Stories
Uber Engineer Pays Rs 92 Lakh in Tax, Gets Laid Off During Paternity Leave and Vows to Leave India
- •An anonymous senior engineer at Uber claimed on Reddit that he paid Rs 92 lakh in income tax in the previous financial year.
- •The engineer stated he was laid off during a four-month paternity leave while caring for a newborn baby with no family support.
- •He expressed frustration over struggling to find a new job paying Rs 90 lakh or more and complained about taxes on his severance pay.
- •The viral post has reignited discussions on high taxes, job security, and the lack of social protections for high-earning professionals in India.
Key Questions Answered
A self-described senior engineer at Uber shared on Reddit that he paid Rs 92 lakh in income tax during the previous financial year, only to be laid off while taking a four-months paternity leave to care for a newborn. Facing difficulties in finding a comparable role paying at least Rs 90 lakh and expressing frustration over taxes on his expected severance, he stated a desire to leave India.
While the senior engineer was laid off during paternity leave after hitting a high salary cliff, other Uber employees have faced job losses due to different circumstances. For instance, one engineer attributed his layoff to a brief period of lower performance after prioritizing his family during a company restructuring that cut 10 percent of the workforce, while another was let go just three months after earning a pre-placement offer.
Viral accounts from high-earning professionals experiencing layoffs—such as a techie who paid nearly Rs 1 crore in income tax over a 14-year career—have sparked widespread social media debates about the absence of unemployment safety nets in India. These discussions often contrast heavy tax burdens and living pressures faced by high earners with the public services and social security benefits available in other countries.
