Centre releases new series of Wage Rate Index

The Labour ministry has released the new series of wage rate index (WRI) with the base year being 2016. The government periodically revises the base year of WRI for key economic indicators in order to provide a clear picture of economic changes and record the wage pattern of workers. The new series of WRI with base 2016=100 will replace the old series with base 1963-65.

Why base year was revised?

• Central government periodically revises base year for major economic indicators for reflecting the changes in economy and for capturing wage pattern of workers.
• This time, the WRI base year has been revised on the recommendations of National Statistical Commission, International Labour Organization etc.
• in order to enhance the coverage and to make index more representative.

Significance of the new series

• New series of WRI has increased the scope and coverage in terms of number of industries, occupations under selected industries, sample size, weightage of industries etc.
• Revision of WRI will play a significant role in coming out with minimum wages and national floor wages including other parameters which will be decided soon by expert group.

New WRI series

• New WRI series will be compiled twice a year, as on January 1 and July 1 each year, on point-to-point half-yearly basis.
• Weighting diagram in new WRI series was prepared based on the results of seventh round of Occupational Wage Survey.
• In the new WRI basket, total 37 industries have been covered as opposed to 21 industries in 1963-65 series.

Sectors included in new WRI series

• Selected 37 industries in new series are categorized as 3 industries from plantation sector, 4 industries from mining sector and 30 industries from the manufacturing sector.
• In the previous series, there were 14 industries from manufacturing, 4 from mining and 3 from plantation sector.