Minimum Wage Revision October 2026: What Small Employers Must Update

Last Updated on October 28, 2026 by Abhijit Divekar

October is one of the two big months for wage changes in India. So if you run payroll for a small team, a minimum wage revision can quietly make last month’s salaries non-compliant. This guide explains what changes, how to find the rates that apply to you, and exactly what to update.

What is a minimum wage revision?

A minimum wage in India usually has two main parts. First, there is a basic rate. Second, there is a variable dearness allowance, or VDA, which moves with inflation.

A minimum wage revision happens when the government updates the VDA, or resets the basic rate itself. Rates also differ by skill level, such as unskilled, semi-skilled, skilled and highly skilled work. In addition, they often differ by area or zone.

Why does 1 October matter?

For central sphere employment, the government revises the VDA twice a year. The changes take effect on 1 April and 1 October, based on the Consumer Price Index for industrial workers. The new rates are notified centrally; the 1 October 2026 order was issued by the Labour Bureau on 30 September 2026.

Central sphere covers establishments under central government authority, such as railways, mines, major ports and central public sector undertakings. So most private startups and SMEs are not in it.

Which minimum wage revision applies to a small business?

Most small businesses follow the minimum wages set by their state government. However, states do not all work on the same calendar. Some revise VDA twice a year, while others revise it once a year or on their own schedule.

That is why a single national date is not enough. Instead, check the notification for every state where you have staff, including remote employees. Our state-wise compliance guides are a good starting point.

There is also a national floor wage under the Code on Wages, 2019. Once notified, no state can set a minimum wage below it. However, as of October 2026, the Centre had not yet notified that floor.

Does the 1 October revision actually apply to your state?

For most small employers, no. The 1 October date belongs to the central sphere and to the few states that share that cycle. Your obligation follows the state where your employees physically work, and those states run on different calendars.

Here is where the main states sit for the second half of 2026.

Two things follow from that table. If you employ only in Maharashtra, Karnataka or Tamil Nadu, nothing changes for you on 1 October, so there is no need to reissue letters. If you employ across two states, you are almost certainly running two different revision calendars, and that is the part small teams miss.

Several states publish their October rates late and backdate them to 1 October. As of 9 October 2026, Uttar Pradesh, Telangana, Delhi, Bihar, Jharkhand and others had not yet notified. Uttar Pradesh (21 October) and Jharkhand (15 October) have since notified, so check the rest again later in the month.

Minimum wages in Uttar Pradesh, Gujarat and Delhi: October 2026

These three states get the most questions in October. Here is where each one stands as of 26 October 2026, with a link to the official order for each, so you can check it yourself.

Uttar Pradesh

Uttar Pradesh notified its October 2026 VDA on 21 October 2026 (order I/1498869/2026, Labour Section-2). It applies from 1 October 2026 to 31 March 2027 across the 74 scheduled employments, on top of the basic wage fixed by order No. 374/36-2-2026-2041256 of 17 April 2026. In Noida and Ghaziabad, the unskilled rate is now ₹13,883.59 a month (₹533.98 a day), up about ₹194 from April. The order came out late, so pay the October difference as arrears.

All figures are per month, basic wage plus VDA, from 1 October 2026. The daily rate is the monthly rate divided by 26. Category I is Gautam Buddha Nagar (Noida) and Ghaziabad, Category II the other Nagar Nigam districts, and Category III the rest of the state. Official source: UP Labour Department order of 17 April 2026 (PDF) for the basic wage, and order I/1498869/2026 of 21 October 2026 for the VDA (not yet posted on uplabour.gov.in).

Gujarat

Gujarat added a special allowance from 1 October 2026 (Labour Commissioner circular dated 5 October 2026). The rates below are basic plus the special allowance and apply until 31 March 2027.

The ₹72.50 a day allowance covers the 46 scheduled employments plus ship breaking and sweeping and cleaning. Six employments get ₹158.50 a day instead: brick making, zari, readymade garments, salt, tobacco and bidi making, and agriculture. The basic rates come from notification KHR/2023/28/LVD/10/2022/18/M2 of 27 March 2023. Official source: Gujarat Labour Commissioner circular of 5 October 2026 (PDF, in Gujarati).

