Chapter I — Preliminary, Definitions and Equal Remuneration

1. Short title, extent and commencement.—(1) This Act may be called the Code on Wages, 2019.

    (2) It extends to the whole of India.
    (3) It shall come into force on such date1 as the Central Government may, by notification in the
Official Gazette appoint; and different dates may be appointed for different provisions of this Code and
any reference in any such provision to the commencement of this Code shall be construed as a reference
to the coming into force of that provision.

2. Definitions.—In this Code, unless the context otherwise requires,—

        (a) “accounting year” means the year commencing on the 1st day of April;

        (b) “Advisory Board” means the Central Advisory Board or, as the case may be, the State
    Advisory Board, constituted under section 42;

         (c) “agricultural income tax law” means any law for the time being in force relating to the levy of
    tax on agricultural income;

        (d) “appropriate Government” means, —

               (i) in relation to, an establishment carried on by or under the authority of the Central
       Government or the establishment of railways, mines, oil field, major ports, air transport service,
       telecommunication, banking and  insurance company  or  a  corporation  or  other  authority
        established by a Central Act or a central public sector undertaking or subsidiary companies set up
       by central public sector undertakings or autonomous bodies owned or controlled by the Central
       Government, including establishment of contractors for the purposes of such establishment,
        corporation or other authority, central public sector undertakings, subsidiary companies or
       autonomous bodies, as the case may be, the Central Government;

                (ii) in relation to any other establishment, the State Government;

         (e) “company” means a company as defined in clause (20) of section 2 of the Companies Act,
   2013 (18 of 2013);

          (f) “contractor”, in relation to an establishment, means a person, who—

               (i) undertakes to produce a given result for the establishment, other than a mere supply of
       goods or articles of manufacture to such establishment, through contract labour; or



1.18th December, 2020—Sub-section (1), (2), (3), (10) and (11) of section 42 (to the extent relate to the central Advisory Board);
  clauses (s) and (t) of sub-section (2) of section 67 (to the extent they relate to the Central advisory Board); section 69 [to the
  extent it relates to section 7 and 9 (to the extent relate to the Central Government) and section 8 of the Minimum Wages Act,
  1948 (11 of 1948)], vide notification No. S.O. 4604(E), dated 18th December, 2020, see Gazette of India, Extraordinary, Part II,
   sec. 3(ii).
  21st day of November, 2025—Ss. 1 to 41, sub-sections (4) to (9) of section 42, ss. 43 to 66, sub-section (1) and clauses (a) to
    (r) and (u) to (zc) of sub-section (2) and sub-sections (3) to (5) of section 67, section 68, section 69, except the provisions of
    the Code mentioned at serial number 3 of S.O. 4604 (E), dated the 18th December, 2020, vide notification no. S.O. 5322 (E),
    dated 21st November, 2025, see Gazette of India, Extraordinary, Part II, s. 3(ii).




           (ii) supplies contract labour for any work of the establishment as mere human resource and
    includes a sub-contractor;

    (g) “contract labour” means a worker who shall be deemed to be employed in or in connection
with the work of an establishment when he is hired in or in connection with such work by or through
a contractor, with or without the knowledge of the principal employer and includes inter-State
migrant worker but does not include a worker (other than part-time employee) who—

          (i) is regularly employed by the contractor for any activity of his establishment and his
   employment  is governed by mutually accepted standards of the conditions of employment
    (including engagement on permanent basis), and

           (ii) gets periodical increment in the pay, social security coverage and other welfare benefits in
    accordance with the law for the time being in force in such employment;

    (h) “co-operative society” means a society registered or deemed to be registered under the Co-
operative Societies Act, 1912 (2 of 1912), or any other law for the time being in force relating to co-
operative societies in any State;

     (i) “corporation” means any body corporate established by or under any Central Act, or State Act,
but does not include a company or a co-operative society;

     (j) “direct tax” means—

          (i) any tax chargeable under the—

           (A) Income-tax Act, 1961 (43 of 1961);

           (B) Companies (Profits) Surtax Act, 1964 (7 of 1964);

           (C) Agricultural income tax law; and

           (ii) any other tax which, having regard to its nature or incidence, may be declared by the
    Central Government, by notification, to be a direct tax for the purposes of this Code;

    (k) “employee” means, any person (other than an apprentice engaged under the Apprentices Act,
1961 (52 of 1961)), employed on wages by an establishment to do any skilled, semi-skilled or
unskilled, manual, operational, supervisory, managerial, administrative, technical or clerical work for
hire or reward, whether the terms of employment be express or implied, and also includes a person
declared to be an employee by the appropriate Government, but does not include any member of the
Armed Forces of the Union;

     (l) “employer” means a person who employs, whether directly or through any person, or on his
behalf or on behalf of any person, one or more employees in his establishment and where the
establishment is carried on by any department of the Central Government or the State Government,
the authority specified, by the head of such department, in this behalf or where no authority, is so
specified the head of the department and in relation to an establishment carried on by a local
authority, the chief executive of that authority, and includes,—

          (i) in relation to an establishment which is a factory, the occupier of the factory as defined in
    clause (n) of section 2 of the Factories Act, 1948 (63 of 1948) and, where a person has been
   named as a manager of the factory under clause (f) of sub-section (1) of section 7 of the said Act,
    the person so named;

           (ii) in relation to any other establishment, the person who, or the authority which, has
    ultimate control over the affairs of the establishment and where the said affairs is entrusted to a
   manager or managing director, such manager or managing director;

           (iii) contractor; and

         (iv) legal representative of a deceased employer;

    (m) “establishment” means any place where any industry,  trade, business, manufacture or
occupation is carried on and includes Government establishment;




