‘Poverty line in Bengaluru starts at 50 LPA’: Viral post sparks debate on sky-high tech salaries

A viral post on X (formerly Twitter) has ignited a fresh debate on whether Bengaluru’s booming tech sector has pushed salary expectations into unrealistic territory.

The post, which jokingly declared that the “poverty line in Bengaluru starts at 50 LPA,” triggered several reactions from tech professionals, meme-makers, and economists-in-the-comments.

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The original post read:

“Always remember –

India below poverty line cutoff: 35k/annum

Twitter India below poverty line cutoff: 30 LPA

Twitter India BLR below poverty line cutoff: 50 LPA.”

The tongue-in-cheek comparison quickly escalated into a larger conversation on salaries in India’s biggest tech hub. Many users responded with humour, while others pointed to growing disparities between social media echo chambers and the national income landscape.

“The high compensation at major tech hubs like Bangalore does indicate a concentration of high-value global employment, but this income bracket remains quite narrow compared to the broader national economy,” one user commented, trying to bring some context to the chaos.

Others took the satire up a notch, “Anything below 60 LPA in tech is peanuts. Those who earn below that shouldn’t even qualify for paying taxes,” one user joked. Another added, “Every Indian is middle class or poor on Twitter.”

Some reactions were self-deprecating, “You called me poor thrice,” one user wrote, while another quipped, “Can millionaires survive in Bengaluru?”

This is not the first time Bengaluru’s compensation culture has sparked an online debate. A few months ago, another X post questioning whether ₹50 LPA has become the new ₹25 LPA in the city’s IT sector went viral.

“I hear so many people earning 50 LPA in Bangalore IT sector. Either they’re stating inflated CTC or 50 LPA is the new 25 LPA. Can some techies confirm?” the user, Sourav Dutta, had asked.

Disclaimer: This report is based on user-generated content from social media. HT.com has not independently verified the claims and does not endorse them.