MGNREGS pay still below minimum wage in several states, shows data

Gap remains despite a hike of up to 10.4% notified by the Centre for the coming financial year

The Centre notified the state-wise Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (MGNREGA) wage rates for FY24 on Friday. The wages have been hiked by up to 10.4 per cent from the FY23 levels.

However, data shows that in as many as 18 states the latest MGNREGA wages are lower than even the old notified minimum agricultural wages. In fact, they are even lower than the average daily wages paid to agricultural and non-agricultural labourers (males) in FY22.

This could be also because MGNREGS is a distress employment scheme. According to some reports, MGNREGS wages had been delinked from minimum