Zomato’s Deepinder Goyal’s 5 points on gig workers’ salaries, 10-minute delivery pressure: ‘Hardest challenge is…’

Deepinder Goyal, Founder and Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of Zomato, shared a five-point statement about X in defense of the gig working model. In a post on X on Friday, he explained how the business model works and why the promise of 10-minute delivery doesn’t put pressure on gig workers.

Amid mounting criticism, Goyal also explained why benefits for full-time employees like PF or guaranteed salaries for gig roles are not in line with the purpose for which the model was created.

Here is Deepinder Goyal’s full statement

1. Goyal reported that the average earnings per hour (EPH), excluding tips, for a delivery partner at Zomato in 2025 was: ₹102. This number in 2024 ₹92. “This is a ~10.9% annual increase. Over a longer horizon, EPH also showed steady growth,” he said.

He also said delivery partners earn 100 percent of the tips customers give. “The average tip per hour on Zomato in 2025 was INR 2.6 and 2.4 INR per hour in 2024. Tips are transferred instantly with zero disruption… About 5% of orders are tipped on Zomato and 2.5% on Blinkit,” he added.

Also Read | Deepinder Goyal reveals average revenue of Zomato delivery partners

2. “Our delivery partners are not overworked on our platforms,” Goyal said, explaining why demanding benefits for full-time employees like PF or guaranteed salaries for job roles is “not fit for purpose of the model.”

The average delivery partner at Zomato in 2025 will work 38 days a year and seven hours a day, which “reflects true concert-style engagement rather than fixed schedules,” Zomato CEO said. Only 2.3% of partners work more than 250 days a year, he said.

He also clarified that delivery partners are not assigned shifts or geographies. They determine when to check in and out and their workspace in a particular city. “Partners also have the freedom to add or remove workspace of their choice based on their preferences,” he said.

Also Read | Deepinder Goyal responds to Dhruv Rathee’s comment on gain sharing

“When a partner chooses to join a job, the only expectation is availability for the duration of that job; beyond that there is no obligation to participate,” he said. “This demonstrates that the job is a reliable source of secondary income for delivery partners, accessible 365 days a year. It is used as a flexible, temporary earning option, not a long-term dependency.”

3. In his third point, Goyal explained why the 10-minute promise of fast trading does not put pressure on gig workers or lead to unsafe driving.

“The most common concern is that promises of faster delivery translate into pressure on delivery partners to drive unsafely. The system doesn’t work that way.”

“First of all, delivery partners are not shown time promises to the customer. There is no “10-minute timer” or countdown in the delivery app,” Goral said.

“Deliveries of 10 minutes or faster are mainly due to our stores being closer to customers, not due to higher speeds on the road.”

But he said: “I recognize that road safety remains one of the toughest challenges in any logistics ecosystem. This needs to be solved with shared responsibility between road builders, rule enforcers, customers and delivery partners, whatever the platform they work with.”

Also Read | Raghav flags ‘guiltless exploitation’ as Deepinder Goyal defends gig economy

4. Deepinder Goyal said Gig employees receive benefits and long-term support.

“Zomato and Blinkit in 2025, ₹Insurance cover for delivery partners is 100 crore. “These premiums are fully covered by us, and social benefits are implemented smoothly and at record speed,” he said, adding that the scope includes:

>. Accident insurance covered up to INR 10 lakh:

>. Health insurance with INR 1 lakh plus OPD cover of INR 5,000

>. Loss of wages insurance up to INR 50,000

>. Maternity insurance with coverage up to INR 40,000

5. Goyal said Zomato has also added other forms of support beyond insurance, where gaps are most visible:

>. 2 days of menstrual rest per month for the female birth partner

>. Support in filling out income tax returns (95,000 delivery partners benefited from this)

>. Access to gig-variant of the National Pension Scheme (54,000 distribution partners registered with PRAN under NPS, enabling long-term retirement savings)

>. Accident, vehicle breakdown, theft, etc. SOS Service for immediate support in emergencies.

Concluding his statement, Goyal asked the following question: “Now tell me, is this unfair? Especially for an unskilled job that is largely part-time and has zero barrier to entry.”

Assembly criticism

Zomato CEO’s statement comes at a time when several people are raising questions about the 10-minute delivery push on gig workers. Earlier, responding to popular YouTuber Dhruv Rathee’s question, Deepinder Goyal said that the company will publish a fact sheet on the average hourly earnings of its delivery partners.

Rathee had pressured Goyal to share the average hourly earnings of Zomato delivery workers. “Let people compare whether this is more than formal entry level jobs (sic),” Rathee had commented.

Former Jet Airways CEO Sanjiv Kapoor also asked Deepinder Goyal if deliveries should be done in 10 minutes. A system that delivers food in 30 minutes instead of 10 could provide a better balance between business employee safety and customer satisfaction, he said.

“Deepinder, what I’m really wondering is, do we really need 10-minute deliveries in our chaotic urban conditions, except for medical emergencies? Would a 30-minute or 1-hour delivery (without needing a lot of pressure and speed) be the end of the world?” Sanjiv Kapoor shared a post on X.