(May 23, 2016) It was reported on March 1, 2016, that the Government of Nepal had amended the minimum wage provided for under the Labor Act, 1992. Notice of the change was published in the Nepal Gazette dated February 1, 2016. (Anup Raj Upreti & Tilak Bikram Pandey, Minimum Wage / Salary, 2016 (2072), LEGAL UPDATE (Mar. 1, 2016), Pioneer Law Associates website; Labor Act, 2048 (1992) (as amended 15 Magh 2054 (Jan. 28, 1998)), Nepal Department of Labor website.)
There is one minimum wage applicable to workers and employees who work on tea estates and another established for those who work in other enterprises, but “[t]he minimum wage is applicable to all workers/employees irrespective of status of the employment or the length of service.” (Upreti & Pandey, supra.) The tea estate minimum monthly salary for the current fiscal year, from February 1, 2016, through July 15, 2016, is NPR6,375 (about US$60), and the minimum daily wage is NPR228 (about US$2). There is also a daily allowance of NPR30 (about US$0.28) for tea refinery and factory workers and certain other tea estate workers. (Id.) For the period after the current fiscal year, from July 16, 2016, through July 15, 2017, the minimum monthly tea-work-related salary will increase to NPR7,075 (about US$67) and the daily wage to NPR253 (about US$2.40); the daily allowance remains the same amount. (Id.)
Effective February 1, 2016 (the date of publication of the notice in the Nepal Gazette), the new minimum monthly salary for employees in other enterprises is NPR6,205 (about US$59), plus a “dearness allowance” (essentially a cost of living adjustment) of NPR3,495 (about US$33), for a total of NPR9,700 (about US$92). The new daily wage rate for these other enterprise workers is NPR395 (about US$3.74). (Id.)