Minimum Wages as per Law
Minimum Wages Ordinance, 1961 & West Pakistan minimum wages for Unskilled Workers Ordinance, 1969. minimum wages Rules, 1962 have also been promulgated in accordance with the Ordinance 1961.
There exists a national minimum wage but as per information available at the Punjab government website, Punjab province also fixes minimum wage rates that differ between industries and skills. It is important to note that minimum wage announced by the government (whcih is currently PKR 7000) is for the unskilled workers. For skilled workers, minimum wage boards are formed which give recommendations for wage fixing in different industries.
As per Labour Policy 2010, there exists a national minimum wage. Section 4 of Minimum Wage Ordinance, 1961 allows minimum wage Boards, for each province, to recommend minimum wage rates for adult unskilled workers and juvenile workers employed in industrial undertakings. Section 5 of MW Ordinance gives the power to each province's MW Board to fix MW rate even for workers in industries where there is no effective regulation of wages. it fixes MW rates even for skilled workers. The list of industries covered also varies from province to province.The Government can fix the wage rate for skilled workers because Section 2(9) defines worker as "skilled or unskilled, intellectual, technical, clerical, manual, or other work including domestic work for hire or reward". So, it has the authorization to do that.
According to section 5 (3) of minimum wages Ordinance, 1961, minimum wages Board can fix minimum wages for time work and the time rates recommended may be on hourly, daily, weekly or monthly basis.
Nothing relating to number of hours is mentioned in the MW Ordinance, 1961. However, as per Factories Act, 1934 (Section 34 and 36), no adult worker shall be allowed or required to work in a factory for more than 48 hours a week or 9 hours a day.
Section 3 of the MW Ordinance, 1961 requires the provincial governments to establish a minimum wages board that will recommend minimum wage rates. minimum wages Board comprises of a Chairman, an independent member and one member as employer's representative and one as workers representative. All the members are appointed by the provincial government. Provincial government also have to appoint one member as representative of employers and workers each at the industry level
As per section 7 of the MW Ordinance, 1961, MW Board can review its minimum wage recommendations if there are any changes in economic conditions or the cost of living and further recommend it to Provincial Government.
in accordance with section 2(g), wages have both the fixed and variable components. These include dearness allowance, hourse rent, conveyance allowance, cost of living allowance and special allowance….all of these are variable components. Above these variable allowances, MW includes also the fixed allowances.
As per the section 7 of minimum wages Ordinance, 1961, no recommendation regarding review of minimum wages will be considered before 1 year and after 3 years. Only under very special circumstances revision of before a year can be considered. However, it is important to note that this is only for a recommendation that Board sends on its own to the Government. Government can send the reference to the Board anytime for revision of wages.
According to section 7 of the minimum wages Ordinance, 1961 minimum wage rates are reviewed if there is any change in the economic conditions or cost of living or other relevant factors. Cost of living here can be interpreted as consumer prices because whenever there was a change in level of consumer prices minimum wage rates were revised (raised). Economic conditions can be interpreted as decent living standards.