Base year modified in Wage Rate Index (WRI)

Recently, Ministry of Labour released a new series of Wage Rate Index (WRI) with base year 2016.

Key Points

• The Wage Rate Index (WRI) is being compiled and maintained by the Labour Bureau.
• New series of WRI with base 2016=100 is going to replace 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.

Month: Current Affairs - November, 2021