Wages Definition - Minimum wage - Fair wage - Living wage - Whitley Commission’s Recommendations

Origin of wage

Wage is a reward for the services rendered or remuneration for the work done and it is as old as the society itself. In the primitive days, wages were paid in kind, most common of them was grains and the food. But with the advent of industrialisation wages form a complex problem and in almost all industrialised countries it became a sensitive area of public policy. Very soon the quantum of wages assumed a common cause of friction between the employers and the wage-earners. Frequent disputes between employer and wage-earners resulted in strikes over the demand for wage-increase. The determination of adequate wages that should be justifiably payable to die workmen by the employer, was not merely an economic problem but a multidimensional phenomena, necessarily involving relevant factors like place ot industry, prices of the product, living standards, basic needs of die wage-earner and the governmental policy in a given society. The natural instinct of the employer to keep the wage-bill to a minimum and workers struggle to secure a wage-increase to meet both ends, created a chaotic situation which demanded an immediate State’s intervention to protect the weaker section of the society, namely, workers, in view of its low bargaining capacity.

Whitley Commission’s Recommendations

Whitley Commission, commonly called as Royal Commission on Labour was appointed during 1931-33 which examined various issues relating to wage-levels and reported on minimum wages, standardisation of wages, wage-incentives and suggested for collection of relevant wage-data to resolve the wage-determination. It also recommended a Minimum Wage fixation machinery for industries where workers are not well organised. The Whitley Commission also invited the attention of the Govt, towards certain unfair deductions made by the employers from the wages and emphasised the need to prevent them by recourse to necessary legislation. Thus the Payment of Wages Act, 1936 was enacted to incorporate the recommendations of the Whitley Commission.

The Payment of Wages Act, 1936 Section 2 (vi) "wages" means all remuneration (whether by way of salary allowances or otherwise) expressed in terms of money or capable of being so expressed which would if the terms of employment express or implied were fulfilled by payable to a person employed in respect of his employment or of work done in such employment and includes - (a) any remuneration payable under any award or settlement between the parties or order of a court; (b) any remuneration to which the person employed is entitled in respect of overtime work or holidays or any leave period; (c) any additional remuneration payable under the terms of employment (whether called a bonus or by any other name); (d) any sum which by reason of the termination of employment of the person employed is payable under any law contract or instrument which provides for the payment of such sum whether with or without deductions but does not provide for the time within which the payment is to be made; (e) any sum to which the person employed is entitled under any scheme framed under any law for the time being in force, but does not include -

(1) any bonus (whether under a scheme of profit sharing or otherwise) which does not form part of the remuneration payable under the terms of employment or which is not payable under any award or settlement between the parties or order of a court;

(2) the value of any house-accommodation or of the supply of light water medical attendance or other amenity or of any service excluded from the computation of wages by a general or special order of the State Government;

(3) any contribution paid by the employer to any pension or provident fund and the interest which may have accrued thereon;

(4) any travelling allowance or the value of any travelling concession;

(5) any sum paid to the employed person to defray special expenses entailed on him by the nature of his employment; or

(6) any gratuity payable on the termination of employment in cases other than those specified in sub-clause (d).

Meaning and Definition of Wage

In the ordinary language the term wages implies 'reward' to the labourers for the services rendered by them. It may be paid daily, weekly, fortnightly, monthly, per hour or per unit. Services rendered by the labourer include both physical and mental services.