Understanding the Minimum Wages Act
The Minimum Wages Act grants power to both the Central and state governments to regulate, review, and revise the rate of minimum wages payable to employees employed in scheduled employment under their respective jurisdictions. Accordingly, both the state government and the central government have the authority to notify the wages. In some scheduled employment, notifications by the Central as well as the state governments are also available.
Using Central and State Minimum Wage Rates
In respect of any scheduled employment, if the state government has not notified the minimum wages payable, employers can adopt the rates notified by the central government. For mines and mining activities, the notification under the central sphere is available, whereas for shops and commercial establishments, which are exclusively state subjects, notifications will not be available at the central level. At the same time, you can find scheduled employment under both state and central jurisdictions. In such cases, you can choose the one which offers better wages to the employees.