New Delhi: Retirement fund body EPFO’s payroll data suggests that as many as 47.13 lakh jobs were created during September 2017 to June this year.
However, the retirement body lowered earlier estimate of new members enrolment by 12.38 per cent, from 44.74 lakh to 39.20 lakh member for September 2017-May 2018 period.
According to the payroll data released by the Employees’ Provident Fund Organisation (EPFO) for September-May, as many as 44.74 lakh new member were enrolled for its social security schemes to provide benefits, including provident fund, insurance and pension.
According to the latest data uploaded today by the EPFO, the new members enrolment in June is the highest so far in the last 10 month at 7,93,308.
In June, the maximum number of enrolment of 2,53,466 were recorded in the age bracket of 18 to 21 years followed by 2,05,177 in 22 to 25 age group.
The data is provisional as updation of employees records is a continuous process and gets updated in subsequent months, the EPFO said in a statement.
It also stated that the estimates may include temporary employees, whose contributions may not be continuous for the entire year.
For each age-wise band, the estimates are net of the members enrolled and ceased during the month as per the EPFO records, it added.
The EPFO manages social security funds of workers in the organised/ semi organised sector. It runs three social security scheme Employees’ Provident Fund Scheme 1952, Employees’ Deposit Linked Scheme 1976 (EDLI) and Employees’ Pension Scheme 1995. It manages the accounts of over six crore members and a corpus of over Rs 10 lakh crore.
Earlier this year, the EPFO had started the practice of updating payroll data on its official portal. The body had also lowered its payroll data estimates earlier.
India needs to improve its wage policies for inclusive growth: ILO
New Delhi: The International Labour Organisation (ILO) Monday said India needs to improve its wage policies to promote “inclusive growth” even as low pay, gender wage gap and informality remain pervasive.
“Low pay and wage inequality remain a serious challenge to India’s path to achieving decent working conditions and inclusive growth,” ILO said in its ‘India Wage Report: Wage policies for decent work and inclusive growth’, released Monday.
According to the report, about 33 per cent, that is 62 million workers were paid less than the indicative national minimum wage, and the rate of low pay was higher among women.
“Daily wages increased rapidly for casual workers, workers from rural areas, unorganised sector and female workers. Nonetheless, low pay remains pervasive and wage inequality is still very high,” ILO said citing the National Sample Survey Office (NSSO) estimates which indicate the real daily wage doubled between 1993-94 and 2011-12.
The report further said that since there is a lack of consensus with regard to the methodology used to determine the minimum wage rate, neither the central nor state governments is using it as a floor for determining minimum wages.
According to the Employment and Unemployment Survey (EUS) of National Sample Survey Office (NSSO), in 2011-12, the average wage in India is about Rs 247 per day and the average wage of casual workers was estimated at Rs 143 per day.
“Only a limited number of regular/salaried workers, mostly in urban areas and highly skilled professionals earn substantially higher average wages. Daily wages in urban areas remain more than twice as high as wages in rural areas,” the ILO report said.
According to the report, though the overall wage inequality in India has declined somewhat since 2004-05, it continues to remain high.
“The gender wage gap remains high by international standards, despite having declined from 48 per cent in 1993-94 to 34 per cent in 2011-12. This gender wage gap can be observed among all types of workers: regular and casual, urban and rural. Of all worker groups, the average daily wages of casual rural female workers is the lowest: Rs 104 per day,” it said.
In order to ensure inclusive growth through sustainable wage policies, the ILO has recommended extending legal coverage to all workers in an employment relationship, ensuring full consultation of social partners on minimum wage systems, undertaking regular evidence-based adjustments, progressively consolidating and simplifying minimum wage structures, and taking stronger measures to ensure a more effective application of minimum wage law.
It also recommends other measures to improve the current minimum wage system in India. These include: promoting equal pay for work of equal value, formalizing the informal economy, strengthening social protection and fostering accumulation of skills to boost labour productivity and growth for sustainable enterprises.
