"The proposal to amend the Minimum Wages Act 1948 is under consideration," Labour and Employment Minister Narendra Singh Tomar told the Lok Sabha in a written reply.
Under the provisions of Minimum Wages Act 1948, both central and state governments are appropriate governments to fix, review and revise mimimum wages of workers employed in the scheduled employment under their respective jurisdiction, Tomar said.
The appropriate governments have been empowered to notify any employment in the schedule where the number of employees is 1,000 or more in a state and fix rates of minimum wages in respect to employees employed therein, he said.
The rates of minimum wages fixed by central government are applicable to establishments under its authority, railways administration, mines, oilfields, major ports and corporations created under Acts of Parliament, he said.
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In the unskilled section of agriculture sector, rates of wages including Variable Dearness Allowance per day w.E.F April 1, 2014, are Rs 215, Rs 195 and Rs 193 in Area A, Area B and Area C respectively. Similarly for the highly skilled in the same sector, it is Rs 283, 262 and Rs 235 for Areas A, B and C respectively, he said.
He said that there were 4,96,416 beneficiaries under educational schemes in 2013-14 while the number of beneficiaries under group insurance scheme in the same period was 7,02,320.