The revised wage notification, issued by the Labour Department late on Friday night, also fixes the minimum monthly wage for highly skilled workers in Bengaluru at Rs 31,114.

For workers outside Bengaluru, minimum wages for unskilled labour have been fixed between Rs 19,300 and Rs 21,251, depending on the zone and category of employment.

Labour minister Santosh Lad said the state government had increased minimum wages by nearly 60%, calling it a long-pending measure aimed at strengthening workers’ financial security.

“We’ve fulfilled a long-pending demand of the state’s labourers. The revision will provide economic security to workers,” he said.

The revised wage structure will apply to 81 scheduled employments and is expected to benefit nearly two crore workers across Karnataka.

Minimum wages in the state are revised once every five years. Before the latest revision, the minimum wage for unskilled workers in Karnataka was around Rs 15,000 per month.

The Karnataka government is understood to have relied on the landmark Reptakos Brett case judgment of the Supreme Court, which held that minimum wages should be fixed after considering essential living costs such as food, clothing, shelter, education and healthcare.

The notification comes more than a year after the Labour Department first issued a draft proposal on the revised wages. Sources said some ministers in the Cabinet had opposed the move, arguing that the proposed rates were too high for employers and businesses to sustain.

Under the revised system, workers have been categorised into four groups based on skill levels — highly skilled, skilled, semi-skilled and unskilled. Work locations have also been divided into three zones: Zone-1 comprising the Greater Bengaluru Area, Zone-2 covering district headquarters and city corporation limits, and Zone-3 including all remaining regions.

Meanwhile, the Karnataka Employers’ Association has criticised the wage revision, terming it “steep” and raising legal objections to the notification.

KEA president B C Prabhakar claimed the notification suffered from “legal infirmities”.

According to Prabhakar, the revised wages had been notified under the Minimum Wages Act, which he argued stood repealed after the implementation of the Code on Wages from November 2025.

He further contended that the code on wages had abolished the concept of scheduled employments.

Prabhakar also alleged that the notification violated a Karnataka High Court order which, according to him, had directed that no decisions taken by the Minimum Wage Advisory Board during or after its July 29, 2025 meeting should be implemented until the next hearing in the case.