Bengaluru/Mumbai, Aug. 22 -- India Inc is increasingly looking to smaller towns to power festive-season sales, stepping up hiring of gig and blue-collar workers for its busiest shopping period. But the hands it needs there for consumer, retail, logistics, dark stores and e-commerce firms still earn way less than their metro counterparts. The gap has indeed narrowed from around four years ago, but remains significantly high, even as companies struggle to find enough workers in these markets.

"In 2022, the payment gap between metros and non-metros (during festive season) was 38-40% and now it has come down to 25-30%, but remains significant. In the retail sector the disparity is about 28% and in dark stores about 25%," said Nitin Dave, chi...