Section 15: Wages of worker who works for less than normal working day

The Minimum Wages Act, 1948 was repealed and replaced by the Code on Wages, 2019 from 21 November 2025. It still applies to matters and proceedings from before that date, as the repealing law provides.

If an employee whose minimum rate of wages has been fixed under this Act by the day works on any day on which he was employed for a period less than the requisite number of hours constituting a normal working day, he shall, save as otherwise hereinafter provided, be entitled to receive wages in respect of work done by him on that day as if he had worked for a full normal working day:

Provided, however, that he shall not be entitled to receive wages for a full normal working day—

(i) in any case where his failure to work is caused by his unwillingness to work and not by the omission of the employer to provide him with work, and

(ii) in such other cases and circumstances as may be prescribed.

Source: India Code (Legislative Department), the text of the Act as it stood before its repeal. Words in square brackets [ ] were inserted or substituted by later amending Acts, and *** marks words omitted by an amendment. The amendment footnotes are not reproduced here. Official text on India Code.

Supreme Court judgments citing the section 15

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