The government is working on a law that will seek to raise minimum wages in both formal and informal sectors as well as ensure that the higher wages are paid to workers. “We will increase the wages under Minimum Wage Act, so that workers have decent wages aligned with inflation and have some money to buy goods and services,“ Labour Secretary Shankar Aggarwal said at a CII event here.
Through an amendment to the Minimum Wage Act, the ministry can fix a mandatory minimum level of wages applicable across the country for all categories of workers. It will be benchmarked to inflation.
“We will create a law to give certain minimum wages across the country in all trades and not only in scheduled employments,“ Aggarwal said at the inaugural session of the CII National Conclave on Em ployee Relations.
ET had first reported on August 11 that the government may raise the minimum wages in the country by as much as 25% and also make them binding on all states, a move aimed at giving an indirect boost to the rural economy.
Aggarwal added that the labour ministry is conscious of the need to pay the minimum wages to every worker and that it has launched several initiatives to consolidate and rationalize the labour laws.
Since labour is a subject under the Concurrent List, both the Centre and the states fix minimum wages for skilled, semi-skilled and unskilled workers in their jurisdictions.
The ministry recently increased the national floor-level minimum wage to Rs.160 per day from Rs.137 with effect from July.This translates into a monthly salary of Rs.4,800 for an unskilled worker, but this is only advisory and not mandatory for states to follow.
Aggarwal said the government will very soon cover all workers under various social security schemes. The government is committed to ensure employment, wage and social security, he added.
The Economic Times, New Delhi, 27th Nov. 2015
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