Minimum Wage Hike

Flagging the issue of "decline in real wages", the Congress on Thursday said Prime Minister Narendra Modi has been delivered a "stinging rebuke by voters" in his efforts to reach "400 paar" in the Lok Sabha but the Budget offers him the chance to achieve "Asli 400 paar" of a nationwide minimum wage of Rs 400 per day. Congress general secretary in-charge communications Jairam Ramesh said multiple data sources, including the government's own official statistics, are unanimous in showing that workers can buy less today than they could 10 years ago. "A combination of slow wage growth and back-breaking inflation has caused an unprecedented decline in real wages (wages adjusted for price rise)," he said in a statement. Citing the government data of labour bureau's wage rate index, Ramesh said real wages for labourers stagnated between 2014 and 2023, and in fact declined between 2019 and 2024. He further cited the Ministry of Agriculture's Agricultural Statistics to claim that under Manmo

The revision includes an increase in the National Pension System (NPS) contribution to 14 per cent from 10 per cent for nearly 24,000 employees

State Bank of India, which saw a sharp 35 per cent fall in its December quarter net profit due to a one-time expenditure towards increased salaries and pensions, said the burden will jump to around Rs 26,000 crore by March this year. The country's largest lender on Saturday reported a steep decline of 35 per cent in its net income at Rs 9,164 crore during October-December 2023 compared to Rs 14,205 crore profit recorded in the corresponding period a year ago and Rs 14,330 crore earned in the preceding quarter. The public sector lender attributed the fall in profit to the additional provision of Rs 7,100 crore made in the reporting quarter towards salaries and pensions arising out of the 17 per cent wage hike settlement reached with employee unions in November last year. The revises wages are effective from November 2022. Explaining the impact of the wage hike settlement, chairman Dinesh Kumar Khara said, "Of the Rs 7,100 crore total provisions made in the December quarter, Rs 5,400

The spike was largely driven by an increase in fuel prices after the end of the temporary cut in the government's fuel excise tax

The Punjab government had hiked the dearness allowance component of the minimum wage by over four per cent on May 1

Minimum wages should meet present-day requirements

Around 55 lakh workers in the city will benefit from the increased minimum wages that have been notified by the Delhi government following the Supreme Court's recent order

It contains numerous positive elements, such as introduction of a statutory national floor-level minimum wage for the first time in India, but it has missed an opportunity to do more

Many questions about the state govt's minimum wage increase