White-collared Gig workers, who are basically professionals engaged in temporary jobs, typically in the service sector as freelancers or in knowledge-based roles, have lower retirement readiness than overall Urban India, a new Survey has found.

Such gig workers lagged with an index score of 46 against overall urban India’s index score of 49 (out of 100), the fourth edition of the India Retirement Index Study (IRIS) showed.  

Gig workers’ financial index lags 4 points behind the national average (48 vs 52), and health readiness is also lower at 44 compared to 46 overall. 

Gig workers feel less secure, with 76 per cent being highly worried about providing for their family’s basic needs during retirement — this is 70 per cent for the overall urban Indian respondents. Similarly, 77 per cent of gig workers are worried about providing for luxury expenses in retirement — this is against 70 per cent for overall urban Indian respondents. Also securing their children’s future is a major worry for 75 per cent of gig workers surveyed.

In this survey, the average age of Gig workers is 38 years. 

IRIS 4.0 was conducted by Max Life Insurance in partnership with KANTAR.

Overall urban retirement readiness at 49  (47 last year) has improved on the back of positive movement in the financial and health index, the survey findings showed.

IRIS Survey assesses urban India’s preparedness to live a healthy, peaceful and financially secure retired life. For the digital study, 2077 respondents were surveyed across 28 cities in India. Of this, as many as 271 were white-collared gig workers.

The latest edition introduces two new demographics– Double Income No Kids (DINKs) and Gig workers. Both exhibit varying levels of retirement preparedness.

While DINKs align closely with the overall Indian population, with an index score of 49 points, and demonstrate strong financial health, gig workers lag reflecting gaps in planning and confidence.

Prashant Tripathy, CEO and Managing Director, of Max Life said, “This year, we also focused on Gig workers due to the rapid growth of India’s gig economy, and found that they lag with lower retirement readiness. This signals a huge opportunity area to bring the cohort at par with the national average through focused interventions.” 

He said that DINKs showed stronger retirement readiness compared to gig workers.

Tripathy highlighted that the Gig Workers surveyed are white collared professionals and knowledge workers (average yearly earnings of ₹ 6 lakh) and not the blue-collar ones engaged as delivery partners by e-commerce or quick commerce platforms. 

Besides Gig workers and DINKs, this year’s IRIS also did a deep dive on National Pension System (NPS).

“There is a sharp increase in awareness of NPS. People understand NPS, but not well enough. They have heard about it. Nobody has come to them and told about it. Incentive is needed to create more awareness on NPS”, Tripathy added.

Women Lead the Charge 

A deep dive into the retirement readiness of urban Indian working women reveals a remarkable shift. They are now better than men by 1-point in overall retirement preparedness, boasting retirement index of 50.

“Working women had surpassed working men. Women are better everywhere in terms of starting early, looking after their health, saying that we are not dependent on children”, Tripathy said.