After minimum wage revision, Karnataka pushes Center to change ESI ceiling

The revision of minimum wages, mandated at least once every five years by the Minimum Wages Act of 1948, was finally carried out on Saturday. | Photo credit: FILE PHOTO

With the revised minimum wages announced on Saturday and with an average increase of about 60%, the Karnataka government is pushing the Center to revise the ESI ceiling from the current ₹21,000 per month to ₹30,000 per month.

This is because a large section of the workforce now covered under the ESI facility will be outside the ESI health benefit coverage as they would cross the ceiling of ₹21,000 per month with the revised minimum wages.

“We have written twice to the Center to revise the ceiling. We have also written to members of Parliament to revise the ceiling,” Labor Minister Santhosh Lad told The Hindu. He said the state government would take up the matter with the Centre.

The revision of minimum wages, mandated at least once every five years by the Minimum Wages Act of 1948, was finally carried out on Saturday. It hung from 2022 to 2023 because unions opposed then-announced marginal increases of 5% to 10% for 34 planned jobs. The unions demanded that the calculation of wages be done as per the directions of the Supreme Court and the High Court of Karnataka also upheld the demand. As many as four cases were filed in the High Court against the new proposal, which was announced in April 2025.

The state government has also delayed the notification of final wages due to the implementation of four industrial codes and arguments have been made against the minimum wage revision citing the provisions of the Wages Act. However, the unions cited other provisions of the same code to pressurize the government to announce the wages.

Despite the Wages Act coming into force in November 2025, the latest notification was issued under the Minimum Wages Act, 1948, as this Act allows the addition of previous notifications made under the Act. The final notification cites the General Provisions Act 1897 and section 69(2) of the Wages Code 2019 to notify revised wages under the Minimum Wages Act.

The All India Trade Union Congress (AITUC), which had been waging a legal battle against the earlier notifications in 2022-23, welcomed the government’s decision. “The revision has been discussed for a long time and includes several positive and progressive measures such as uniform common notification across various scheduled occupations, inclusion of balanced diet in food cost and special consideration for the onerous nature of certain occupations such as sanitation works, foundries and power plants,” said AITUC general secretary DA Vijaybhaskar.

Published – 23 May 2026 0:01 IST