Sri Lanka has announced to increase the monthly minimum wage by 12.5pc. This reform has come into action due to the proposed amendment for a minimum wage bill.
The minimum monthly payment has now increased to 12,500 rupees and the minimum daily wage has increased to 500 rupees. Sri Lanka\’s rupee plummeted after a daily salary of 10,000 rupees was enacted. This occurred due to money printing and monetary regime anchor clashes. If the minimum wage is held below the retail rate, it drives low-skilled employees, immigrants, and people with disabilities out of employment.
Previously in Sir Lanka, the National Minimum Wage for Workers Act 2016 established a national minimum monthly wage of 10,000 (ten thousand) rupees. While the minimum daily wage was 400 rupees for industries/service workers.
Davis-Bacon Act 1931
Eugenicists introduced minimum wage legislation in the West to drive ‘undesirable\’ handicapped individuals and women out of the workforce. In light of this, the United States and South Africa followed similar tactics. They sought to discourage black workers from working with white or unionized workers.
Initially, liberal- capitalist employed poor black people to work for them on cheaper wages. Later on, the Hoover administration introduced the Davis-Bacon Act of 1931. Amid the economic depression, this statute provided people with government programs to create jobs in many areas.
Employers to pay the fixed minimum wage:
Employers are mandated to pay a minimum wage to their workers, as it is their legal right. This serves as a market limit at which employees are unable to sell their labour. The government bodies should also promote and impose minimum wage policies. In this way, those who move from rural areas or outside the country will not be able to unlawfully \’steal\’ the employment of the better qualified.
During the twentieth century, almost every country had enacted minimum wage laws. However, since minimum wages raise labour costs, many businesses aim to circumvent them by hiring gig jobs, relocating labour to areas with reduced to no minimum wages, or automating job functions.
