In response to the nation’s rising inflation, the Punjab caretaker government approved a rise in the minimum salary of Rs7,000 on Thursday. According to a statement from the provincial government, the minimum wage was increased by Rs 7,000 to Rs 32,000 per month.
In the budget for 2022–2023, the government had already set a minimum pay of Rs25,000. The meeting of the minimum wage board was presided over by Asadullah Faiz, secretary of labor, and it unanimously proposed new rates.
He said that the department had suggested raising the minimum wage and that the main board, which is made up of business representatives, would finally review the proposals after a month and, ideally, support them.
The Pakistan Bureau of Statistics (PBS) reports that the country’s low- and middle-income consumers suffered an unprecedented price increase during the previous week, with weekly inflation reaching 46.65 percent on an annual basis.
Since March of last year, when the Consumer Price Index (CPI) showed inflation at 12.7 percent, it has more than doubled, reaching 31.5 percent last month. The salaried class, which depends on a fixed income, has been severely impacted by excessive inflation.
Asif Ali Zardari, a former president and co-chairman of the Pakistan People’s Party (PPP), that the coalition government raise the minimum wage to Rs35,000 on January 31, 2023.
He claimed that the government should be in charge of deciding how much workers should be paid. He declared, “It is the duty of the government to offer relief to the employees.”
