Lawgist1Short title, extent, commencement and application
(1) This Act may be called the Payment of Wages Act, 1936.
1[(2) It extends to the whole of India 2***.]
(3) It shall come into force on such date3 as the Central Government may, by notification in the Official Gazette, appoint.
(4) It applies in the first instance to the payment of wages to persons employed in any 4[factory, to persons] employed (otherwise than in a factory) upon any railway by a railway administration or, either directly or through a sub-contractor, by a person fulfilling a contract with a railway administration 5[, and to persons employed in an industrial or other establishment specified in sub-clauses (a) to (g) of clause (ii) of section 2].
(5) 6[Appropriate Government] may, after giving three months notice of its intention of so doing, by notification in the Official Gazette, extend the provisions of 7[this Act] or any of them to the payment of wages to any class of persons employed in 8[any establishment or class of establishments specified by 9[appropriate Government] under sub-clause @i2(h) of clause (ii) of section 2]:
10[Provided that in relation to any such establishment owned by the Central Government no such notification shall be issued except with the concurrence of that Government.]
11[(6) This Act applies to wages payable to an employed person in respect of a wage period if such wages for that wage period do not exceed 12[twenty four thousand rupees] per month or such other higher sum which, on the basis of figures of the Consumer Expenditure Survey published by the National Sample Survey Organisation, the Central Government may, after every five years, by notification in the Official Gazette, specify.]
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1. Subs. by the A.O. 1950, for sub-section (2).
2. The words "except the State of Jammu and Kashmir" omitted by Act 51 of 1970, s. 2 and the Schedule (w.e.f. 1-9-1971).
3. 28th March 1937, see Gazette of India, 1937, Pt. I, pg. 626.
4. Subs. by Act 38 of 1982, s. 3, for "factory and to persons" (w.e.f. 15-10-1982).
5. Ins. by s. 3, ibid. (w.e.f. 15-10-1982).
6. Subs. by Act 41 of 2005, s. 3, for "the State Government" (w.e.f. 9-11-2005).
7. Subs. by Act 68 of 1957, s. 2, for "the Act" (w.e.f. 1-4-1958.)
8. Subs. by Act 38 of 1982, s. 3, for "any industrial establishment or in any class or group of industrial establishments" (w.e.f. 15-10-1982).
9. Subs. by Act 41 of 2005, s. 3, for "the Central Government or a State Government" (w.e.f. 9-11-2005).
10. Subs. by Act 38 of 1982, s. 3, for the proviso (w.e.f. 15-10-1982).
11. Subs. by Act 41 of 2005, s. 2, for sub-section (6) (w.e.f. 9-11-2005).
12. Subs. by S.O. 2806 (E), dated 28-8-2017, for "eighteen thousand rupees", see Gazette of India, Extraordinary, Part II, s. 3(ii).
- 1 Short title, extent, commencement and application
- 2 Definitions
- 3 Responsibility for payment of wages
- 4 Fixation of wage-periods
- 5 Time of payment of wages
- 6 Wages to be paid in current coin or currency notes or by cheque or crediting in bank account
- 7 Deductions which may be made from wages
- 8 Fines
- 9 Deductions for absence from duty
- 10 Deductions for damage or loss
- 11 Deductions for services rendered
- 12 Deductions for recovery of advances
- 12A Deductions for recovery of loans
- 13 Deductions for payments to co-operative societies and insurance schemes
- 13A Maintenance of registers and records
- 14 Inspectors
- 14A Facilities to be afforded to Inspectors
- 15 Claims arising out of deductions from wages or delay in payment of wages and penalty for malicious or vexatious claims
- 16 Single application in respect of claims from unpaid group
- 17 Appeal
- 17A Conditional attachment of property of employer or other person responsible for payment of wages
- 18 Powers of authorities appointed under section 15
- 19 [Omitted]
- 20 Penalty for offences under the Act
- 21 Procedure in trial of offences
- 22 Bar of Suits
- 22A Protection of action taken in good faith
- 23 Contracting out
- 24 Delegation of powers
- 25 Display by notice of abstracts of the Act
- 25A Payment of undisbursed wages in cases of death of employed person
- 26 Rule-making power
