Minimum wages
State, zone, skill — shops vs industrial.
One statewide rate for each grade; the notification sets no zones.
Basic rates, with no price-index adjustment yet. The notification calls these basic rates and says they may not be split into allowances. It also promises 100% neutralisation of any rise or fall in the consumer price index, to be adjusted as the Code on Wages, 2019 and the rules made under it prescribe. No such adjustment has been published, so nothing is added to the figures below.
| Skill | Statewide |
|---|---|
| unskilled | ₹13,486 / month₹518.69 / day |
| Semi-skilled | ₹14,383 / month₹553.19 / day |
| skilled | ₹15,414 / month₹592.84 / day |
| Highly skilled | ₹16,601 / month₹638.50 / day |
The same notification also says
- They cover all employments in the State, in every establishment and factory under the Code on Wages, 2019, and workers engaged through a contractor or an outsourcing arrangement as much as those employed directly.
- In hotels, restaurants, tea stalls, halwais, ahatas attached to liquor shops and domestic work, the wage is 30% lower where two meals, tea twice and lodging are provided, and 10% lower where meals and tea are provided without lodging.
- The notification also prints an hourly rate for each category — the daily rate for a day of eight hours.
- A trainee may be paid 75% of the rate for the category being trained for, or the unskilled rate if that is higher, for at most six months or the length of the training. No unskilled employee may be engaged as a trainee.
- Men, women, transgender and disabled employees are paid the same.
- An employee whose trade or job is not named in any category is paid the rate of the category they can most accurately be placed in; a disagreement is settled by the authority appointed under section 45 of the Code.
- Attached agricultural labour is paid ₹90,973.28 a year, consolidated, with meals or the equivalent in food grains. Other agricultural labour is paid ₹486.588 a day with meals and ₹540.983 a day without.
- Rates for brick kilns were notified separately and are not shown here.
Staff categories
The same notification sets a second table for staff graded by qualification rather than by skill. An employee falls under one table or the other, not both.
| Staff category | Rate |
|---|---|
| Category AA post-graduate degree, MBA, company secretary or any professional degree | ₹19,431 / month₹747.34 / day |
| Category BA graduate, or an undergraduate with a diploma or certificate in stenography, computer applications or accountancy, or supervisory staff who take independent decisions | ₹17,510 / month₹673.46 / day |
| Category CAbove matriculate but not a graduate, or an undergraduate certified as steno typist, computer application, data entry operator or accountancy; includes timekeeper, salesman, assistant and storekeeper | ₹15,786 / month₹607.15 / day |
| Category DAny Class-IV employee, casual, through a contractor or on contract | ₹14,406 / month₹554.07 / day |
Punjab's own rules · researched
The table above is from the state's own published minimum wage notification. Everything below is Punjab-specific, researched and not yet checked against an official source.
- Hourly rate
- The notification prints one for every category: the daily rate for a working day of eight hoursNotification of 01.05.2026, the rate tables read with note 15
- How a day is worked out
- The monthly rate divided by 26. A day deducted for absence is worked out on the monthly rate divided by 30, and the daily rate already includes the weekly or substituted rest dayNotification of 01.05.2026, notes 7 and 16
- Agricultural labour
- Attached labour ₹90,973.28 a year, consolidated, with meals or food grains of equal value. Other agricultural labour ₹486.588 a day with meals and ₹540.983 a day withoutNotification of 01.05.2026, the two agriculture tables
- Brick kilns
- Not yet addedNotified separately, on piece rates per 1,000 bricks. The separate notification has not been traced to a gazette page, so its figures are not shown
- Price-index adjustment
- Not yet addedThe notification promises full neutralisation of the consumer price index, adjusted as the Code on Wages, 2019 and its rules prescribe. None has been published since 1 May 2026