Partner earnings rise 11% q-o-q, says Urban Company's earnings index for Q3

Urban Company (UC), Asia’s largest home services marketplace, has released the second version of the UC Earnings Index, highlighting earnings data for its service partners in India, for Q3 FY22.

UC in a blog post said its partners earned an average of Rs 297 per hour (up from Rs 287 per hour in Q2 FY22), net of commissions, fees, product costs and travel costs. Partner earnings grew 11 per cent quarter-on-quarter compared to Q2 FY22. The top 20 per cent of its partners earned an average of Rs 38,263 per month. The partners completing over 30 orders in a month earned Rs 30,455 per month.

“At our request, ( consulting firm Praxis Global Alliance) has also undertaken a benchmarking study, highlighting that on average, UC partners earn about 50 per cent higher monthly earnings than their offline counterparts, and almost 4x higher hourly earnings,” said Abhiraj Bhal, founder and CEO, Urban Company, on Twitter.

Hourly earnings for women partners on the platform stood at Rs 312 per hour, about 5 per cent more than the platform average. UC said it has also separately highlighted the earnings of our women partners in the salon and spa verticals. Since Urban Company partners are not its employees, are free to work outside the platform and work flexibly, the firm has also provided data points around earnings of partners who have completed over 30 orders in a month (Which represents about 50 per cent of its service partners’ available work time depending upon the category), and the top 20 per cent of partners.

Urban Company partners earned an average of Rs 297 per hour, net of commissions, fee and all associated product and travel costs. As partners do more orders on the platform and spend about 100 hours per month working for the platform, they see very healthy earnings of Rs 30,455 per month. The top 20 per cent of service partners earned Rs 38,263 per month net of all commissions, fee and associated costs. In Q3 FY22, monthly earnings on the platform were up by 11 per cent quarter-on-quarter over Q2 FY22. Additionally, the firm had requested Praxis Global Alliance to conduct a detailed, third party audit of the earnings of UC service partners, and benchmark them against earnings of other service professionals in the offline world.

In the beauty vertical in India (salon and spa services), Urban Company’s women partners earned an average of Rs 312 per hour, net of commissions, fee and all associated product and travel costs. Partners who did over 30 jobs per month earned an average of Rs 30,681 per month. The top 20 per cent of service partners earned Rs 37,357 per month net of all commissions, fee and associated costs. In Q3 FY22, monthly earnings on the platform for women partners were up by 7 per cent quarter-on-quarter over Q2 FY22.

What led to the 11 per cent increase in net monthly earnings? In Oct 2021, the firm launched a 12-point program with a focus on improving partner earnings and happiness. The firm said this 12-point program has been fully implemented and has played a key part in increasing partner earnings by 11 per cent in Q3 FY22, compared to Q2 FY22.

UC said all active partners on the UC platform in India are covered under our Group Life and Accidental Insurance cover, in partnership with insurance firm Acko. All UC Plus partners in India have access to additional health insurance benefits, which includes up to Rs 2 lakh in-hospitalization treatment, room and ICU expenses, OPD, medical equipment and 12 free online doctor consultations in a year.

“We offer the option of availing loans (facilitated by UC through NBFCs) in the range of Rs 5,000–30,000 on our partner application),” said the company.

It said these are instantaneous loans that can be processed in a single day. The loan amount depends on the category of a partner. “Since this is for emergency purposes, no questions are asked. So far, over Rs 2.7 crore worth loans have been disbursed in the past year, with a ticket size of anywhere between Rs 3,000 to 30,000,” said the firm.

UC's earning index has come at a time when it has been reported that the firm had recently sued its own women workers for protesting against what they allege are “unfair labour practices”. It has been reported that beauticians and hairdressers who are 'partners' of UC were protesting against low wages and high commissions.