Imagine this: Your boss asks you to work 70 hours a week (Hello, Narayana Murthy!) because, apparently, that’s what the nation needs from you. No, wait, make that 90 hours (Hello, SN Subrahmanyan!). You’re doing it for the country, after all! Now, let’s fast forward to payday – do you get paid for those extra hours? Spoiler alert: You probably won’t. Welcome to the great Indian corporate circus, where your hard work is “appreciated” with a pat on the back, but not a single extra rupee.
This ongoing debate about long working hours has taken a rather interesting twist, thanks to an IIT professor who has called out the glaring hypocrisy in all of this. Nirmalya Kajuri, an assistant professor of Physics at IIT Mandi, has pointed out the one thing our beloved corporate bosses conveniently forgot: overtime pay.

He took to X to write how if India strictly implements a policy that demands extra pay for 40+ hours of work a week, bosses will start advocating for work-life balance.
If India strictly implements overtime pay for 40+ hours of work per week, all the corporate bosses who are now advocating that employees work 70-90 hours a week will become the biggest champions of work-life balance
— Nirmalya Kajuri (@Kaju_Nut) January 11, 2025
Believe it or not, India does have laws to protect employees from being overworked like machines. According to the Shops and Establishments Act, if you work over 48 hours a week, you are supposed to get overtime pay. The law varies by state, but the principle remains the same: extra work = extra pay.

But here’s the kicker – this law is rarely enforced. So, while your peers in the US, Europe, or even China are raking in overtime money for working beyond 40 hours, you’re burning the midnight oil for free.
You are wrong. In US, Europe, China etc you get overtime pay for 40+ hours of work in any line. In India also, there is provision of overtime pay(typically for 48+ hours) for white collar employees under the Shops and Establishment act. But this law varies from state to state and…
— Nirmalya Kajuri (@Kaju_Nut) January 12, 2025
Several people online agreed with what Kajuri had to say. In fact, if we were to get extra pay for the extra time we put into work, we wouldn’t be complaining of long hours as well. We can work long hours, as long as we are compensated fairly for it.
The day we have stringent labour regulations including work hours, compensation & overtime. These same people will preach about work life balance.
— Sougat Chakraborty (@sougat18) January 12, 2025
And most of the employees who are detesting these bosses will happily work 70-hours a week.
— Dr. Bhumica Agarwal (@imahappysoul12) January 12, 2025
If there are more entrepreneurs running profitable businesses, who implement this in their companies, they can draw all the talent to their companies forcing others also to comply.
— Devendra Mahra (@devendrasm) January 12, 2025
Yup that is what they do, when they want to stop overtime. They will say work life balance is important 😆
— Rohan Raje Khanapurkar (@RRKhanapurkar) January 12, 2025
That’s an interesting point! If overtime pay is enforced, it could push corporate leaders to reconsider their stance on long work hours. After all, balancing profitability and employee well-being is key. Would definitely shift the dynamics!
— Agam Chaudhary 🙌 (@mail4agam) January 12, 2025
Be it Murthy or Subrahmanyan, neither of them said a word about overtime pay. Because why compensate employees when you can just slap a “for the greater good” label on it and call it a day?