New Delhi, July 18: Congress leader Jairam Ramesh on Thursday flagged the issue of “decline in real wages” and said that Prime Minister Narendra Modi has been delivered a “stinging rebuke by voters” in his efforts to reach “400 paar” in the Lok Sabha but the Budget offers him the chance to achieve “Asli 400 paar” of a nationwide minimum wage of Rs 400 per day.
Ramesh, who is also the party’s general secretary in-charge communications said that multiple data sources, including the government’s own official statistics, are unanimous in showing that workers can buy less today than they could 10 years ago.
In a statement, the Congress Rajya Sabha MP said, “A combination of slow wage growth and back-breaking inflation has caused an unprecedented decline in real wages (wages adjusted for price rise).”
Citing the government data of labour bureau’s wage rate index, Ramesh said that real wages for labourers stagnated between 2014 and 2023, and in fact declined between 2019 and 2024.
He further cited the Ministry of Agriculture’s Agricultural Statistics to claim that under Manmohan Singh, real wages for agricultural labourers grew at 6.8 per cent each year, while under Modi, real wages for agricultural labourers declined by minus 1.3 per cent each year.
He also cited Periodic Labour Force Survey Series and said that the average real earnings over time have stagnated between 2017 and 2022 across all employment types – salaried workers, casual workers, and self-employed workers.
He also cited data from Centre for Labour Research and Action to claim that real wages of brick kiln workers have stagnated or declined between 2014 and 2022
“Brick kilns involve intensive labour and are a low-paying work of last resort for India’s poorest,” Ramesh said.
To deliver justice to ‘Shramiks’, and to dispel this cycle of stagnant wages, the Congress had guaranteed a nationwide minimum wage of Rs 400 per day of work in its ‘Nyay Patra’ manifesto, he said.
“The self-anointed non-biological PM has been delivered a stinging rebuke by voters in his efforts to reach 400 paar in the Lok Sabha. The Union Budget offers him the chance to achieve what the INC has called Asli 400 paar. A nationwide minimum wage of Rs. 400 per day is an idea whose time has come,” he added.
His remarks came ahead of the Budget Session of Parliament commencing from July 22.