India (2)

Title of the survey

Annual returns under the Payment of Wages Act, 1936.

Organization responsible

Labour Bureau, Ministry of Labour

Periodicity of the survey

Annual.

Objectives of the survey

To compute indicators relating to the wages of workers, i.e. per capita daily and annual earnings, and indices of money and real earnings.

Main labour topics covered by the survey

Employment, earnings and days worked.

Reference period

Calendar year.

Coverage of the survey

Geographical

In principle the whole country.

Industrial

Manufacturing, including the production and distribution of electricity, community, social and personal services, railway administration, either directly or through a subcontractor, and the activities of establishments specified below.

Establishments

All establishments covered under the Factories Act, 1948. The Act is also applicable to other establishments such as tramway services, motor transport services, air transport services (other than services belonging to or exclusively employed in the military, naval or air force of the union or Civil Aviation Department of the states), docks, wharfs and jetties, mines, quarries or oil fields, plantations, inland vessels mechanically propelled, workshops and other establishments in which articles are produced, adapted or manufactured with a view to their use, transport or sale, and establishments in which any work relating to the construction, development or maintenance of building, roads, bridges or canals or relating to operations connected with navigation, irrigation or to the supply of water or relating to the generation, transmission and distribution of electricity or any other form of power.

Persons

Persons earning less than 1,600 rupees per month and covered by the Factories Act, 1948.

Occupations

All occupations are covered.

Concepts and definitions

Employment

All persons covered by the Factories Act, 1948 and earning less than 1,600 rupees per month.

Earnings

The data collected refer to wages, meaning all remuneration (as wage, salary, allowances or otherwise) expressed in terms of money or capable of being so expressed, which would, if the terms of employment, express or implied, were fulfilled, be payable to a person employed in respect of his employment or of work done in such employment, and includes:

any remuneration payable under any award or settlement between the parties or order of a Court;
any remuneration to which the person employed is entitled in respect of overtime work or holidays or any leave period;
any additional remuneration payable under the terms of employment (whether called a bonus or by any other name);
any sum which by reason of termination of employment of the person employed is payable under any law, contract or instrument which provides for the payment of such sums, whether with or without deductions but does not provide for the time within which the payment is to be made;
any sum to which the person employed is entitled under any scheme framed under any law for the time being in force;

but does not include:

any bonus (whether under the scheme of profit sharing or otherwise) which does not form part of the remuneration payable under the terms of employment or which is not payable under any award or settlement between the parties or order of a Court;
the value of any house accommodation or of the supply of light, water, medical attendance or other amenity or of any service excluded from the computation of wages by a general or special order of the state government;
any contribution paid by the employer to any pensioner provident fund and the interest which may have accrued thereon;
any travelling allowance or the value of any travelling concession;
any sum paid to the employed person to defray special expenses entailed on him by the nature of his employment; or
any gratuity payable on the termination of employment in cases other than those specified above.

Wage/salary rates

Not relevant.

Hours of work

The data collected refer to mandays worked, i.e. the total number of days worked by regular workers directly employed during each month of the year, obtained by summing the number of workers attending in each shift over all shifts worked on all days during the month.

Classifications

Industrial

Since 1989, the data have been classified according to the National Industrial Classification (1987).

Occupational

Not relevant.

Others

The data are also classified by sector (public or private).

Sample size and design

Statistical unit

The statistical unit is the establishment, which is also the reporting unit.

Survey universe / sample frame

The survey universe consists of all establishments registered under the Factories Act, 1948.

Sample design

The survey is a complete enumeration of establishments registered under the Factories Act, 1948.

Field work

Data collection

Returns are collected from the establishments by the state or union territories, and consolidated returns are sent to the Labour Bureau.

Survey questionnaire

Two forms are used to report the required information. Form A covers the following:

total number of factories or establishments:
- covered by the Payment of Wages Act;
- submitting returns;
total number of days worked by all the units submitting returns;
total number of mandays worked by all units submitting returns, by all workers, by adults and by children;
average daily employment: total, adults and children;
gross wages including deductions;
bonuses paid under the Bonus Act;
money value of concessions;
total wages including deductions, of which:
- basic wages including retrenchment compensation;
- cash allowances, including dearness as well as retrenchment compensation;
- arrears.

The following information is collected in Form B:

fines: number of cases and total amount;
deductions for damage or loss: number of cases and total amount;
deductions for breach of contract: number of cases and total amount.

Substitution of sampling units

Not relevant.

Data processing and editing

Not available.

Types of estimates

Not available.

Construction of indices

Index numbers of money earnings and of real earnings are compiled.

Weighting of sample results

Not relevant.

Adjustments

Non-response

Not available.

Other bias

None.

Use of benchmark data

None.

Seasonal variations

Not relevant.

Indicators of reliability of the estimates

Coverage of the sampling frame

Not available.

Sampling error / sampling variance

Not relevant.

Non-response rate

Varies from year to year.

Non-sampling errors

Not available.

Conformity with other sources

Not available.

Available series

Not available.

History of the survey

Prior to 1 April 1958, employees earning less than 200 rupees per month were covered under the Payment of Wages Act, 1936. With the Payment of Wages (Amendment) Act, 1957, from 1 April 1958, the scope of Act was extended to cover persons earning 200 rupees or more, but less than 400 rupees per month. The application of the Act was extended in 1976 to cover persons earning less than 1,000 rupees per month, and again in 1982 to persons earning less than 1,600 rupees per month.

Documentation

The data are published in various publications of the Labour Bureau, including: Indian Labour Journal, Indian Labour Year Book, Indian Labour Statistics and Pocketbook of Labour Statistics.

Confidentiality / Reliability criteria

Data for individual units are kept confidential.

Other information

Data supplied to the ILO for publication

Series on average monthly earnings in manufacturing are published in Tables 17A and 17B of the Yearbook Labour Statistics.