Delhi

Delhi has not issued a new order since April 2025, so the rates from 1 April 2025 still apply. The Labour Department’s minimum wage page showed no newer order when we checked on 19 October 2026.

For clerical and supervisory staff, non-matriculates get the semi-skilled rate and matriculates the skilled rate. Official source: Delhi Labour Department order of 15 April 2025 (PDF).

Watch out for a fake order. A Delhi “minimum wage DA revision” order dated 13 October 2025 circulated online. The Delhi Labour Department said in a circular of 14 October 2025 that it was fraudulent and that no revision had been issued for the period from 1 October 2025. Some websites still show figures from it, so check the order number against the Labour Department website before you use any new Delhi rate.

These figures were checked on the official state websites on 19 October 2026. Use the free checker at the top of this page for every other state.

What the central sphere pays from 1 October 2026

If you fall in the central sphere, these are the minimum wages fixed by the Chief Labour Commissioner (Central), often called the CLC rates. They apply from 1 October 2026 to 31 March 2027, under Labour Bureau order 6/1/2026-VDA of 30 September 2026. The table below is for construction and maintenance work (roads, runways, buildings and similar), the most common category.

Area A covers the metros, Area B the medium towns and Area C everything smaller. Each figure is a basic rate plus a variable dearness allowance, and only the allowance moves twice a year. The basic sits still for three to five years, which is why a revision rarely changes your wage structure, only the floor it has to clear.

For comparison, the April 2026 rates for unskilled work were ₹827, ₹693 and ₹556 a day in Areas A, B and C.

Other central sphere categories from 1 October 2026

The same order sets rates for the other scheduled employments. All figures are per day and include the variable dearness allowance.

Where to find the official CLC notification

The Office of the Chief Labour Commissioner (Central) publishes every VDA order on its Minimum Wages page. The October 2026 order is a 30-page scanned PDF in English and Hindi: download the VDA order effective 1 October 2026. It covers construction, sweeping and cleaning, loading and unloading, watch and ward, agriculture and mining, and ends with the list of Area A, B and C cities. Rates on this page were checked against that order on 19 October 2026.

What is VDA in minimum wages?

VDA (variable dearness allowance) is the part of a minimum wage that moves with prices. Every central rate has two parts: a basic rate that stays fixed for years, and VDA, which the Labour Bureau revises on 1 April and 1 October in line with the Consumer Price Index for Industrial Workers. VDA is rounded up to the next rupee, as decided by the Minimum Wages Advisory Board.

For the 1 October 2026 revision, the average index rose 6.62 points to 431.42, so VDA went up, and the total minimum wage with it. Here is how the construction rates split into basic and VDA (per day):

In April 2026 the unskilled Area A VDA was ₹304 a day. It is ₹317 from 1 October, so the same worker’s floor rose by ₹13 a day while the basic stayed at ₹523.

Area A, B and C: which one are you in?

The order sorts cities into three areas. Area A is the large urban areas: Ahmedabad, Bengaluru, Chennai, Delhi, Faridabad complex, Ghaziabad, Gurgaon, Greater Mumbai, Hyderabad, Kanpur, Kolkata, Lucknow, Nagpur, Navi Mumbai, Noida, Pune and Secunderabad. Area B is a longer list of mid-sized cities, such as Agra, Bhopal, Chandigarh, Coimbatore, Indore, Jaipur, Kochi, Surat and Vadodara. Area C is every other place where the minimum wage law applies.

How VDA shows up in your payroll

• It is not optional. VDA is part of the minimum wage, so you cannot pay the basic alone or treat VDA as a discretionary allowance.
• It changes twice a year. Put 1 April and 1 October in your payroll calendar, and update pay from that date even if the order is published a few days late.
• Late orders mean arrears. If you ran October payroll at the old rate, pay the difference from 1 October in the next cycle.

What should you update after a minimum wage revision?

A revision takes effect on the notified date. You do not need to send each employee a letter first. Still, your payroll must reflect it from that date. Work through this checklist:

How does a minimum wage revision affect other payroll costs?

The revision itself is usually small. However, the knock-on effects add up across a team.

