The BJP government published an infographic on the 48-months portal that makes 3 claims about labour welfare under the present government. This article is a fact check of the claims. The BJP government published an infographic on the 48-months portal that makes 3 claims about labour welfare under the present government. This article is a fact check of the claims. Has minimum wage increased by 42%? The first claim is that ‘Minimum wage increased by 42%, directly benefiting 55 lakh workers’. The annual report (2017-18) of the Ministry of Finance states that ‘the employment sector in India poses great challenge in terms of its structure which is dominated by informal workers, high levels of under employment, skill shortages and labour markets with rigid labour laws and institutions. In this context, the Government has undertaken the exercise of rationalization of the 38 Labour Acts by clubbing them into 4 labour codes viz Code on Wages, Code on Industrial Relations, Code on Social Security and Code on Occupational Safety, Health and Working conditions’. This is still work in progress as the relevant bill has not been passed by the Parliament. The annual report (2017-18) of the Ministry of Labour and Employment states that ‘by simplifying, amalgamating and rationalizing, the relevant provisions of the minimum wages Act, 1948, the payment of bonus Act, 1965 and the equal remuneration Act, 1976. The draft code on wages bill, 2017 has been introduced in the Lok Sabha in August 2017 and referred to standing committee on labour’. The report also states that ‘the Minimum Wages Act, 1948 was enacted to safeguard the interests of the workers mostly in the unorganised sector. Under the provision of the Act, both the Central Government and State Governments are the appropriate governments to fix, revise, review and enforce the payment of minimum wages to workers in respect of scheduled employments under their respective jurisdictions. There are 45 scheduled employments in the Central Sphere and as many as 1709 in the State Sphere. The enforcement of the Minimum Wages Act, 1948 is ensured at two levels. While in the Central Sphere, the enforcement is done through the Inspecting officers of the Chief Labour Commissioner (Central) commonly designated as Central Industrial Relations Machinery (CIRM), the compliance in the State Sphere is ensured through the State Enforcement Machinery’. A response in Lok Sabha states that ‘according to the provisions contained in the Minimum Wages Act, 1948, the appropriate Government revises the minimum wages in all the scheduled employments under its jurisdiction at an interval not exceeding five years. Recently, Central Government has revised the basic minimum wages in January 2017 for Agriculture, Construction, Non-Coal Mines, Stone-Mines, Sweeping and Cleaning, Watch & Ward and Loading/ Unloading, after consultation with the Minimum Wages Advisory Board. However, in the Central sphere, wages are revised on half yearly basis effective from 1st April and 1st October every year by addition of Variable Dearness Allowance’. What this essentially means is that the central government can only revise minimum wages for employment under its jurisdiction. It cannot exercise control or revise minimum wages of any employments under the jurisdiction of the respective state government. The following table shows the differences between the last revised minimum wages of the UPA and the latest one of the BJP government. The comparison is for the semi-skilled (skilled workers are taken where the category is not existing) in A category places including the variable dearness allowance (VDA). While the central government exercises control over the eight sectors mentioned above, the states are responsible for a lot more. For example, in the state of Telangana , the Government of Telangana have fixed minimum rates of wages in (73) Scheduled employments under Minimum Wages Act, 1948 in which 65 employments (industry related) are covered under part-I and 8 (Agriculture related) Scheduled employments under part-II of the said Act. Presently, the wages have been fixed to each and every category under the above specific employments and as a result wages are fixed covering nearly for 20 to 40 categories of workers in each employment’. While this points to the fact that the claim itself is misleading, in the budget speech of 2019-20, the finance minister stated that ‘during the last five years, the minimum wages of labourers of the all categories have been increased by 42%, which is the highest ever’.