Minimum Wage, Floor Wage, and the Politics of Conflation in Indian Labour Law Jurisprudence

Document Type

Research Article

Abstract

This paper examines the normative foundations and contemporary transformation of wage determination in Indian labour law jurisprudence, with particular focus on the introduction of the floor wage under the Code on Wages, 2019. Tracing the evolution of minimum wage regulation from the Minimum Wages Act, 1948 to the present Code, it argues that the minimum wage in India has historically functioned as a need-based, rights-oriented entitlement grounded in constitutional values  of dignity and social justice, rather than as a market-responsive standard.   The paper warns that conflating the floor wage with the minimum wage risks hollowing out decades of labour jurisprudence, and reorienting wage fixation toward empirically observed consumption patterns and poverty management. To address this, it proposes a “wage pyramid” framework that preserves the normative hierarchy between minimum, fair, and living wages, while deliberately locating the floor wage outside this structure.

Publication Date

2026

Journal

Labour

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