THE MINIMUM WAGE ACT 1948
In a labour surplus economy like India wages couldn’t be left to be determined entirely by forces of demand and supply as it would lead to the fixation of wages at a very low level resulting in exploitation of less privileged class. Keeping this in view, the Government of India enacted the Minimum Wages Act, 1948. The purpose of the Act is to provide that no employer shall pay to workers in certain categories of employments wages at a rate less than the minimum wage prescribed by notification under the Act. In fact the sole purpose of this act is to prevent exploitation of sweated and unorganized labour, working in competitive market.
The Minimum Wages Act, 1948 sets the framework of declaring the minimum wages payable for occupations, both in formal and informal sector
Minimum Wages
The Minimum Wages Act, 1948 safeguards the interests of workers by providing fixation of minimum wages mainly focusing on unorganized sector and in specified occupations (called scheduled employments) (Section 2 g). The act binds the employers to pay their workers the minimum wages fixed under the Act from time to time (Section 12). Owing to their jurisdiction the Central and the State Governments fix, revise, review and enforce the payment of minimum wages without any discrimination of gender (Section 3).
Hours of work and overtime
The Act also regulates the working hours and enforces overtime payment for working longer hours or on holidays / off days (Section 13, 14)
If the worker has worked lesser hours not due to own fault like coming late then also minimum wages has to be paid, because the employer has failed to assign adequate work (Section 15).
If the worker has worked lesser hours not due to own fault like coming late then also minimum wages has to be paid, because the employer has failed to assign adequate work (Section 15).
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