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Fairness of Minimum Wages for MGNREGA
Since 2009, wages under the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme have been delinked from the Minimum Wages Act and have not changed from their real value in that year. As a result, MGNREGA workers have been victims of stagnating real wages. In some states, they are paid even less than the minimum wage. This raises serious questions of legality and fairness.
The author would like to thank Ravi Srivastava, Jean Drèze and Siraj Dutta for their comments and suggestions.
Wages under the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (MGNREGA) are to be paid as per Section 6 of the act. This section states the following:
6. (1) Notwithstanding anything contained in the Minimum Wages Act, 1948, the Central Government may, by notification, specify the wage rate for the purpose of this Act:
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