'Gold up 56%, salary down 0.07%': Finfluencer says middle class left behind in India’s new wealth economy

Your salary feels stagnant? You’re not imagining it. Asset prices are leaving wages in the dust and that’s reshaping how wealth is built in today’s economy, says Akshat Shrivastava, founder of Wisdom Hatch, in a LinkedIn post.

“Gold, houses, stocks — all are growing faster than salaries,” Shrivastava writes. “Wealth is being built through financialization of assets, not through hard work anymore.”

Backed by hard data, the post outlines how wages have flatlined while asset prices have surged. From 2020 to 2025:

Gold rose a staggering 65% between 2020–2023 and another 56% in 2025 alone.

Stocks (Nifty 500) gained over 80% from 2020–2023, despite some volatility.

Real estate appreciated 30% between FY19–FY23, far outpacing average pay hikes.

Meanwhile, wage growth has remained muted or negative. According to official PLFS data, regular wages contracted by 0.07% during India’s 6.7% average GDP growth between FY22–24. High-paying sectors like IT and BFSI saw either wage freezes or low single-digit growth.

“People who invested in assets outpaced those depending on basic salary,” Shrivastava notes. The gap is even starker within the job market: employees with equity or ESOPs (often in startups or tech) are seeing significant wealth creation, unlike purely salaried workers.

Economists tie this trend to the financialization of the economy — where capital gains outpace labor income. As corporate profits and asset values soar, average paychecks lag, widening the inequality gap.

The value of Indian household holdings in equities and gold ballooned from $1.8 trillion to $2.7 trillion in just three years.