Forget toxic shortcuts

National minimum wage will murder formal job creation our youth need, corrode competitive federalism

The Ministry of Labour is clearly more ignorant than the young boy at a job fair in Gwalior who told us: “Give me a monthly salary of Rs 4,000 in Gwalior, Rs 6,000 in Gurugram, Rs 9,000 in Delhi, and Rs 18,000 in Mumbai; my bags are packed, so tell me where you want me to go.” The proposal for national minimum wages of Rs 18,000 is like the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme – a rigged benchmark – and will murder formal sector job creation by mandating wages not linked to cost of living. This decision is