New Delhi: Centre government is considering raising the minimum wages to Rs 15,000 across all the industry sectors in the country. The BJP led government's act will effectively double the income of workers across 45 industry verticals covered under the National Minimum Wages Act 1948.
The Labour ministry is all set hold a meeting with state government officials to seek consensus on the amendments required in the law. A group of ministers is already working on the details of the act along with the officials of the state government.
“The amendment to the Minimum Wages Act will include a provision that would make the national rates binding on the states, rather than being merely advisory, as is the case now,” said Arun Kumar Sinha, additional secretary (labour), in an interview to The Sunday Express.
Government officials sound optimistic about this new proposed concept and said the higher but flat floor of minimum wages will have a national footprint like the GST.
But on the hind sight specialists in the labour sector, did not sound too much optimistic about the changes. According to them the implementation of the law will be the biggest challenge for the government.
It is worth a mention that the government has already steered two labour bills through parliament since it came to power. The revisions will also be in sync with the government's revised poverty threshold estimate.
According to the data available minimum daily wages vary from state to state for example the a worker earns around Rs 241 daily in Haryana while in Nagaland it falls to Rs 110.
