Parliament Question: Wage Rate of Women Labourers

GOVERNMENT OF INDIA MINISTRY OF LABOUR AND EMPLOYMENT LOK SABHA UNSTARRED QUESTION NO. 1387 TO BE ANSWERED ON 09.02.2026 WAGE RATE OF WOMEN LABOURERS

1387. SMT. JUNE MALIAH:

Will the Minister of LABOUR AND EMPLOYMENT be pleased to

state:

(a) the details of per day wage rate of women agriculture labourers in 2025;

(b) the details of per day wage rate for women non-agriculture labourers in 2025; and

(c) the details of the ratio of female to male average wage/salary earnings received among regular wage/salaried employees in 2025? ANSWER MINISTER OF STATE FOR LABOUR AND EMPLOYMENT (SUSHRI SHOBHA KARANDLAJE)

(a) to (c): The provisions of the Minimum Wages Act, 1948 have been rationalized and subsumed under the Code on Wages 2019, which has been made effective from 21.11.2025. The Code on Wages, 2019 empowers both Central and State Government as appropriate government to fix, review and revise minimum rates of wages for the establishments falling under their respective jurisdiction. As per Code on Wages, 2019, wages are equal for men and women.

Area wise Rates of Minimum Wages in the Central Sphere (as on 01.10.2025) is at Annexure. * *****Annexure Annexure referred to in reply to part (a) to (c) of Lok Sabha Unstarred Question No.

1387 for 09/02/2026 regarding “Wage rate of women labourers” raised by Smt. June Maliah.

Area wise Rates of Minimum Wages in the Central Sphere (as on 01.10.2025) Sr. Scheduled Category of Rates of Wages including V.D.A per day No. Employment Workers (in Rs.) Area A Area B Area C

1. Agriculture Unskilled 514 470 465 Semi-skilled/ 562 516 475 Unskilled Supervisory Skilled/ Clerical 610 562 515 Highly-skilled 675 628 562

2. Sweeping Unskilled 805 674 541 and Cleaning +

3. Watch and Without Arms 981 893 760 Ward (Upgraded to skilled with training) With Arms 1065 981 893 (Upgraded to highly skilled for supervision)

4. Loading & Unskilled 805 674 541 Unloading #

5. Construction Unskilled 805 674 541 ^ Semi- 893 760 632 skilled/Unskilled Supervisory Skilled/Clerical 981 893 760 Highly-skilled 1065 981 893

6. Workers 1.Excavation & removal of over burden with 50 meters lead/1.5

engaged in meters lift:* Stone Mines (a) Soft Soil 545 for Stone (b) Soft Soil with Rock 818 Breaking (c) Rock 1083 and Stone 2. Removal and Staking of 438 Crushing rejected stones with 50 metres lead/ 1.5metres lift *

3. Stone breaking or Stone Crushing for the stone size of category**

(a) 1.0 inch to 1.5 inches 3323

(b) Above 1.5 Inches to 3.0 Inches 2842

(c) Above 3.0 Inches to 5 Inches 1669

(d) Above 5.0 Inches 1372

7. Non-coal Above Below Ground Mines $ Ground {Rates of Wages {Rates of including V.D.A Wages per day (in Rs.)}including V.D.A per day (in Rs.)} Unskilled 541 674 Semi-skilled/Unskilled 674 805 Supervisory Skilled/Clerical 805 938 Highly-skilled 938 1048 * Per 2.831 cubic meters or 100 cubic feet ** Per truck load of 5.662 cubic meters or 200 cubic feet + Employees engaged in the employment of Sweeping and Cleaning excluding Activities prohibited under the Employment of Manual Scavengers and Construction of Dry Latrines

(Prohibition) Act, 1993. # Employees engaged in the employment of Loading and Unloading in (i) Goods Sheds, Parcel Offices of Railways; (ii) Other Goods Sheds, Godowns, Warehouses and other similar employments; (iii) Docks and Ports; and (iv) Passengers Goods and Cargo Carried out at Airports (Both International and Domestic).

