Minimum wages for workers hiked

Bhubaneswar: Ahead of Lok Sabha and Odisha Assembly elections, the State government on Thursday announced that the daily minimum wages of workers would be raised in varied amounts.

Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik said the hike will benefit lakhs of workers belonging to unskilled, semi-skilled, skilled and highly skilled categories.

While the minimum wage for unskilled workers has been increased from Rs 352 to Rs 450, it has been hiked from Rs 392 to Rs 500 for semi-skilled workers. Skilled workers will get Rs 550 instead of Rs 442, while the minimum wage for highly skilled labourers has been raised from Rs 502 to Rs 600.

The workers engaged in both government and private sectors will get such benefits, a CMO release said.