Turnover-linked levy could be fairer for gig workers than payouts

As India moves to operationalise social security contributions for gig and platform workers, a seemingly technical design choice could carry outsized consequences for different segments of the platform economy: whether aggregators should contribute based on annual turnover or on a percentage of individual worker payouts. A contribution mechanism for gig-worker social security that is linked to individual transactions rather than an aggregator's turnover could create a sharply uneven financial burden across the platform economy, hitting businesses built on high transaction volumes but low-ticket sizes especially hard, analysts and industry sources said. The Code on Social Security, 2020 requires aggregators to contribute to a Social Security Fund for gig and platform workers. Under the rules, a gig worker becomes eligible for benefits after 90 days of engagement with a single aggregator, or 120 days across multiple aggregators, in a financial year. Aggregators are required to assess .