The Reserve Bank of India today released time series data on monthly average daily wage rates for men in rural India. This data series is collated from the basic data collected by the Labour Bureau, Government of India and published in its monthly publication entitled ‘Indian Labour Journal’.
Coverage
The data on wage rates are published by the Labour Bureau on a regular monthly basis in its monthly publication Indian Labour Journal. Wage rate data is collected in respect of 11 agricultural and 7 non-agricultural occupations entailing manual work under the common framework of data collection of retail prices for Consumer Price Index (CPI) for Agricultural and Rural Labourers across 20 major states, namely, Andhra Pradesh, Assam, Bihar, Gujarat, Haryana, Himachal Pradesh, Jammu & Kashmir, Karnataka, Kerala, Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra, Manipur, Meghalaya, Orissa, Punjab, Rajasthan, Tamil Nadu, Tripura, Uttar Pradesh and West Bengal. The selected occupations for which daily wage rates are collected every month are: (a) Agricultural Occupations - (i) ploughing, (ii) sowing, (iii) weeding, (iv) transplanting, (v) harvesting, (vi) winnowing, (vii) threshing, (viii) picking, (ix) herdsman, (x) well digging and (xi) cane crushing; (b) Non-agricultural Occupations – (xii) carpenter, (xiii) blacksmith, (xiv) cobbler, (xv) mason, (xvi) tractor driver, (xvii) sweeper, and (xviii) unskilled labour (un-specified).
Methodology
The average wage rates at all-India level are derived by dividing the sum total of wages of all the 20 States by the number of quotations collected by the Labour Bureau. State-wise averages are estimated only for those occupations where the number of quotations is five or more. However, for working out all-India averages, all state level quotations are taken into account to arrive at total number of quotations at all-India level. At the all-India level also, the number of quotations for working out occupation-wise averages are restricted to five or more. The missing values against various occupations indicate that no wage rate was reported during the reference month for various reasons, such as: (i) either the activity connected with the occupation was not undertaken in the State; or (ii) the activity was out of season in the State; or (iii) the particular category of workers were not engaged in that operation; or (iv) the number of quotations received is less than five.
Access
The Reserve Bank’s time series data on wage rates can be accessed from the Database of Indian Economy (DBIE) link (http://dbie.rbi.org.in >> Statistics >> Real Sector >> Prices and Wages >> Monthly) on the RBI website and downloaded with classifications according to time, states and occupations. Detailed methodology for compilation of the wage rate is available in a publication entitled ‘Wage Rates in Rural India 2008-09’ brought out by the Labour Bureau in 2010 as also on the Labour Bureau’s website: http://labourbureau.gov.in
Sangeeta Das
Director
Press Release : 2012-2013/465
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