Wages for skilled agricultural workers have risen only 48 percent, while the pay for legislators, senior officials and managers have spiked to 98 percent in the time period between 1993-94 to 2011-12, reported Business Line.

According to a report published by the International Labour Organisation’s (ILO) India Wage Report, the average daily wages of agricultural labourers was Rs 120 in 1993-94, while it became Rs 177 in 2011-12. For legislators, senior officials and managers, it increased to Rs 1,052 in 2011-12 from Rs 530 in 1993-94.

Wages for professionals rose by 90 percent, while that of fishery workers is just above the machine operators who got the least raise – 44 percent during the period.

Finance minister during his interim budget speech announced direct income support of Rs 6,000 annually to the farmers. However, the centre did not include the single largest segment of the workforce - agriculture labourers – with about 14.43 crore workforce, the report said, adding that most of the agricultural labourers are asset-less or asset-poor and only 55 percent are involved in agriculture.

“The Pay Commissions were a contributing factor, which also had an impact on the wages of the private sector, particularly in the upper quintile of the wage distribution. The ratio between the best-paid occupation and the lowest ranked was 7.2 in 1993-94, increased to 10.7 in 2004-05 and declined to 7.6 in 2011-12,” the report states.