Work has a reality
that numbers don’t show.
Behind the Paycheck is an independent project designed to make employee-reported experiences easier to understand. We bring attention to the pressures people face in India’s IT sector—and the personal realities that salary figures alone cannot explain.
A salary tells you what someone earns. It doesn’t tell you what they’re carrying.
Why this exists
Employees may be dealing with loans and EMIs, family responsibilities, taxes, unemployment, layoffs, notice-period conflicts, immediate-joining demands, delayed offer letters, unpaid salary or burnout. Individual experiences can remain hidden. This project aims to make recurring concerns easier to see through transparent aggregate counts and voluntary stories.
What this site is — and isn't
This is a reporting and awareness platform, not a job service, counselling service, financial service or legal service. It does not promise to resolve individual cases. Its long-term ambition is to help make employee concerns visible to employers, industry groups and policymakers through evidence that is clearly described and responsibly presented.
How the numbers work
- Issue counts come from submitted reports where a contributor selected that issue.
- A single report can select several issues and therefore count toward several categories.
- Daily visit totals count page visits, not verified unique people.
- Submissions are self-reported and are not automatically proof of a claim.
- Visitors are self-selecting; results should not be treated as a representative survey of all Indian IT employees.
- Reports can be duplicated or inaccurate. Counts should always be read with these limitations in mind.
Privacy by design
No account, name, email address, phone number, profile or salary-slip upload is required. The application does not intentionally store IP addresses, use tracking cookies, or assign a persistent visitor ID. It stores the submitted story text, selected issue categories and submission time so reports can be displayed and counted.
Important: server hosting providers, reverse proxies, security services or infrastructure may independently generate technical logs. The operator must configure those services consistently with the privacy promise and applicable law. Do not include names, contact details, exact work locations, account numbers, confidential company material or any details that could identify you or another person.
Public submissions and safety
Submitted stories are public. Avoid posting identifying information, confidential information, threats, hate, or unsupported allegations about identifiable people. Public stories may be copied or saved by other visitors. A real public launch should include an accessible way to report a harmful post and request its removal, plus an operator-led moderation process.
Independence and impact
The goal is to make patterns visible, not to target an individual employee, employer or public official. Any report shared with companies, industry groups or policymakers should include methodology and limitations, suppress small or identifying details where necessary, and distinguish employee reports from independently verified facts.
Have an experience to share?
You don't need to create an account.