May 17, 2008

Minimum wages for Indians in Gulf countries

Mr Vayalar Ravi in a written reply to a question in Indian parliament said that minimum wages for workers have not been prescribed by the local laws in the Gulf countries and the wages are determined by the contracts between the employer and the worker.

Mr Ravi said that however for effective protection and welfare of women emigrants, Government of India has decided to ensure a minimum wages since they are in the most vulnerable category. The minimum wage are fixed by the Indian Missions concerned in the range of USD 300 to USD 350 per months after taking into account the prevailing market wage in that country.

As per reports received from the Indian Missions in the Gulf countries, the following is the approximate break up of men and women working there.

	Men	Women	Total	Share
Kuwait	416500	94661	511161	12.2%
Bahrain	216839	17116	233955	5.6%
Oman	396500	35500	432000	10.3%
Saudi Arabia	1314847	35805	1350652	32.3%
UAE			1400000	33.5%
Qatar	239000	11000	250000	6.0%
Total			4177768

No separate data on skilled and unskilled workers is available with the Missions. However, the Missions in Saudi Arabia and UAE have reported that as per rough estimates 80% and 65% of the workers respectively are blue collared workers, whereas the Mission in Qatar has reported that approximately 65 to 70% are unskilled and semi skilled workers.