Viral ‘50 LPA poverty line’ post reignites debate over Bengaluru’s soaring tech salaries

A tongue-in-cheek post on X (formerly Twitter) has set off a spirited debate over whether Bengaluru’s flourishing tech ecosystem has inflated salary expectations to unrealistic levels. The viral post, which quipped that the “poverty line in Bengaluru starts at 50 LPA,” quickly captured the attention of tech workers, commentators and meme-makers, prompting a flurry of reactions that blended humour with hard questions about income disparity.

The original post by @arpit_vermaniac on X 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.”

What began as satire soon expanded into a broader conversation about compensation norms in India’s largest technology hub, with many users pointing out how dramatically social media narratives diverge from the realities of the wider Indian economy. One user attempted to inject perspective, noting that “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.”

Others leaned into the humour, escalating the sarcasm further. “Anything below 60 LPA in tech is peanuts. Those who earn below that shouldn’t even qualify for paying taxes,” one user joked, while another quipped, “Every Indian is middle class or poor on Twitter.” Some took a self-deprecating route, with comments like “You called me poor thrice,” and “Can millionaires survive in Bengaluru?” capturing the tone of the discourse.

This is not the first time the city’s compensation culture has stirred online chatter. Only a few months ago, another X post claiming that ₹50 LPA had effectively become the new ₹25 LPA in Bengaluru’s IT sector went viral, once again highlighting the widening gap between perception, aspiration and ground-level salary structures.