For example, you calculate overtime on the normal rate of wages, so a higher base lifts every overtime hour. Likewise, PF is 12% of basic wages, so any rise in basic pay also raises the employer’s PF share. Our ESIC wage ceiling guide explains what happens when staff cross the ESI limit.

Bonus links to it too. Under the Code on Wages, you calculate bonus on ₹7,000 or the Central Government minimum wage, whichever is higher. So a revision can raise your bonus bill as well. See our guide to statutory bonus in India for the full rules.

What happens if you miss a minimum wage revision?

Paying less than the minimum wage breaks the Code on Wages. A first offence can bring a fine of up to ₹50,000, while repeat offences carry heavier penalties. In addition, employees can claim the difference as arrears.

Because revisions keep coming, treat them as a routine payroll task. Add the April and October dates, plus your state’s own dates, to your statutory compliance calendar. You can follow central updates on the Ministry of Labour and Employment website.

Frequently asked questions

When is the next minimum wage revision in India?

For central sphere employment, the government revises the variable dearness allowance twice a year, effective 1 April and 1 October. State governments set their own revision schedules, so private employers should check the notifications for each state where they have staff.

Does the October minimum wage revision apply to private companies?

The 1 October central revision applies to central sphere employment, such as railways, mines, major ports and central public sector undertakings. Most private companies follow state minimum wages instead, which each state revises on its own schedule.

Do employers need to inform employees about a minimum wage revision?

A minimum wage revision takes effect automatically from the notified date, so you do not need to send individual letters first. However, employers must update payroll from that date and pay any arrears if they processed salaries below the revised rate.

Is there a national floor wage in India?

The Code on Wages, 2019 allows the Central Government to set a national floor wage, below which no state can fix its minimum wage. As of October 2026, the Centre had not yet notified that floor wage under the Code.

My state is not revising on 1 October. Do I still need to do anything?

Not for this revision. What is worth doing is confirming your own state’s next date, because missing it is the same offence whenever it falls. If you employ in more than one state, put each state’s date in one calendar rather than tracking a national date that does not exist.

Which rate applies if my office is in one state and my employee works in another?

The rate follows where the employee physically works, not where the company is registered. A fully remote employee in Indore sits on the Madhya Pradesh schedule even if your office and your payroll are in Bengaluru. This is the most common error we see in small company payroll.

My state has 80 different schedules. How do I know which one applies?

It follows the nature of your business activity, not your job titles. Karnataka and Tamil Nadu both publish more than 80 industry specific schedules, so a software firm, a logistics firm and a restaurant in the same building can sit on three different ones. Find your schedule once, write it down, and reuse it every cycle.

Does a revision change what I pay into PF and ESIC?

It can. If the revision lifts an employee’s wages, the contribution base moves with it, and bonus eligibility and gratuity accruals shift too. That is why a wage revision is a payroll exercise rather than a letter writing one.

What is VDA in minimum wages?

VDA stands for variable dearness allowance. It is the part of the minimum wage that is linked to the cost of living, measured by the Consumer Price Index for Industrial Workers (CPI-IW). For central sphere employment it is revised twice a year, on 1 April and 1 October, so the total minimum wage (basic rate plus VDA) can rise even when the basic rate does not change. Many states also revise their own VDA or dearness allowance on a fixed schedule.

Where can I download the official CLC minimum wage notification (PDF)?

The Office of the Chief Labour Commissioner (Central) publishes each VDA order on clc.gov.in. For October 2026, look for the order effective 1 October 2026 (Labour Bureau order 6/1/2026-VDA of 30 September 2026). State rates are published separately by each state labour department, so check that state’s notification for private sector staff.

When will the April 2027 minimum wages be announced?

The next central sphere VDA revision takes effect on 1 April 2027. The Chief Labour Commissioner usually publishes the order close to that date, based on the CPI-IW figures for July to December 2026. We update this page as soon as the official order is out, so you can plan April payroll without checking every day.

Never miss a wage change again

HRTailor’s payroll processing service keeps your payroll, overtime and statutory costs in line with each minimum wage revision that applies to you. So your team gets paid right, every month.

This guide is general information, not legal advice. Please confirm the rates for your state and industry with your payroll or legal adviser.