Odisha Govt Hikes Daily Wage Of Labourers

Bhubaneswar: The Odisha government on Tuesday revised the pay structure of the labourers with a hike in their daily wage.

In a notification by Labour and ESI department, the daily wage of the unskilled labourers has been hiked to Rs 280 from Rs 200 while semi-skilled labourers will get Rs 320 as against Rs 220 they were receiving earlier.

Similarly, the daily wage of the skilled labourers has been raised from Rs 240 to Rs 370 while for the highly skilled workers, it has been fixed at Rs 430 as against Rs 260, the notification added.

This revision has been made after three years and the rate of inflation, increase in the Consumer Price Index, prevailing rates in the market and prevailing minimum wages in the neighbouring states have been taken into account by the State Minimum Wages Advisory Board as well as the state government.

These revised minimum wage rates are comparable and at par with minimum wages prescribed in neighbouring states. This is expected to check distress migration in respect of such workers migrating in the hope of getting higher wages in other states.

The state government has been providing focused attention and efforts towards skilling. Taking into consideration, the need to incentivize skilling, the minimum wages for skilled and highly skilled categories have been given major hike bringing them to the top bracket of minimum wages among various states of the country.

The Variable Dearness Allowance (VDA) will be revised every six months, in the interest of the labourers.

The employees working in minor ports will now get the benefit of the revised minimum wages, as ‘minor ports’ have been ceded to the list of scheduled employments.