Exclusive: Ixigo slashes salary across all levels, leadership team takes 60% cut

Online travel startup Ixigo has slashed salaries of its 170-strong workforce across all levels by about 20 to 60% as it looks to conserve cash due to the COVID-19 pandemic, according to three Entrackr sources. Employees with annual pay packages of under Rs 7-8 lakh have witnessed a cut of about 20% while mid-level employees have been asked to take up to a 35% reduction, said one of the people cited above. 

“As for senior-level executives and the leadership team, they have had their pay reduced by 50-60%,” added the same person, requesting anonymity. 

This comes just days after another online travel company — MakeMyTrip — cut salaries of its employees and holiday packages-centred marketplace TravelTriangle laid off 300 employees. 

Ixigo, however, isn’t laying off employees at the moment. Sources say that the company’s decision to reduce salaries took place just a few days ago. 

Confirming the development to Entrackr, Aloke Bajpai, co-founder and CEO of Ixigo said, “Esops will be issued against pay cuts. Rajnish and I have decided to not take our salary until the business comes back on track.” 

He further added that taking pay cuts was a unanimous decision with all employees rallying around the cause and volunteering for it. 

While every kind of trade and business has taken a hit as a result of Covid-19 pandemic-induced lockdown, travel-tech firms have been hit most. For these companies, the road ahead seems unclear with no certainty in sight — prompting them to prepare to keep their companies to cruise through the pandemic.

Apart from these companies, there are several other startup entrepreneurs who are consulting with their respective investors to stretch out their runway and figure out the path ahead. While salary cuts and lay-offs are inevitable across all sectors, employees and founders across travel, hotel and hospitality sectors are expected to suffer the most. 

Corrigendum: We have updated the story to reflect that lower-level employees will take a 20% pay cut, not 25%.