Lakhs of workers in Delhi may not get a steep 46 per cent hike in minimum wages as promised by the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) government.
Fresh calculations show that the minimum wage rate in Delhi may vary from around Rs 8,828 to Rs 12,157 a month — much lower than the Rs. 14,000 a month proposed by the Delhi government earlier this year.
The minimum wage advisory committee of the Delhi government is set to meet on Monday to propose a fresh minimum wage rate for private sector workers after the previous plan was scrapped following a diktat from Lieutenant-Governor Najeeb Jung.
Mr. Jung had asked the Delhi government to reconstitute the minimum wage advisory committee even as the industry had approached him saying the minimum wage level had been over-estimated as the calculations were flawed forcing it to start the entire exercise of computing the revised minimum wages afresh.
Now, calculations based on the present cost price of essential items gathered by the committee from various markets in Delhi show that the minimum monthly wage rate may vary between around Rs 8,828 and Rs 12,157, depending upon the market rate of products taken into account.
The Hindu has reviewed a copy of the cost price of essential items gathered by the committee from at least six markets in Delhi on October 21.
Each State can fix its own minimum wage level for industries based on spending estimates for a working class family on 2,700 calories of food per person, 72 yards clothes, minimum housing rent and education and light and fuel, as prescribed by the Indian Labour Conference in 1957.
In its previous calculations, the Delhi government had taken the cost of food items based on government store Kendriya Bandhar rates to compute the minimum wage.
Back-of-the-envelope calculations show that the minimum wage, based on rate of food items at Kendriya Bandhar stores, may come out to be around Rs 9,780 per month this time. This rate is a notch higher than the present minimum wage of Rs 9,568 earned by an unskilled worker in Delhi. If the average of the cost prices of essential items from various markets is taken into account, the average minimum monthly income may be estimated at around Rs 10,000 a month.
While the trade unions are in favour of a hike in the minimum wages, industry has been arguing that present rates in Delhi are already 20 per cent higher than in its neighbouring states.
The re-constituted minimum wage advisory committee has held four meetings so far and is set to prescribe the monthly minimum wage in the final meeting to be held on Monday, sources present in the latest meeting held on October 25 said.
