Implementation of revised minimum wage in Pakistan’s Punjab region

On September 19, 2023, the government of Punjab issued a Minimum Wage Notification adjusting the minimum wage to 32,000 Pakistani rupees (PKR) per month. Factories in the region promptly complied, raising wages effective September 1. Payments based on this new minimum wage were initiated in October, incorporating adjustments to various compensation elements such as overtime premiums, paid holidays, leaves, and bonuses.

However, nearly two months later, the government of Sindh issued its own regional Minimum Wage Notification. In contrast to Punjab, the Sindh government declared an effective implementation date of July 1, 2023, and requested retrospective payments for workers. On November 2, 2023, the government of Punjab published an update, aligning the effective implementation date of the new minimum wage with Sindh, now set on July 1. 

As most factories had initially followed the effective implementation date of the first notification, workers in the Punjab region began receiving the new minimum wages from September 1, rather than the revised date of July 1. FLA has received updates from the region and observed that some factories are yet to announce the changes to their workers and initiate retrospective payments for wage arrears covering the period between July 1 and September 1.