Parliament Question: Stagnant wages of unorganised workers

GOVERNMENT OF INDIA MINISTRY OF LABOUR AND EMPLOYMENT RAJYA SABHA UNSTARRED QUESTION NO. 4433 TO BE ANSWERED ON 02.04.2026 STAGNANT WAGES OF UNORGANISED WORKERS 4433. DR. ASHOK KUMAR MITTAL: Will the Minister of Labour and Employment be pleased to state: (a) whether recent economic data indicates that the real wages of informal and agricultural workers have remained entirely stagnant despite GDP growth; (b) the reasons for failure to periodically revise the national floor-level minimum wage to reflect actual, crippling inflation rates; (c) the details of decline in purchasing power and nutritional intake of daily wage earners during the last five years; (d) the measures to strictly enforce the payment of statutory minimum wages by private contractors in central infrastructure projects; and (e) the steps taken to immediately mandate and enforce a dignified, inflation-indexed living wage across all unorganized sectors? ANSWER MINISTER OF STATE FOR LABOUR AND EMPLOYMENT (SUSHRI SHOBHA KARANDLAJE) (a) to (e): “Labour” is a subject in the concurrent list of the Constitution of India. The Code on Wages, 2019, which came into effect from 21.11.2025, aims to universalize the applicability of Minimum Wages across all employments. The Code empowers both Central and State Governments as appropriate governments to fix, review and revise the minimum rates of wages for the establishments falling under their respective jurisdiction. The Code on Wages, 2019 makes the floor wage as a statutory provision to be fixed by the Central Government. The Code stipulates that the minimum rates of wages fixed by the appropriate Governments shall not be less than the floor wage. Contd..2/-::2:: The Government has undertaken a wide range of measures to improve wage growth, job quality, and income security, especially in the context of inclusive and sustainable economic development. These measures cover various development schemes for skill development, employment generation and expansion of social security. In the Central sphere, enforcement is done through the Inspecting Officers of the office of Chief Labour Commissioner (Central), commonly designated as Central Industrial Relations Machinery (CIRM) and the compliance in the State sphere is ensured through the State enforcement machinery. The designated Inspecting officers conduct regular inspections and in the event of detection of any case of non-payment or underpayment of wages/minimum wages, appropriate actions are taken as per law. ******