INDIA bloc will ensure growth in worker wages, asserts Cong

NEW DELHI: The Congress on Sunday alleged that Prime Minister Narendra Modi has caused an unprecedented decline in worker wages adjusted for price rise and said that an INDIA coalition government will return the country to a higher growth trajectory.

Congress general secretary Jairam Ramesh said multiple data sources, including the Modi government’s own official statistics, are unanimous in showing the simple fact that workers can buy less today than they could 10 years ago.

A combination of slow wage growth and back-breaking inflation has caused an unprecedented decline in real wages, he said. “Labour Bureau’s Wage Rate Index (Government Data): Between 2014 and 2023, real wages for labourers have stagnated, with clear declines in real wages in Modi-II,” he said. Ramesh also pointed out that the Ministry of Agriculture’s Agricultural Statistics said that under former prime minister Manmohan Singh, real wages for agricultural labourers grew at 6.8 per cent each year.

“Under PM Modi, real wages for agricultural labourers declined by -1.3 per cent each year,” he said.

“Periodic Labour Force Survey Series (Government Data): Average real earnings over time have stagnated between 2017 and 2022 across all employment types - salaried workers, casual workers, and self-employed workers,” he said.

Citing Center for Labour Research and Action data, Ramesh said real wages of brick kiln workers have stagnated or declined between 2014 and 2022.

Brick kilns involve intensive labour and are a low-paying work of last resort for India’s poorest, he pointed out.

“Stagnant wages underpin the economy’s poor performance under PM Modi: Real wages for India’s people have stagnated since the PM came to office,” he said. With slowing consumption growth and deepening fear, the private sector no longer has an incentive to invest in the economy, Ramesh

argued.