💰 Salary Check

Are You Being Underpaid?
Find Out in 60 Seconds.

Compare your salary to market percentiles by role, city, and experience. Get a data-backed negotiation number to walk into your next appraisal with.

📊 Your Profile

Enter your total cost to company per year
0 yrs (Fresher)25 yrs (Senior)
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Your Market Percentile
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0th25th50th75th90th+
UnderpaidBelow MedianAbove MedianTop Earner
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Your CTC (LPA)
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Market Median P50 (LPA)
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You Should Ask For P75 (LPA)

🎯 Your Negotiation Script

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Your CTC vs Market Benchmarks

How Salary Percentiles Work and Why They Matter

A salary percentile tells you where you stand relative to others in similar roles. If you're at the 50th percentile, half the people in comparable positions earn more than you and half earn less. If you're at the 25th percentile, 75% earn more. Most salary negotiation advice focuses on the 'ask' — but the most powerful thing you can know before negotiating is exactly where you currently stand in the market.

Salary benchmarks in India vary enormously by four factors: role (what you do), experience (how long you've done it), city (where you do it), and company tier (who you do it for). A senior software engineer at a FAANG/unicorn in Bangalore earns 2–3x what a comparable engineer at a mid-size company in Pune earns. Neither is being exploited — they're in different markets.

The widening gap between company tiers is a relatively recent phenomenon in India. Pre-2015, salary differences between good companies were modest. Post-2015, the rise of funded startups and global tech hiring has created massive salary bimodality — top-tier companies paying 2–4x market rates for the same skills. This makes knowing your tier-adjusted benchmark critical.

This calculator uses industry-standard percentile benchmarks for 11 common roles across 5 experience brackets, 5 cities, and 4 company tiers. It gives you a P25/P50/P75/P90 range — so you can see not just whether you're underpaid, but by how much, and what you should realistically target.

Frequently Asked Questions

How do I know if I'm underpaid? +
Three signals: (1) You're below P50 in this calculator for your role/city/experience/tier. (2) Recruiter inbound offers are consistently 20%+ higher than your current salary. (3) Peers with similar experience at similar companies are earning more (LinkedIn salary insights, Glassdoor, Levels.fyi, AmbitionBox are good sources). One signal is anecdote. Two is a pattern. Three means you're definitely underpaid.
What's the best way to negotiate a salary increase? +
Preparation beats everything. Know your market number (P50–P75 for your profile). Have a competing offer or documented recruiter conversations if possible. Frame the ask around market data, not personal need: 'Based on market benchmarks for my role and experience in Bangalore, the range is ₹X–Y. I'm currently below that and would like to align to market.' Give your manager something to work with, not something to resist.
Is Glassdoor/AmbitionBox accurate for Indian salaries? +
Partially. These platforms are directionally useful but have biases: people with unusual (high or low) salaries are more motivated to report, creating skewed data. They also often lack the granularity needed (role + experience + city + company tier all at once). Use them as a sanity check, not a definitive source. Levels.fyi is more accurate for tech roles specifically. The best salary data comes from trusted peers in similar positions at similar companies.
When is the best time to negotiate salary? +
Three optimal moments: (1) At offer stage — before you accept a new job. This is when you have maximum leverage. (2) Annual review cycle — typically October–January for most Indian companies. (3) When you have a competing offer — even if you'd prefer to stay, a real offer dramatically shifts the negotiation dynamic. Avoid negotiating mid-year without a strong reason (promotion, significant scope expansion, or competing offer).
How much of a raise can I realistically ask for? +
Typical annual increments in India: 8–15% for meeting expectations, 15–25% for strong performance, 25–40% for promotion. If you're significantly underpaid vs market, you may need to ask for 30–50% — but anchor this in market data, not personal desire. Without a competing offer, asking for more than 30% is difficult. With one, asking for 40–50% is entirely normal and often granted to retain talent.