MINIMUM WAGES LAW: A HISTORICAL RETROSPECT

Abstract The purpose of seeking employment is to sell labour to earn wages so as to attain a ‘decent’ or ‘dignified’ standard of living. The wage or income that a worker obtains from his /her work is, what enables him /her to achieve a fair standard of living. Society and the appropriate Government has a duty to ensure a fair wage to every worker, to ward off starvation and poverty, to promote the growth of human resources, and to ensure social justice without which likely threats to law and order may undermine economic progress. The International Labour Conference of International Labour Organization, at Geneva, adopted a draft convention on minimum wages requiring the member countries to create and maintain a machinery whereby minimum wages can be fixed for workers employed in industries in which no arrangement exist for the effective regulation of wages and where wages are exceptionally low. Since wages paid to workers is a matter of great concern at national as well as at international level, this paper aims to give a glimpse as when, where and how the struggle for minimum wages started and progressed in India and in some other countries. This paper further aims to highlight the measures that have been taken at international level through International Organizations and Conventions to combat the economic problems of workers