        (n) “factory” means a factory as defined in clause (m) of section 2 of the Factories Act, 1948 (63
    of 1948);

        (o) “Government establishment” means any office or department of the Government or a local
    authority;

        (p) “Income-tax Act” means the Income-tax Act, 1961 (43 of 1961);

        (q) “industrial dispute” means,—

               (i) any dispute or difference between employers and employers, or between employers and
       workers or between workers and workers which is connected with the employment or non-
       employment or the terms of employment or with the conditions of labour, of any person; and

                (ii) any dispute or difference between an individual worker and an employer connected with,
        or arising out of, discharge, dismissal, retrenchment or termination of such worker;

         (r) “Inspector-cum-Facilitator” means a person appointed by the appropriate Government under
    sub-section (1) of section 51;

         (s) “minimum wage” means the wage fixed under section 6;

          (t) “notification” means a notification published in the Gazette of India or in the Official Gazette
    of a State, as the case may be, and the expression “notify” with its grammatical variations and cognate
    expressions shall be construed accordingly;

        (u) “prescribed” means prescribed by rules made by the appropriate Government;

         (v) “same work or work of a similar nature” means work in respect of which the skill, effort,
    experience and  responsibility required  are  the same, when performed under  similar working
    conditions by employees and the difference  if any, between the  skill,  effort, experience and
    responsibility required for employees of any gender, are not of practical importance in relation to the
    terms and conditions of employment;

       (w) “State” includes a Union territory;

         (x) “Tribunal” shall have the same meaning as assigned to it in clause (r) of section 2 of the
    Industrial Disputes Act, 1947 (14 of 1947);

         (y) “wages” means  all remuneration whether by way of salaries, allowances or otherwise,
    expressed in terms of money or capable of being so expressed which would (42 of 2005), if the terms
    of employment, express or implied, were fulfilled, be payable to a person employed in respect of his
   employment or of work done in such employment, and includes, —

               (i) basic pay;

                (ii) dearness allowance; and

                (iii) retaining allowance, if any,

but does not include—

                 (a) any bonus payable under any law for the time being in force, which does not form
             part of the remuneration payable under the terms of employment;

                 (b) 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 appropriate Government;

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

                 (d) any conveyance allowance or the value of any travelling concession;

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

                     (f) house rent allowance;


                 (g) remuneration payable under any award or settlement between the parties or order of a
            court or Tribunal;

                 (h) any overtime allowance;

                     (i) any commission payable to the employee;

                     (j) any gratuity payable on the termination of employment;

                  (k) any retrenchment compensation or other retirement benefit payable to the employee or
          any ex gratia payment made to him on the termination of employment:

              Provided that, for calculating the wages under this clause, if payments made by the
          employer to the employee under clauses (a) to (i) exceeds one-half, or such other per cent. as
         may be notified by the Central Government, of the all remuneration calculated under this
            clause, the amount which exceeds such one-half, or the per cent. so notified, shall be deemed
            as remuneration and shall be accordingly added in wages under this clause:

              Provided further that for the purpose of equal wages to all genders and for the purpose of
          payment of wages, the emoluments specified in clauses (d), (f), (g) and (h) shall be taken for
           computation of wage.

              Explanation.—Where an employee is given in lieu of the whole or part of the wages
           payable to him, any remuneration in kind by his employer, the value of such remuneration in
           kind which does not exceed fifteen per cent. of the total wages payable to him, shall be
         deemed to form part of the wages of such employee;

         (z) “worker” means any person (except an apprentice as defined under clause (aa) of section 2 of
    the Apprentices Act, 1961 (52 of 1961)) employed in any industry to do any manual, unskilled,
    skilled, technical, operational, clerical or supervisory work for hire or reward, whether the terms of
   employment be express or implied, and includes—

               (i) working journalists as defined in clause (f) of section 2 of the Working Journalists and
        other Newspaper Employees (Conditions of Service) and Miscellaneous Provisions Act, 1955 (45
        of 1955); and

                (ii) sales promotion employees as defined in clause (d) of section 2 of the Sales Promotion
       Employees (Conditions of Service) Act, 1976 (11 of 1976), and for the purposes of any
       proceeding under this Code in relation to an industrial dispute, includes any such person who has
       been dismissed, discharged or retrenched or otherwise terminated in connection with, or as a
       consequence of, that dispute, or whose dismissal, discharge or retrenchment has led to that
        dispute,

but does not include any such person—

                 (a) who is subject to the Air Force Act, 1950 (45 of 1950), or the Army Act, 1950 (46 of
           1950), or the Navy Act, 1957 (62 of 1957); or

                 (b) who is employed in the police service or as an officer or other employee of a prison;
            or

                  (c) who is employed mainly in a managerial or administrative capacity; or

                 (d) who  is employed in a supervisory capacity drawing wage of exceeding fifteen
           thousand rupees per month or an amount as may be notified by the Central Government from
           time to time.

3. Prohibition of discrimination on ground of gender.—(1) There shall be no discrimination in an
establishment or any unit thereof among employees on the ground of gender in matters relating to wages
by the same employer, in respect of the same work or work of a similar nature done by any employee.

    (2) No employer shall, —

            (i) for the purposes of complying with the provisions of sub-section (1), reduce the rate of wages
     of any employee; and



            (ii) make any discrimination on the ground of sex while recruiting any employee for the same
    work or work of similar nature and in the conditions of employment, except where the employment
     of women in such work is prohibited or restricted by or under any law for the time being in force.

4. Decision as to disputes with regard to same or similar nature of work.—Where there is any
dispute as to whether a work is of same or similar nature for the purposes of section 3, the dispute shall be
decided by such authority as may be notified by the appropriate Government.

                            CHAPTER II

                              MINIMUM WAGES