CHATURANGA PRADEEP SAMARAWICKRAMA 
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Private sector employees minimum basic salary Rs. 21,000
Colombo, September 12 (Daily Mirror) - Speaker Mahinda Yapa Abeywardena yesterday signed the Bill passed in Parliament, making the minimum basic salary for private sector employees Rs. 21,000.
The Labour and Foreign Employment Ministry said in a media release that this should be considered the minimum wage when calculating payments for the Employees' Provident Fund (EPF), Employees' Trust Fund (ETF) and gratuity.
According to the Bill, the private sector employers will pay their employees a national minimum wage of Rs.17,500 along with an additional minimum wage of Rs. 3,500 from September this year.
The salary increment was provided according to the Budget Relief Acts No. 36 of 2005 and No. 4 of 2016, totalling a minimum wage of Rs. 21,000.
The new minimum wage should be applied to payments for the EPF, ETF and gratuity.
The National Minimum Wage Act No. 03 of 2016 was established for all private sector employees, effective January 1, 2016. The Act initially set a minimum wage of Rs.10,000 for monthly salaried workers and Rs. 400 for daily wage workers.
In 2021, through an amendment to the Act, the minimum monthly wage was raised to Rs.12,500 and the daily wage to Rs. 500, effective from August 2021.
With the recent economic crisis in the country and the rising cost of living, private sector wages have not been increased since 2021. Therefore, a draft amendment was submitted to Parliament to increase the National Minimum Wage from Rs.12,500 to Rs.17,500, an increase of Rs. 5,000, and to raise the daily minimum wage from Rs. 500 to Rs. 700, an increase of Rs. 200.
After following the relevant steps, this amendment was passed by Parliament on September 3, 2024, and it is scheduled to be implemented from this month following the signing of the draft by the Speaker.
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