The central government has announced a revision in minimum wage rates by adjusting the Variable Dearness Allowance (VDA).
- After the revision, unskilled workers in construction, sweeping, cleaning, and loading and unloading in area “A” will receive Rs 783 per day (Rs 20,358 per month), while semi-skilled workers will earn Rs 868 per day (Rs 22,568 per month).
- Skilled and clerical workers, along with watch and ward staff without arms, will be paid Rs 954 per day (Rs 24,804 per month), and highly skilled workers, including watch and ward staff with arms, will receive Rs 1,035 per day (Rs 26,910 per month).
About Minimum Wages
- Under the provisions of the Minimum Wages Act, 1948, both the central and state governments are empowered to fix, review and revise floor wages of workers employed in sectors that fall under their jurisdictions.
- Minimum wage rates are structured according to workers’ skill levels—unskilled, semi-skilled, skilled, and highly skilled—as well as the geographical classification of areas into A, B, and C.
- The central government revises the VDA twice a year, effective from April 1 and October 1, based on the six-month average increase in the Consumer Price Index for industrial workers.
- A minimum or floor wage, the lowest remuneration that employers must pay workers, is protected by law and cannot be overturned by individual or exclusive contracts.
- The appropriate Governments have also been empowered to notify any employment in the schedule where the number of employees is 1000 or more and fix the rates of minimum wages in respect of the employees employed therein.
- There are 45 scheduled employments in the Central Sphere while in the State Sphere the number of such employments is as many as 1679.
- The Minimum Wages Act does not provide for any discrimination between male and female workers or different minimum wages for them.
- All the provisions of the Act equally apply to both male and female workers.
