| Call it a sign of the shortage of highly skilled labour, or a sign of the aam aadmi getting left out of the gains from economic reforms, but the World Bank's latest Development Policy Review on India points out that the absolute wage gains are the highest in the top ten per cent (tenth decile) of the country's work force. So, according to the Bank, while the lowest ten per cent (first decile) of the work force got a real increase of just Rs 5 per day (in 1993-94 rupees), the typical (median) worker got around Rs 10, the wage increase for the tenth decile was as high as Rs 90 per day (in 1993-94 rupees) between 1993-94 and 1999-2000. While the UPA lot will cite this as proof that economic reforms benefitted only the rich, this is hardly unusual since, as the top 10 per cent have higher absolute wages to begin with, they're also likely to get the highest absolute hikes. In relative terms, the lowest ten per cent of workers saw a hike of around 5 per cent per annum between 1993-94 and 1999-00 or Phase I of the reforms period (it was 3 per cent in 1983 to 1993-94 or pre-reforms period). From the second to the seventh decile, the increase in wage levels fell in the reforms period; while for the 9th decile, wages rose around 4 per cent per annum, and for the top decile they rose by over 5 per cent. |
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