Wage Register Dilemma: How to Record April's Workdays When Salon Opened Mid-Month?

How to fill the wage register for April?

The salon started work on April 15 and paid for the entire month of April. So, how many days worked should be shown in the wage register when payment for the entire April is made? i.e., should the number of worked days be 15 or 26?

Since payment was made for 26 days (entire April 2020 month with Thursday holidays, i.e., 30-5 = 25, but since the month generally has 26 days, the salon shows 26).

Thank you.

An employee who worked for any month in full, irrespective of whether it has 25, 26, 28, 29, 30, or 31 days, is entitled to a salary that includes paid holidays and weekly offs. As such, they are due for a full month's salary except for days absent or on Leave Without Pay (LWP). If you are maintaining a 'wages register' in Form T (under the Karnataka Shops and Commercial Establishments Rules, 1963), you must mark 'present' for all the days on duty and weekly off days. For April, this would be 30 days. Accordingly, the salary due is for the full month.

Wages Register: Accurate Filling Guidelines

Wages register must be filled as per actual attendance. This means they must be shown on the weekly off or any other holiday. If a worker works on the weekly off or holidays, it will invoke a query of overtime. Therefore, it is to be filled cautiously, exactly as per the workdays performed. The OT column is also to be checked for any extra work done by the employee.

Attendance Registers and Special Leave

Attendance registers should be maintained on an actual basis. However, in cases where full wages have been paid without any deductions, it may be considered as special leave with wages due to the pandemic issue.

Thank you for your response, everyone.

So, the doubt was: Should the salon mention the number of worked days as 15, 25, or 26 in the wages register for April in the mentioned scenario? (Since the first 15 days were a lockdown, which was paid as Paid Leave). The full monthly payment was already done.

You may like to consider it appropriate to call it 'pandemic leave'. Write 'Pan L' as a short form in the wage register, as you have already paid for those days.

Regards, Vinayak Nagarkar HR and Employee Relations Consultant

Understanding Wage Register Formats

If I remember correctly, there is no prescribed format for registers or wages under the Payment of Wages Rules, both under the Central and the States. As far as shops and establishments are concerned, every State Shops & Estt Act has a specific format, and one has to simply fill in all the columns. Weekly holidays, CL, SL, PL, and National & Festival holidays are paid holidays under the S & E Acts. These days, if availed, have to be mentioned in the register of employment or the attendance register with corresponding entries in the leave and NFHL registers.

Then why should the poster unnecessarily bother about the working days as 26, 30, or 31? If there are any days in the month on LOP, he just has to mention the amount deducted proportionately in the deductions column of the wages register. Even an extraordinary situation like a Statutory Lockdown makes no difference, as the purpose and entries of the register of wages indicate only the disbursement of wages and any deductions.

Components of the Wage Register

In general, without reference to the prescribed format under any Act and Rules applicable, the register of wages should invariably contain the gross wages payable for the wage period, viz, the month, and the net wages paid with a breakup of details of components like basic, D.A, HRA, etc., and deductions like EPF, ESI subscriptions, recovery of loans and advances, LOP, etc., and the signature of the employee with the date.