OBJECT AND SCOPE OF THE LEGISLATION :

The Minimum Wages Act was passed in 1948 and it came into force on 15th March, 1948. The National Commission on Labour has described the passing of the Act as landmark in the history of labour legislation in the country. The philosophy of the Minimum Wages Act and its significance in the context of conditions in India, has been explained by the Supreme Court in Unichoyi v. State of Kerala (A.I.R. 1962 SC 12), as follows:

“What the Minimum Wages Act purports to achieve is to prevent exploitation of labour and for that purpose empowers the appropriate Government to take steps to prescribe minimum rates of wages in the scheduled industries. In an underdeveloped country which faces the problem of unemployment on a very large scale, it is not unlikely that labour may offer to work even on starvation wages. The policy of the Act is to prevent the employment of such sweated labour in the interest of general public and so in prescribing the minimum rates, the capacity of the employer need not to be considered. What is being prescribed is minimum wage rates which a welfare State assumes every employer must pay before he employs labour”.

According to its preamble the Minimum Wages Act, 1948, is an Act to provide for fixing minimum rates of wages in certain employments. The employments are those which are included in the schedule and are referred to as ‘Scheduled Employments’. The Act extends to whole of India.