Minimum Wages

As per the Indian Constitution, ‘Minimum Wage’ has been defined as the level of income for skilled and unskilled workers which ensures a sustaining standard of living while also providing for some measure of comfort. A minimum wage not just supports the bare level of employment, but also seeks for viable continuous improvement. It aims at preventing exploitation of labour.

Under the Minimum Wages Act, 1948, both Central and State government have dominion over fixing the wages. The State governments fix their own scheduled employments and further release the rates of Minimum Wage along with the VDA (Variable Dearness Allowance). Wage boards are set up to review and fix minimum wages at specified intervals. The wage rates in scheduled employments differ across states, sectors, skills, regions and occupations owing to a lot of differentiating factors. Hence, there is no single uniform minimum wage rate across the country and the revision cycle differs for each state.

Currently, the number of scheduled employments in the Central sphere is 45 whereas in the States sphere the number is 1650 (when all states are counted). With effect from November 2009, the National Floor Level of Minimum Wage (NFLMW) was increased to revised from Rs 100/day (2007) to Rs 137/day. In July 2015 the National Floor Level of Minimum Wage was raised to Rs 160 per day. National Floor Level Minimum Wage has been revised again to Rs 176/day. The new rates came into effect from June 1, 2017.

Scope and Applicability

Minimum Wages Act was enforced to ensure the employers did not exploit employees with insufficient wages. The Act is applicable on all establishments, factories, place of business and industry types. Unscheduled industries are generally excluded, though a state can add a minimum wage for an occupation or specify it for a sector during a revision cycle.

Consequences of Non-Compliance

Under-payment and non-payment of Minimum Wage is deemed as an offence under the Central Act. The penalty may range from upto 5 years imprisonment and a fine of Rs. 10000/- (under Section 22 of the Act).

The Minimum Wage Act

The Minimum Wage Act of 1948, passed by the Indian parliament, fixes the minimum wage for certain ‘scheduled employment’ categories – which is applicable to the whole of India. The minimum wages given under this Act apply to both skilled as well as unskilled laborers.

Under the 1948 Act, a Tripartite Committee of Fair Wage was appointed that defined the minimum wage in India as a wage that must guarantee bare livelihood.

The term ‘scheduled employment’ means an employment specified in the list appended to the Minimum Wages Act or any process or branch of work forming part of such employment.

In India, minimum wages are not fixed for an industry in a state, if there are less than 1,000 employees working in that industry in that state.

India’s Supreme Court provides precedents in cases such as PUDR v. Union of India and Sanjit Roy v. State of Rajasthan, where it has stated that any wage below the prescribed rate breaches Article 23 of the Indian constitution. This means that a worker cannot be forced to work for a wage that is less than the minimum rate. If anyone forces him to work at such a low wage, it may be considered forced labor under Article 23.

Fixing the minimum wage – Labor law in India is a concurrent subject, meaning that it comes under the jurisdiction of both federal and state governments. As such, the ‘appropriate government’ fixes and revises the minimum wage.

For some specified types of employment, the federal or ‘central’ government is responsible (for instance, under categories mentioned in the Minimum Wage Act of 1948).

In all other areas of employment, it is the respective state government that establishes the minimum wage.

The wage rate may be fixed daily, hourly, or even monthly. In India, there are two methods for the fixation and revision of the minimum wage rate – the Committee Method and the Notification Method.

Committee Method – The appropriate government sets up committees and sub-committees. These committees hold enquiries and make recommendations for the fixation and revision of minimum wages. There are five Regional Minimum Wages Advisory Committees in India. Their aim is to bring uniformity in minimum wages of different scheduled employments.
Notification Method – The appropriate government publishes proposals in the official gazette to inform the persons who may be affected. The notification specifies a date that is at least two months away from the date of the notification. This is the date on which the proposals will be due for consideration. Before publishing these notifications, the government consults various committees and sub-committees.

Calculating the minimum wage rate – The determination of minimum wage depends on many factors. These include:

Level of income;
Paying capacity;
Prices of essential commodities;
Productivity; and
Local conditions.

Since these factors vary from state to state, across India, the rates of minimum wage differ as well. Further, the Indian Labour Conference of 1957 fixed certain parameters for the fixation of minimum wage.

At least 20 percent of wages must provide for:

Minimum food requirement: 2700 calories per adult (approximately);
Clothing requirements: 72 yards per year per family;
Rent: According to the minimum area provided by Government’s Industrial Housing Scheme; and
Miscellaneous expenditure: Fuel, lighting, etc.

Other parameters that must form 25 percent of the total minimum wage are:

Children’s education;
Medical needs;
Minimum recreation, that is, festivals or ceremonies;
Provision for old age; and
Provision for marriage.

Consequently, there are multiple rates of the minimum wage according to the respective type of scheduled employment and the class of work within that ‘schedule’ or sector, the age category (adults or teenagers or children), the skill and occupational position, and the location of the business.

Payment of Overtime (Section 14)

Section 14 provides that when an employee, whose minimum rate of wages is fixed under this Act by the hours, the day or by such longer wage period as may be prescribed, works on any day in excess of the number of hours constituting a normal working day, the employer shall pay him for every hour or part of an hour so worked in excess at the overtime rate fixed under this Act or under any other law of the appropriate Government for the time being in force whichever is higher. Payment for overtime work can be claimed only by the employees who are getting minimum rate of wages under the Act and not by those getting better wages.

Offences and Penalties

Section 22 of the Act provides that any employer who (a) pays to any employee less than the minimum rates of wages fixed for that employee’s class of work or less than the amount due to him under the provisions of this Act or contravenes any rule or order made under Section 13, shall be punishable with imprisonment for a term which may extend to six months or with fine which may extend to five hundred rupees or with both.

