Ministry of Labour on Wednesday released a new series of Wage Rate Index (WRI) with base year 2016, being compiled and maintained by the Labour Bureau, an attached office of the ministry.
The new series of WRI with base 2016=100 will replace the old series with base 1963-65, a labour ministry statement said.
The government periodically revises the base year for major economic indicators to reflect the changes in the economy and to capture the wage pattern of workers, it said.
Thus, as per the recommendations of International Labour Organization, National Statistical Commission etc, the base year of WRI numbers has been revised from 1963-65 to 2016 by the Labour Bureau to enhance the coverage and to make index more representative.
The new series of WRI has increased the scope and coverage in terms of number of industries, sample size, occupations under selected industries, weightage of industries etc.
Professor S P Mukherjee and other members of the expert group on Minimum Wages & National Floor Wages were of the opinion that this base revision of WRI will play a critical role in coming out with minimum wages and national floor wages along with other parameters which will be decided in due course of time by the expert group.
The new WRI series would be compiled twice a year on point-to-point half-yearly basis, as on January 1 and July 1 of every year.
The weighting diagram in the new WRI series has been prepared from the results of the Occupational Wage Survey (seventh) round.
Total 37 industries have been covered in the new WRI basket as against 21 industries in the 1963-65 series.
