The Central government is mulling a revision in the formula to calculate minimum wages that may increase income levels of workers across the country.
The Central Advisory Committee on Minimum Wages, headed by Labour and Employment Minister Bandaru Dattatreya, met here and decided to constitute a committee to deliberate the proposed changes in the calculation of minimum wages for workers.
“The laid down norms to fix the minimum wages is not commensurate for the present day workers. We have decided to constitute a committee to re-look at the norms for fixing minimum wages,” Mr. Dattatreya said here in a press conference.
He said the committee would deliberate upon the following factors while recommending a new formula for minimum wages — number of units per family, inclusion of dependant parents and “treatment of women and children at par with the male family member.”
Norms criteria
The norms for fixing minimum wages today are based on recommendations of the Indian Labour Conference in 1957. Under it, the minimum wage level for industries is fixed based on spending estimates for a working class family on 2,700 calories of food per person, 72 yards clothes, minimum housing rent and education and light and fuel. A standard working class family consists of three consumption units for one earner with earnings of women, children and adolescents being disregarded.
RSS-affiliated Bharatiya Mazdoor Sangh recommended the government to increase the total units for calculating minimum wages for a family from three to six, its organisation secretary (north-central region) Pawan Kumar said.
However, employer representatives, part of the Central Advisory Board, highlighted the inability to pay higher wage levels in case the formula for minimum wages is revised, a source present in the meeting said.
Mr. Dattatreya said the Union Cabinet had approved a labour code on Minimum Wages.