While imposing any fine for an offence under this section the court shall take into consideration the amount of any compensation already awarded against the accused in any proceedings taken under section 20.

It is further stipulated under Section 22A of the Act that any employer who contravenes any provision of this Act or of any rule or order made thereunder shall if no other penalty is provided for such contravention by this Act be punishable with fine which may extend to five hundred rupees.

Compliances under the Act

The establishment must ensure following compliances under the Act. These compliances are not exhaustive but illustrative.

The Establishment is covered by the definition “Scheduled Employment” with effect from ___.
The Government revised the minimum wages once/twice/ thrice during the financial year under reference and the Establishment has paid to all its employees minimum wages in accordance with the rates at respective point of time and at the respective rates specified in notification under Section 5 of the MWA.
The Establishment has issued wage slips to all its employees in respect of each of the wage period ____.
Where the services of any employee were terminated for any reason whatsoever, the wages were paid within two working days from the date of such termination.
The Establishment did not make any unauthorized deduction from the wages of any of its employees. Further, the deductions if any, made were within the limits of fifty percent (or seventy five percent in case of cooperatives) of wages earned by such employees during the period under reference.
Where the Establishment was constrained to impose any fine or deduct wages on account of damages caused by any employee, the latter was given an opportunity of being heard in the presence of a neutral person and was also communicated the amount of fine imposed or deduction made from the wages.
The Establishment has eight working hours per day, inclusive of half an hour of interval.
All claims under Section 20 of the MWA were paid within the time limit specified in the Order.

Maintenance of registers and records

Register of Fines – Form 1 Rule 21(4)
Annual Returns – Form III Rule 21(4-A)
Register for Overtime – Form IV Rule 25
Register of Wages – Form X, Wages Slip – Form XI, Muster Roll – Form V Rule 26
Representation of Register – for three year Rule 26-A {Section 18}

Section 18 – Apart from the payment of the minimum wages, the employer is required under Section 18 to maintain registers and records giving such particulars of employees under his employment, the work performed by them, the receipts given by them and such other particulars as may be prescribed. Every employee is required also to exhibit notices, in the prescribed form containing particulars in the place of work. He is also required to maintain wage books or wage-slips as may be prescribed by the appropriate Government and the entries made therein will have to be authenticated by the employer or his agent in the manner prescribed by the appropriate Government.

Code on Wages Bill

The Code on Wages Bill proposed by the Union government earlier this month will not fix a single national level minimum wage for the whole country, but will vary across states and geographies.

Labour Ministry officials said the wage levels would vary state-wise and in some cases, may differ based on geographies – coastal, hilly or plains. “India is a vast country with cost of living varying across states. We cannot have a single national level minimum wage. The Centre will fix different wages through a notification after consulting the Central Advisory Board,” said a senior Labour Ministry official. If the minimum wages fixed by the states are already higher than the ‘national minimum wage’, the states will not be allowed to lower their wage levels, according to the provisions of the Bill. The Code on Wages Bill combines four labour laws — Payment of Wages Act, 1936, Minimum Wages Act, 1948, Payment of Bonus Act, 1965 and Equal Remuneratiom Act, 1976.

Deciding factors – The Bill states that the state governments will fix their minimum wages keeping in mind “the skill required, arduousness of the work assigned to the worker, the cost of living of the worker, geographical location of the place of work,” among other factors. At present, various states are free to fix their own level of minimum wages as per the local conditions, cost of living and other factors.

Further, the Bill proposes that the minimum wages so fixed by the Central government be applicable to all employments covering both organised and unorganised sector. The present law, Minimum Wages Act of 1948, applies to employees working in 45 scheduled employments.

At present, the Centre has fixes a National Floor Level Minimum Wage – a non-statutory measure to ensure that states fix their minimum wages beyond this floor level. “This is one of the reasons why the changes to the minimum wage law assumes significance as through this Bill, the minimum wages set by the Centre will become statutory,” another senior Labour Ministry official said.

With effect from July 1 this year, the Labour Ministry announced a hike in the National Floor Level Minimum Wage from Rs. 160 per day to Rs. 176 a day and sent advisories to states for compliance. However, till April 1 this year, at least 11 States, including Andhra Pradesh, Gujarat, Arunachal Pradesh, Himachal Pradesh, Manipur, Nagaland, Tripura and Tamil Nadu, had fixed their minimum wage level below the National Floor Level Minimum Wage of Rs. 160 recommended by the Central government as on that date.

Regional Committees in India for Current Minimum Wages

Since the respective state governments have been empowered to independently fix minimum wages, disparities between wages in neighboring states are common. In order to reduce this problem and bring comparability the Central government has set up 5 regional committees (table below) for harmonization of minimum wages.

Region	States/UTs covered
Eastern Region (6)	West Bengal, Orissa, Bihar, Jharkhand, Chhattisgarh and Andaman and Nicobar Islands.
North Eastern Region (8)	Arunachal Pradesh, Assam, Manipur, Meghalaya, Mizoram, Nagaland, Tripura and Sikkim.
Southern Region (6)	Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka, Kerala, Tamil Nadu, Puducherry and Lakshadweep.
Northern Region (9)	Punjab, Rajasthan, Himachal Pradesh, Jammu and Kashmir, Haryana, Uttar Pradesh, Uttrakhand, Delhi and
Chandigarh.
Western Region (6)	Maharashtra, Gujarat, Goa, Madhya Pradesh, Dadra and Nagar Haveli and Daman and Diu.