Gujarat raises minimum daily wages by 25%, to benefit 2 crore workers

For skilled workers employed in municipal corporations and municipality areas, the daily wage has been raised by 24.63 per cent and the new monthly salary stands at Rs 12,324, from the earlier Rs 9887.8.

Similarly, the wages of semi-skilled and unskilled workers have been raised by 24.15 and 24.41 per cent, respectively. The minister said these groups of workers will now get monthly wages of Rs 11,986 and Rs 11,752, respectively. The last revision of minimum wages was done in December 2014, officials in the labour department told The Indian Express.

Outside the municipal corporation and municipality areas, the minimum wage for skilled workers has been raised by 24.42 per cent. Such workers will get Rs 12,012 per month.

Similarly, for semi-skilled workers, the hike is 24.41 per cent and the revised monthly wages stand at Rs 11,752. For unskilled workers, the hike is around 21.12 per cent and the new monthly wages stand at Rs 11,466.

The minimum wages will cover employees in 46 scheduled employments, including automobile repairing, bakeries, Cement prestressed products, construction, cotton ginning and pressing, dispensaries and clinics, drilling operations, electronics and allied industries, film industry, fisheries, hosiery, hospitals, oil mills, petrol and diesel pumps, pharmaceutical and engineering industry, plastics, powerlooms, textile processing, printing, public motor transport, pulp and paper, hotels and shops, tile manufacturing, sugar industry, Soap making, private security guard services, among others.

The government also raised the minimum wages for sugarcane workers by 100 per cent; from Rs 238 per tonne to Rs 476 per tonne. This is expected to benefit more than three lakh sugarcane workers in the state, the minister said.

Rajput said the government received 85 objections and suggestions from the industry with regard to the minimum wage revision, while it received five objections/suggestions from the sugar industry.

The hike in minimum wages for both the notified industries and for sugarcane workers is a welcome step. The hike for sugarcane workers comes after a long struggle. The draft notification for the hike for sugarcane workers was published in February 2021 and the government spent almost a year over it,” said Sudhir Katiyar, from the Majur Adhikar Manch, a body fighting for the rights of workers in the state.

Municipal corporation & Municipality areas