^ Employees engaged in the employment of construction or maintenance of Roads or Runways or in Building Operations including laying down Underground Electric, Wireless, Radio, Television, Telephone, Telegraph and Overseas Communication Cables and similar other Underground Cabling Work, Electric Lines, Water Supply Lines and Sewerage Pipe Lines.

$ Employees engaged in the employment of Gypsum Mines, Barytes Mines, Bauxite Mines, Manganese Mines, China Clay Mines, Kyanite Mines, Copper Mines, Clay Mines, Magnesite Mines, White Clay Mines, Stone Mines, Steatite Mines (including the mines producing Soap Stones and Talc), Ochre Mines, Asbestos Mines, Fire Clay Mines, Chromite Mines, Quartzite Mines, Quartz Mines, Silica Mines, Graphite Mines, Felspar Mines, Laterite Mines, Dolomite Mines, Red Oxide Mines, Wolfram Mines, Iron Ore Mines, Granite Mines, Rock Phosphate Mines, Hematite Mines, Marble and Calcite Mines, Uranium Mines, Mica Mines, Lignite Mines, Gravel Mines, Slate and Magnetite Mines.

(Contd/-)Classification of Area AREA – “A” Ahmedabad (UA) Hyderabad (UA) Faridabad complex Bengaluru (UA) Kanpur (UA) Ghaziabad Kolkata (UA) Lucknow (UA) Gurgaon Delhi (UA) Chennai (UA) Noida Greater Mumbai (UA) Nagpur (UA) Secunderabad Navi Mumbai Pune (UA) AREA – “B” Agra (UA) Gwalior (UA) Port Blair (UA) Ajmer (UA) Hubli-Dharwad (M. Puducherry (UA) Corpn) Aligarh (UA) Indore (UA) Raipur (UA) Allahabad (UA) Jabalpur (UA) Raurkela (UA) Amravati (M.Corpn) Jaipur (M.Corpn) Rajkot (UA) Amritsar (UA) Jalandhar (UA) Ranchi (UA) Asansol (UA) Jalandhar-Cantt. (UA) Saharanpur (M.Corpn) Aurangabad (UA) Jammu (UA) Salem (UA) Bareilly (UA) Jamnagar (UA) Sangli (UA) Belgaum (UA) Jamshedpur (UA) Shillong Bhavnagar (UA) Jhansi (UA) Siliguri (UA) Bhiwandi (UA) Jodhpur (UA) Solapur (M.Corpn) Bhopal (UA) Kannur (UA) Srinagar (UA) Bhubaneshwar (UA) Kochi (UA) Surat (UA) Bikaner (M.Corpn) Kolhapur (UA) Thiruvanantapuram (UA) Bokaro Steel (UA) Kollam (UA) Thrissur (UA) City Chandigarh (UA) Kota (M.Corpn) Tiruchirappalli (UA) Coimbatore (UA) Kozhikode (UA) Tiruppur (UA) Cuttack (UA) Ludhiana (M.Corpn) Ujjain (M.Corpn) Dehradun (UA) Madurai (UA) Vadodara (UA) Dhanbad (UA) Malappuram (UA) Varanasi (UA) Durgapur (UA) Malegaon (UA) Vasai- Virar City (M.Corpn) Durg-Bhilai (UA) Mangalore (UA) Vijayawada (UA) Nagar Erode (UA) Meerut (UA) Vishakhapatnam (M.Corpn) Firozabad Moradabad (M. Warangal (UA) Corpn) Goa Mysore (UA) Gorakhpur (UA) Nanded (M. Greater (M.Corpn) Nasik (UA) Waghala Corpn) Visakhapatnam Gulbarga (UA) Nellore (UA) Guntur (UA) Panchkula (UA) Guwahati (UA) Patna (UA) Area ‘C’ will comprise all areas not mentioned in this list.

NB: U.A. stands for Urban Agglomeration. *****