Govt to hike minimum wages: Labour Secy

New Delhi, November 26

The government will enhance minimum wages and make it mandatory across the country to boost demand of goods and services for pushing economic growth and creating jobs, Labour Secretary Shankar Aggarwal today said.

“We will create a law to give certain minimum wages across the country in all trades and not only in scheduled employments (as per existing law),” he said while addressing at a conference organised by CII here.

He further said, “We will increase the wages under the Minimum Wage Act so that workers have decent wages aligned with inflation and have some money to buy goods and services.”

Aggarwal is of the view that the economic growth can be boosted by creating jobs and for that there is need of creating demand of goods and services for increasing manufacturing and other economic activities.

“For creating jobs, we need to create demand for goods and services. But it would happen only when there is money in the pocket of buyers,” he said.

In the present scenario, labour is under the concurrent list of the Constitution. The Centre as well as the states fix minimum wages for skilled, semi-skilled and unskilled workers in their jurisdiction.

Trade unions have been demanding for a minimum wage of Rs 15,000 per month across the board which should be applicable in the entire country. — PTI