As per RazorpayX Payroll insights, 2025:
- Women’s representation in leadership rose to 22% as salaries for women leaders increased 17%, outpacing their male counterparts (4.5%) and narrowing the gender pay gap
- Compensation for middle-level employees increased by 18%, and leadership increased by 2.7%, indicating a greater emphasis on operational execution
INDIA, Bengaluru, 10th February 2026: RazorpayX, the business banking platform of Razorpay, launches the 2026 edition of the RazorpayX Payroll Report, ‘Show Me The Money’, observing payroll trends in the startup industry and their evolving workforce strategies from January 2025 to December 2025. The platform analysed payroll data of around 2 lakh employees across 6,500+ companies using RazorpayX Payroll.
The report highlights the growing influence of Gen-Z, the rapid rise of AI-driven roles, and the push towards flexible workforce models as companies rethink how they hire, manage, and scale teams. RazorpayX believes these trends are redefining the way Startups are evolving and are creating a disruption.
Key Insights from the Report:
- AI integration continues to drive change within the workforce. AI-powered roles have grown by 96%, with companies hiring for positions like “AI Engineer, AI Growth Specialist, AI Scientist, Chief AI Officer”. This reflects a broader shift where AI is being embedded across functions, allowing companies to scale faster with smaller, more specialised teams.
- Gen-Z now accounts for 51% of the registered workforce, continuing its steady rise and reshaping workplace expectations around flexibility, transparency, and purpose-driven work. This shift is also visible in functional choices, with the strongest Gen-Z growth in Sales & Marketing (45%), Finance (43%), and Logistics & Operations (42%), roles that are revenue-facing, decision-centric, and execution-heavy.
- The move toward flexible hiring is accelerating, not plateauing. In 2025, contractual and on-demand hiring grew by 20%, led by sharp increases in Business (58%), Sales & Marketing (53%), and Logistics & Operations (43%). What was earlier contractual hiring is now maturing into strategic talent-on-demand, as AI enables faster role matching, modular teams, and outcome-led workforce planning, pushing traditional hiring models toward greater flexibility.
- The report highlights a sustained push toward pay equity in leadership roles, particularly among smaller and early-stage startups. Women in the C-suite saw a 17% increase in salaries, up from 12% in 2024, while men in comparable roles received a 4.5% rise. This shift reflects early progress toward closing the gender pay gap within leadership, driven by more intentional compensation practices. At the same time, the average participation of women in the registered startup workforce remained at 31%, marginally lower than 32% in 2024. This structural challenge highlights that while pay parity is taking positive steps for women in leadership positions, expanding the pipeline of women leaders remains the next critical frontier.
- Salary growth in 2025 was driven largely by the middle of the workforce, with managers and individual contributors recording an 18% increase, reflecting a strong focus on strengthening the core execution layer.
Commenting on the trends observed, Ayush Bansal, VP & General Manager, RazorpayX, said, “What stands out in 2025 is not just how fast AI and Gen-Z are entering the workforce, but how decisively they are changing how companies operate. Startups are no longer scaling by adding layers; they’re scaling by building sharper, more specialised teams that can move faster and deliver more. At the same time, the improving pay trajectory for women in leadership shows that companies are becoming more intentional about how they reward and retain critical talent.”
Currently, 70 per cent of India’s unicorns use RazorpayX for smarter and faster financial operations. As businesses in India and beyond embrace AI-driven strategies, RazorpayX strives to be at the forefront, empowering thousands of customers. Strengthening its commitment to AI, RazorpayX has recently launched an AI-driven Know Your Payslip feature, where employees can ask questions about their payroll calculations, tax deductions, and salary components through a chatbot.
