The government said on Thursday that it will raise minimum wage rates by modifying the Variable Dearness Allowance (VDA) in order to help workers deal with growing living costs.
Workers, especially those in the unorganized sector, will benefit from the change. The new pay rates will help workers in a variety of industries, such as building construction, loading and unloading, watch and ward, sweeping, cleaning, housekeeping, mining, and agricultural in central sphere institutions.
On October 1, the new wage rates will go into effect. It was revised most recently in April of this year.
The skill categories (unskilled, semi-skilled, skilled, and highly skilled) and geographic areas (A, B, and C) are used to categorize the minimum wage rates.
According to the Ministry of Labour and Employment, after revision, minimum wage rates in area “A” for workers in construction, sweeping, cleaning, loading and unloading for unskilled work will be ₹ 783 a day (Rs 20,358 per month); for semi-skilled ₹ 868 a day (Rs 22,568 per month); for skilled, clerical and watch and wards without arms ₹ 954 a day (Rs 24,804 per month); and for highly-skilled and watch and ward with arms ₹ 1,035 a day (Rs 26,910 per month)
The 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.
Meanwhile, retail inflation for industrial workers moderated to 2.15 per cent in the month of July, as compared to 7.54 per cent in the same month last year.
The year-on-year inflation for June 2024 was 3.67 per cent as compared to 5.57 per cent in June 2023. The Consumer Price Index-Industrial Workers (CPI-IW) has been steadily declining since February this year and was 3.87 per cent in April 2024, figures compiled by the Labour Ministry showed.
The all-India CPI-IW for July 2024 increased by 1.3 points and stood at 142.7, from 141.4 in June.
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Source: NDTV
