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Journalism of Courage
A software engineer from Bengaluru has taken to social media to vent his frustration about the rising cost of living in the city. Despite getting a 7.5 per cent salary hike, Ray said his landlord raised his house rent by 10 per cent. In his post on X on March 28, he expressed his concern, saying, “Salary hike I received was 7.5%. Meanwhile, the BLR landlord increased the rent by 10%. If this goes on, someday my rent will become more than salary.”
Many young professionals in the city echoed his sentiments, and shared their thoughts in the comments section.
“Welcome to the modern urban scam: Salary growth crawls, rent hikes sprint. It’s not cost of living—it’s cost of staying. At this rate, someday your landlord will be richer off your salary than you. This isn’t just inflation—it’s lifestyle taxation without legislation,” wrote one user.
Another person supported Ray stating that this was true for most of the IT employees in Bangalore and Hyderabad. “Half of our salary goes into paying rent, and the other half goes into paying taxes,” the individual said.
A third person commented, “Anything less than a 10% salary hike is criminal. Authorities suppress inflation data, and companies use it to justify minimal hikes. Meanwhile, rent, groceries, other basic items increase by 10% YoY are the becoming norm. Time to face our metro cities realities!”
A fourth individual commented, “Yeah, that’s why you need to save some income and convert to assets like stocks and FDs that give passive income on top of your active income.”
A few users turned to Grok, X’s AI assistant, to figure out if Ray’s rent could one day surpass his salary.
“Based on avg Bangalore software engineer salary (₹11L) & rent (₹4.64L/yr), with 7.5% salary & 10% rent annual growth, rent may surpass salary in ~38 yrs, around 2063. Varies (30-60 yrs) by rent-to-salary ratio (15-50%),” Grok reply reads.
