New Delhi: The government will set up an advisory board to fix minimum wages for various sectors applicable across the country, a senior official of the labour ministry said. "The government would constitute an Advisory Board to fix the National Minimum Wages for employees and such wages differ and vary sectorally as well as regionally across the country as per requirements, skills and nature of jobs with the enforcement of proposed Labour Code on Wages 2017," Joint Secretary (Labour) R K Gupta said in a statement.
Addressing a session on Labour Code on Wages-2017 at PHD Chamber of Commerce and Industry here on Wednesday, Gupta clarified that the Centre has not fixed a National Minimum Wage for all employees as yet and reports appearing on Rs 18,000 per month minimum wage for employees are "incorrect". On fixing of national minimum wages, the official said the states and UTs will follow the advisory board's decision on minimum wages in their respective domain for employees "which can be even above such wages but certainly not lower than the fixed limit by the Centre".
Gupta also clarified that there will be quite a few national minimum wages for different sectors and even for different regions.