TALKING ABOUT A BASIC INCOME


THE HINDU, July 1, 2016


Letters


Talking about a basic income


It is comforting to see that several significant aspects of “living wages” have been touched upon in the article, “Why we need to talk about a basic income” (June 30). At this stage of development, there is a felt need to bring some correlation between pay, perks and incentives available in the private sector, comparable public sector organisations, and workers in the unorganised sector.
The cause for several unethical practice in India can be traced to anomalous costs, prices, wages and the income structure. When the first Indian President’s first month’s salary was fixed at a consolidated amount of Rs.10,000, the underlying thought was a ratio of 1:10 between the lowest and highest remuneration across sectors in the country. At that time, there were not many executives in the private sector also who were drawing a higher salary than the President. The argument is not that such a ratio should remain static, but that someone should look at the ethical inconsistency in a small Indian company paying two of its “employees” every year a remuneration of Rs.50 crore or above when hundreds of executives in the public and private sectors who do much more work get paid much less than two per cent of Rs.50 crore. Similarly, the income of workers who are taken on contract or hired by “service providers” has to be made commensurate with the work they do. Their social security needs should be factored in in their wages. The concept of a minimum wage should be revisited in this context.
M.G. Warrier,
Mumbai

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