India Wage Report
Effective wage policies can tackle inequality, poverty and achieve the 2030 Agenda
ILO India, Director, Dagmar Walter speaks at the launch of the India Wage Report.
20 August 2018
Joint Secretary Mr Manish Gupta, government officials, trade union, employer representatives from India and other countries in the Asia – Pacific experts from the academia, colleagues, and dear friends.
It is indeed a pleasure to be here at the launch of the “India Wage Report: Wage Policies for decent work and inclusive growth". This week we are glad to have among us our constituents from India and other countries in Asia who will also be participating in the international training course on wage policies, which starts today after this session and is organized in collaboration with the International Training Centre of the ILO and V V Giri National Labour Institute.
Let me also take this opportunity to recognize the origins of this report. In 2015, the Ministry of Labour and Employment requested us to prepare a wage report for India. We also held a training event in that year for our constituents. Over a period of time, we have worked closely with the ministry, social partners and academia. I am very grateful to the ministry and our social partners for their valuable inputs in the national and regional wage workshops. I also wish to recognize the seminal role of late Prof TS Papola, a leading labour economist of this country, and Prof K P Kannan for their crucial guidance that shaped this report.
We sincerely hope that the India Wage Report acts as an important instrument for policy formulation and future dialogues on wages in this country. The use of research and evidence-based information on wages help us grasp the different dimensions of the labour market and also view how strong policies work as decisive instruments to promote the decent work and inclusive growth agenda.
Across the room, we all have many valuable insights to share on the world of work. We know that wages play a crucial role in promoting good working conditions. In Asia, most of the emerging economies have shown resilient growth over the last decades. This has led to an increase in real wages, albeit at a slower pace, resulting in an increase in income inequality.
In the region, many workers continue to live in abject poverty, informality is all pervasive, youth unemployment is persistently high, women do not enjoy equal opportunities in the labour market and the gender pay gap continues to remain wide.
At the heart of the global 2030 Agenda is: “leave no one behind.” Economic growth is meant to create a just and fair world, but for this to happen we have to work aggressively on inclusion. The Sustainable Development Goals have decent work for all women and men as a key objective, including reducing inequality through the use of fiscal and wage policies.
Adopted at the 16th ILO Asia and Pacific Regional Meeting in 2016; The Bali Declaration sets policy priorities for its tripartite members, on pursuing collective bargaining as a wage-fixing mechanism, building a minimum wage floor through social dialogue; and sharing information on productivity increases. These actions can possibly reverse the widening inequalities and the incidences of low-paid work in the region.
The ILO is committed to promote wage policies that ensure we share fruits of economic progress equitably for a sustainable society. The ILO encourages countries and constituents to undertake extensive research and come up with concrete facts so as to strengthen existing wage policies, taking into account a balanced approach between the needs of workers and the families, and the promotion of sustainable enterprises. Each year, at the global level, the ILO publishes its flagship Global Wage Report, which provides an authoritative source of information on current wage trends and policies.
In India, ILO has been advocating the need for relevant information gathering and research so as to further effective wage policies that then go on to tackle social injustice issues within the labour market. We have been consistently publishing information on wages with a working paper on wage trends that has also informed the contents of this report. We believe the report being launched today is comprehensive and clearly highlights the structure of wages in India, maps the various trends, the wage differences for various types of workers. Most importantly, this report charts the evolution of wage policies in India and what needs to be done going forward. Being the fruit of a collaborative effort, I extend my thanks and congratulations to each and every one who has worked on this report.
I look forward to hearing from you in the discussion, sharing your valuable knowledge and comments on how we can work together in the region on wages, and inclusive growth.
Thank you for your attention.
It is indeed a pleasure to be here at the launch of the “India Wage Report: Wage Policies for decent work and inclusive growth". This week we are glad to have among us our constituents from India and other countries in Asia who will also be participating in the international training course on wage policies, which starts today after this session and is organized in collaboration with the International Training Centre of the ILO and V V Giri National Labour Institute.
Let me also take this opportunity to recognize the origins of this report. In 2015, the Ministry of Labour and Employment requested us to prepare a wage report for India. We also held a training event in that year for our constituents. Over a period of time, we have worked closely with the ministry, social partners and academia. I am very grateful to the ministry and our social partners for their valuable inputs in the national and regional wage workshops. I also wish to recognize the seminal role of late Prof TS Papola, a leading labour economist of this country, and Prof K P Kannan for their crucial guidance that shaped this report.
We sincerely hope that the India Wage Report acts as an important instrument for policy formulation and future dialogues on wages in this country. The use of research and evidence-based information on wages help us grasp the different dimensions of the labour market and also view how strong policies work as decisive instruments to promote the decent work and inclusive growth agenda.
Across the room, we all have many valuable insights to share on the world of work. We know that wages play a crucial role in promoting good working conditions. In Asia, most of the emerging economies have shown resilient growth over the last decades. This has led to an increase in real wages, albeit at a slower pace, resulting in an increase in income inequality.
In the region, many workers continue to live in abject poverty, informality is all pervasive, youth unemployment is persistently high, women do not enjoy equal opportunities in the labour market and the gender pay gap continues to remain wide.
At the heart of the global 2030 Agenda is: “leave no one behind.” Economic growth is meant to create a just and fair world, but for this to happen we have to work aggressively on inclusion. The Sustainable Development Goals have decent work for all women and men as a key objective, including reducing inequality through the use of fiscal and wage policies.
Adopted at the 16th ILO Asia and Pacific Regional Meeting in 2016; The Bali Declaration sets policy priorities for its tripartite members, on pursuing collective bargaining as a wage-fixing mechanism, building a minimum wage floor through social dialogue; and sharing information on productivity increases. These actions can possibly reverse the widening inequalities and the incidences of low-paid work in the region.
The ILO is committed to promote wage policies that ensure we share fruits of economic progress equitably for a sustainable society. The ILO encourages countries and constituents to undertake extensive research and come up with concrete facts so as to strengthen existing wage policies, taking into account a balanced approach between the needs of workers and the families, and the promotion of sustainable enterprises. Each year, at the global level, the ILO publishes its flagship Global Wage Report, which provides an authoritative source of information on current wage trends and policies.
In India, ILO has been advocating the need for relevant information gathering and research so as to further effective wage policies that then go on to tackle social injustice issues within the labour market. We have been consistently publishing information on wages with a working paper on wage trends that has also informed the contents of this report. We believe the report being launched today is comprehensive and clearly highlights the structure of wages in India, maps the various trends, the wage differences for various types of workers. Most importantly, this report charts the evolution of wage policies in India and what needs to be done going forward. Being the fruit of a collaborative effort, I extend my thanks and congratulations to each and every one who has worked on this report.
I look forward to hearing from you in the discussion, sharing your valuable knowledge and comments on how we can work together in the region on wages, and inclusive growth.
Thank you for your attention.