Prateek Tanmay
3 min readNew DelhiJul 1, 2026 09:52 AM IST
The Centre on Tuesday notified wage rates for unskilled manual workers under the Viksit Bharat-Guarantee for Rozgar and Ajeevika Mission (Gramin) (VB-G RAM G) Act, 2025, which comes into effect today, replacing the two-decade-old Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (MGNREGA), 2005.
Daily wages have been fixed between Rs 300 and Rs 409 across states, with a special rate of Rs 450 in certain Gram Panchayats in Sikkim, as per a notification issued by the Union Ministry of Rural Development late Tuesday night.
Northern and northeastern states such as Arunachal Pradesh, Nagaland, Himachal Pradesh, Uttar Pradesh, Uttarakhand, Bihar, Jharkhand, Assam, Tripura, Sikkim and West Bengal have seen wage hikes of over 15 per cent.
However, Haryana, despite having the highest wage rate of Rs 409, stands out with the lowest hike of just 2.25 per cent. In contrast, southern states like Karnataka, Tamil Nadu, Andhra Pradesh and Telangana saw a hike of three per cent or below.
The new wage rates
The wage rate has been fixed at Rs 300 for 21 states: Gujarat, Manipur, Mizoram, Rajasthan, Odisha, Jammu and Kashmir, Ladakh, Meghalaya, Chhattisgarh, Madhya Pradesh, West Bengal, Sikkim, Assam, Tripura, Bihar, Jharkhand, Uttar Pradesh, Uttarakhand, Himachal Pradesh (non-scheduled areas), Arunachal Pradesh, Nagaland.
The wage rates for the other states have been fixed as follows: Rs 308 for Telangana, Rs 312 for Andhra Pradesh, Rs 317 for Maharashtra, Rs 340 for Dadra and Nagar Haveli and Daman and Diu, Rs 345 for Tamil Nadu, Rs 347 for Puducherry, Rs 348 each for Andaman and Nicobar (Andaman District) and Lakshadweep, Rs 360 for Punjab, Rs 367 for Andaman and Nicobar (Nicobar District), Rs 375 for Himachal Pradesh (scheduled areas), Rs 382 for Karnataka, Rs 401 for Kerala, and Rs 406 for Goa. Three Gram Panchayats in Sikkim—Gnathang, Lachung, and Lachen—will pay a fixed wage rate of Rs 450.
MGNREGA wages remained unchanged
While the wage rates notified under the VB-G RAM G Act appear higher than the prevailing MGNREGA wage, this is because the government did not increase MGNREGA wages for the current financial year 2026-27. The Centre last notified the MGNREGA wage on March 27 last year, which was applicable for the 2025-26 financial year, and continued with it during the first quarter (April-June) of the current fiscal year (2026-27).
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If the Centre had increased MGNREGA wages for the current financial year, the hike in VB-G RAM G wages would have been the same.
Section 10 of the VB-G RAM G Act empowers the Centre to specify the wage rate for unskilled manual work provided under the VB-G RAM G Scheme. As per the Act, the central government can notify different wage rates for different areas. The Act also mandates that the wage rate notified under the VB G RAM G law shall not be less than the prevailing wage rate as notified under Section 6 of the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act, 2005.
