Wage Rate Index

Wage Rate Index (WRI) Index

Wage Rate Index Numbers depict movement of relative change experienced in the wage rates over a period of time.

The WRI New Series (base 2016=100) consists of 37 industries selected keeping in view their importance in terms of percentage share in total employment and also the growing industries on the basis of the data from the seventh Occupational Wage Survey. The selected 37 industries together have a share of 80 percent in the estimated total employment of the three sectors as per the Seventh OWS. In this series, Half-yearly wise (point-to-point) WRI data has been decided to be released.

For the purpose of construction of wage rate index numbers, wage rate was taken as the sum of basic wage and dearness allowance in respect of workers who receive both these components, while for other workers, the actual consolidated amount of earnings represent this wage rate.

The weights adopted for the construction of WRI numbers under WRI New Series (Base: 2016=100) are the base year estimated employment figures at occupation level and base year estimated total wage bill at Industry/Sector/All-India level as compared to estimated employment at all levels in the existing series.

The indices are generated using the Laspeyre’s formula, which is the ratio of the weighted average of wages of the current year to wages of the base year, employment in the base year as weights.

About 700 occupations have been covered under 37 selected industries in new series of WRI (base 2016=100). The list of industries covered is as per following table: