Key Points
In fact, the initial poverty lines were anchored to the minimum wages of casual unskilled manual labourers, since they inhabit the poorest category of households..
Based on the actual number of days worked in a month from the Periodic Labour Force Survey (PLFS), a wage worker with a family to support would need minimum earnings of 390/552 per-day in rural/urban areas to cross the poverty line..
This was only 310 per day in case of agricultural workers, lower than the estimate reported by the labour bureau and almost two-thirds of the specified minimum wages..
On average, a casual wage worker is earning less than both the minimum wages and Rangarajan poverty line in 2022-23..
As per the report, brought out by the International Labour Organization and Institute for Human Development, 52% of all casual workers did not receive the minimum wages. 76% of workers in agriculture and 70% in construction got wages lower than minimum wages..
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