The Benefit Nobody Talks About
When companies want to show they care about their people, they usually reach for the same playbook, extra leave, free meals, work from home flexibility. These perks have become the standard language of employee-friendly workplaces. But Anupam Mittal, Founder and CEO of People Group and the mind behind Shaadi.com, believes there is one far more meaningful benefit that most employers completely overlook: paying salaries on time, or better yet, early.
In a widely discussed LinkedIn post, Mittal pointed out that the majority of Indian companies either pay salaries on the 7th of the following month or target the 1st which often slips to the 2nd, 3rd, or even 4th when a weekend falls in the way. For millions of working professionals, this delay is not just an inconvenience. It can mean a bounced EMI, a frantic scramble to cover rent, an embarrassing phone call, or half a workday lost sorting out a financial mess that should never have happened in the first place.
What Shaadi.com Did Differently
Mittal shared that Shaadi.com made a deliberate decision several years ago to move salary disbursement to the end of the current month itself, rather than pushing it into the next. His framing was simple and direct, this was not a perk being handed out. It was just common sense.
His argument cuts to the heart of how salary timing affects real people. For someone in a senior position with healthy savings, a week’s delay might register as nothing more than a line item in an accounting sheet. But for a large portion of India’s working population, that same week can trigger a chain of financial stress with consequences that ripple well beyond the workplace.
A Push for Twice a Month Pay
Mittal did not stop at end-of-month disbursement. He went further, suggesting that companies should consider paying employees twice a month, on the 15th and the 30th. He acknowledged that payroll teams might push back on this, but argued that in 2026, with the technology available to businesses today, running a bi-monthly payroll is far from a complicated undertaking.
The broader case he makes is compelling. When employees have more consistent access to their earnings, financial stress goes down. Fewer people fall into debt traps. Consumer spending becomes steadier and more frequent. The downstream effect, he argued, is a tangible nudge to overall economic activity, a win not just for the employee or the company, but for the economy as a whole.
Perhaps the sharpest part of Mittal’s post was his characterisation of the current system. He called India’s next-month salary payout structure a relic of the British era, an outdated practice that has lingered long past its relevance. He ended his post by directly asking employees to push their HR teams to move away from this model.
The post sparked significant engagement, with many professionals agreeing that salary timing is a deeply practical workplace issue that rarely gets the serious attention it deserves.
At its core, Mittal’s argument is about dignity. As he put it, for much of India, consistent cash flow is not a luxury, it is a matter of basic financial security and self-respect. If companies are serious about being employee-first, rethinking when they pay, not just how much, might be one of the most impactful changes they can make.
