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Wages of manual workers in India: a comparison across states and industries

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  • Sarthi Acharya

    (IHD)

Abstract

This paper examines whether the earnings of workers engaged at the lowest rungs in the labour market have risen in the recent years. It first constructs a wage series of agricultural workers pertaining to the period 1973-2015 for 16 major states to analyse the trends and regional patterns. Next, the paper builds a wage series of workers engaged at the lowest rungs in major manufacturing, mining and plantation sectors for assessing any change in their earnings through 2000-2015. The periods chosen for the farm and non-farm sectors are not the same since comparable data for longer periods are not available for all the sectors. The wages of workers under study closely define their poverty status: that a dip in the wages would push many below the poverty line. Next, the wages of agricultural workers were largely stagnant between the 1970s and 1990s and showed an increase only between 2005 and 2010-12, suggesting that despite the economy growing at more than six percent since the three odd decades, the wages of agricultural workers have grown only modestly. The situation in the non-farm sector is no different; there is stagnancy in the wages. Data further show that the earnings of all employees (i.e. including skilled workers, managers, etc.) have risen nearly twice in 15 years between 2000 and 2015, while the wages of unskilled manual workers have remained stagnant, suggesting that unskilled work is increasing less in demand.

Suggested Citation

  • Sarthi Acharya, 2017. "Wages of manual workers in India: a comparison across states and industries," The Indian Journal of Labour Economics, Springer;The Indian Society of Labour Economics (ISLE), vol. 60(3), pages 347-370, September.
  • Handle: RePEc:spr:ijlaec:v:60:y:2017:i:3:d:10.1007_s41027-018-0104-9
    DOI: 10.1007/s41027-018-0104-9
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    References listed on IDEAS

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    1. Angus Deaton and Jean Drèze & Jean Drèze, 2002. "Poverty and Inequality in India: A Reexamination," Working papers 107, Centre for Development Economics, Delhi School of Economics.
    2. Acharya, Sarthi, 1989. "Agricultural Wages in India: A Disaggregated Analysis," Indian Journal of Agricultural Economics, Indian Society of Agricultural Economics, vol. 44(2), April.
    3. Visaria, Pravin, 1981. "Poverty and unemployment in India: An analysis of recent evidence," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 9(3), pages 277-300, March.
    4. Ghose, Ajit K., 2016. "India Employment Report 2016: Challenges and the Imperative of Manufacturing-Led Growth," OUP Catalogue, Oxford University Press, number 9780199472574, Decembrie.
    5. repec:pri:rpdevs:deaton_dreze_poverty_india is not listed on IDEAS
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    Cited by:

    1. Usami, Yoshifumi & Das, Arindam & Swaminathan, Madhura, 2020. "Methodology of Data Collection Unsuited to Changing Rural Reality: A Study of Agricultural Wage Data in India," Review of Agrarian Studies, Foundation for Agrarian Studies, vol. 10(2), December.
    2. Nidhi Sharma, 2021. "Interstate Wage Differentials in Organized Manufacturing Industries," The Indian Journal of Labour Economics, Springer;The Indian Society of Labour Economics (ISLE), vol. 64(4), pages 961-979, December.

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