ILO report on Wage Inequality in India: The International Labour Organisation (ILO), the United Nation agency dealing with labour problems and minimum wages for workers of the world. There are 186 member states in the ILO. Recently, ILO published a report on Monday on the increasing and consistent wage inequality of Indian. In recent 2 decades, the real average daily wage has shown a 92% increase (absolute terms) from 1994 to 2012. But, the low payment than international standards and wage inequality still remains the crucial issues.

Basic Data on Wage Inequality in India

The ILO strongly decided to implement the minimum wage laws for the just society. There is greater need to bridge the gap of wage difference between urban and rural, male and female and, regular and casual labours. In 2011-12, an urban worker (Rs384 daily wages) still earned more than twice of a rural worker (Rs175 daily wages). While the gender wage gap on the decline from 48% in 1993-94 to 34% in 2011-12. But, still, the wage gap between the gender is huge, still above the global average of 23%. Almost, in 2009-10, 33% of wage labour earn less than the national minimum wage. Also, 41% of the casual labours and 15% of regular workers get less than the national minimum wage of India.

Employment and Unemployment Survey (EUS) of the National Sample Survey Office (NSSO) was the major source of data for ILO. In the case of wage inequality in different states of India, wages increased more rapidly in high-wage states than in the lower one. Unfortunately, the major victim of this wage inequality is the casual rural female workers, whose daily salary is only Rs104. So, there is a need for synergy between government agencies, academic institutions and expert groups to overcome this increasing wage inequality. At last, ILO should work in coordination with the national government for proper implementation of their standards. So, ILO report on Wage Inequality in India is very relevant and significant.