Board proposes Rs16,200 as minimum wage for unskilled workers

The Sindh Minimum Wages Board has proposed to increase the minimum wage in the province for adult and juvenile unskilled workers in industrial and commercial businesses to Rs16,200 per month from the current Rs15,000 with effect from July 1.

According to a statement issued on Thursday, the board has also proposed a 15 per cent increase in the wages of skilled, semi-skilled and highly-skilled workers in 41 industries.

The enterprises in which the wage increase has been proposed include, auto workshops and garages, binding, brick kiln, bus body building, cement, ceramic, cotton ginning and pressing, chemical, construction, cycle, electric appliances, flour milling, food, furniture and word work, glass, hotel, iron steel and fabricated metal, machine made carpets, machinery, paints and varnish, paper products, petroleum industry, pharmaceutical, plastic, printing press, readymade garments, rice husking, road transport, rubber, silk rayon small units and power loom, soap manufacturing, sugar, tanneries, textiles, tobacco, transport equipment, beverage, hosiery, leather goods and footwear, ice and cold storage and dairy products industries.

The proposal has already been notified in the Sindh government’s Extraordinary Gazette dated July 9, the statement added. The board has set August 10 as the deadline to receive objections and suggestions from the relevant authorities regarding the proposal.

For pensioners

Moreover, the Sindh government has notified a 66.6 per cent increase in the minimum pension for the provincial government’s civil pensioners from Rs6,000 per month to Rs10,000 per month with effect from July 1.

The family pension allowed to the family of a retired Sindh government employee, under the Pension-cum-Gratuity Scheme 1954 and Liberalized Pension Rules 1977, has also been increased from current rate of Rs4,500 to Rs7,500 per month.

Meanwhile, for civil pensioners who are 75 years old or more on July 1, the rate of minimum pension would be Rs15,000. The rate of minimum family pension would be Rs11,250 per month for the family of pensioners of the Sindh government who are 75 years old or more on July 7 or who would attain the age of 75 years subsequently, under the Pension-cum-Gratuity Scheme, 1954 and Liberalized Pension Rules, 1977.