Labour laws in India have traditionally been governed by
multifarious and fragmented legislations, both at the central and
state level. With a view to harmonising and consolidating the
various legislations pertaining to wages, the Ministry of Labour
and Employment ("Ministry") first
introduced the Code on Wages Act in Lok Sabha on August 10, 2017,
which lapsed. The Code on Wages Act, 2019 was reintroduced in the
Lok Sabha on July 23, 2019 and gained presidential assent on August
08, 2019 after getting passed in both houses of the Parliament.
The Code on Wages Act, 2019 ("Code")
has unified and subsumed four different acts, namely the Payment of
Wages Act, 1936, the Minimum Wages Act, 1948, the Payment of Bonus
Act, 1965 and the Equal Remuneration Act, 1976. The
implementation of the Code is expected to have wide ranging
implications for a majority of industries and it is therefore
crucial to understand the key aspects of the Code and how they
differ from the
