wage exploitation in the construction industry. This is part of projecthero’s initiatives to build a membership driven professional network for the construction industry.

The construction industry is highly fragmented and unstructured, which enables the higher-ups in the industry to exploit workers by providing them with below-average and, often, below-minimum wages. Due to poor technological penetration, workers have to find employment through informal means, which leads to opacity regarding compensation amounts. projecthero’s in-app wage discovery feature enables workers to make sure that they are not being exploited by being paid below-average and below-minimum wages. Such transparency will also enable workers to understand and recognise the value of their work and prevent them from falling prey to fraudulent and corrupt recruitment practices.

Satya Vyas, Founder and CEO of projecthero, said, “Urban organised workforces have various ways of discovering the average salaries in their fields. Gig workers are also aware of their colleagues’ salaries, as they have fixed compensation amounts. With pay transparency, employees can achieve a better standard of living, as they will know if they are being exploited and not being paid optimal salaries. Hence, we thought that developing a feature to prevent wage-based exploitation and wage discrimination in the unorganised construction industry will help blue-collar workers understand their worth and fight for it.”

According to the average salary metrics released by projecthero, 2,308 users have interacted with the average salary discovery feature, and in total, it has been viewed 7.1 K times. This implies an average viewership of 3.2 times per user. Moreover, with regard to workers being paid the minimum salary, in Uttar Pradesh, 79.9% of jobs pay below-minimum wage, and 815 users have been informed of this. In Maharashtra, 68.6% of jobs pay less than minimum wage, and 268 users have been made aware of this, and in Madhya Pradesh, 93.75% of jobs pay less than minimum wage, with 264 users having been informed about this.

The statistics show that Maharashtra has the highest number of users who have checked whether they are being paid more than the minimum wage. Conversely, Madhya Pradesh has the lowest number of users who have checked whether they are being paid the minimum wage, even though it has the highest percentage of jobs paying less than the minimum wage.

Previously, in January 2023, projecthero revealed that 87% of construction workers in India do not receive the government-mandated daily minimum wage. This was found to be true for the major cities of India (Delhi NCR, Mumbai, Bengaluru, Hyderabad, Chennai, and Pune). projecthero’s introduction of the wage discovery feature is in keeping with its goals to build a professional network for the construction industry and make the construction industry more organised, formalized, and ethical.