Ground realities

Minimum wages should meet present-day requirements

Three months after the Code on Wages, 2019, came into being, the government has come up with draft rules stating the manner in which the minimum wages will be determined. According to the draft rules released by the labour and employment ministry recently — Code on Wages (Central) Rules, 2019 — minimum wages should be set keeping in mind the needs of a worker’s family of three. It has prescribed that the minimum wage be fixed by determining the monetary value of net food intake of 2,700 calories per day for a working person and 66-metre cloth per year for