Understanding Gratuity Calculation Differences for Private vs. Government Employees: Am I Getting It Right?

Gratuity Calculation for Private and Government Employees

As per the 2010 amendment, gratuity is to be calculated for private company employees as 15 days of the last drawn salary multiplied by the number of years of service. Whereas for government employees, it will be 15 days of the last drawn basic salary plus DA. Am I right?

In private companies, they break the monthly basic salary into basic, HRA, and special allowance just for the PF contribution. This will be the monthly basic salary, whereas all other variable allowances do not come into the purview of the basic monthly salary!

If anyone can please differentiate between the terms "salary" and "wages" in gratuity payments, I would appreciate it. If an employee receives a monthly salary of 15,000, which includes HRA and a special allowance but no DA due to being in a private company, then their half-month salary or 15 days' salary will be 7,500. Hence, to calculate the gratuity payment, it would be 7,500 multiplied by the number of years of service. However, private companies tend to pay less than half a month in the name of the basic part of the salary within the 15,000. For example, in a monthly salary of 15,000, they might break this into a basic of 7,500, HRA of 3,500, and a special allowance of 4,000. Here, when calculating gratuity payments, they calculate 15 days of the basic, which will be 3,750 multiplied by the number of years of service, which is not half the monthly salary. Moreover, even though the basic is divided in half and paid, is that the right calculation for gratuity payments? Please, can anyone guide me on this? Wages are paid to workers in a factory or industry, whereas a salary is paid for office work.