Minimum wages in Maharashtra (2026)

How Maharashtra sets its minimum wages

Maharashtra fixes minimum wages under the Minimum Wages Act, 1948, separately for each scheduled employment (about 60 industries, from shops to engineering to construction). There is no single flat state-wide rate: the figure depends on the employment, the worker's skill category and the zone.

Every wage has two parts. The basic wage is set in the employment's notification and stays stable between revisions. The special allowance, also called the variable dearness allowance, tracks the cost of living and is revised twice a year, effective 1 January and 1 July, based on the Consumer Price Index. The total minimum wage is basic plus special allowance. Because each schedule has its own basic and special allowance, a shop worker and a factory worker in the same city can have quite different minimum wages.

One extra rule: in establishments employing more than 50 workers, house rent allowance (HRA) of 5% of basic plus dearness allowance is payable over and above the minimum wage.

The three zones

• Zone I: areas within the limits of all Municipal Corporations, plus industrial areas within a 20 km radius of a Municipal Corporation limit. This covers Mumbai, Pune, Navi Mumbai, Thane, Nagpur, Nashik and Chhatrapati Sambhajinagar (Aurangabad).
• Zone II: areas within the limits of all Municipal Councils (mid-size towns).
• Zone III: all other areas of the state not in Zone I or Zone II.

A worker doing the same job earns the most in Zone I and less in Zones II and III.

Security guards: a separate scheme

Registered private security guards in most of Maharashtra are not covered by the general zone-based schedule above. They fall under the Security Guards Board (SGB) scheme, which sets wages board by board rather than by Zone I / II / III. Boards include Mumbai-Thane, Pune, Nagpur, Nashik, Aurangabad, Kolhapur, Satara and Sangli, and each notifies its own wages plus dearness allowance, revised every six months. Principal employers who engage registered guards also pay a levy to the board on top of wages. If you deploy security guards, check the rate with the relevant Security Guards Board for that district, not the shops schedule.

A note on housekeeping staff

Maharashtra does not notify a separate "housekeeping" scheduled employment. Housekeeping and office-cleaning staff are usually paid under the schedule of the establishment where they work, most often Shops and Commercial Establishments for offices and malls. Match each worker to the correct schedule for their actual workplace.

What employers in Maharashtra must do

• Pay every worker at least the total minimum wage (basic + current special allowance) for their employment, skill category and zone.
• Add the revised special allowance from each 1 January and 1 July, and pay HRA at 5% where more than 50 workers are employed.
• Pay overtime at twice the ordinary rate for work beyond normal hours.
• Maintain a wage register, muster roll and wage slips, and for registered security guards, comply with the applicable Security Guards Board.

For contractors and staffing firms deploying workers across Mumbai, Pune and other zones, tracking each worker's schedule, zone and the twice-yearly special-allowance change by hand is error-prone. ZeniaHR payroll checks each worker's wage against the applicable state minimum automatically, and handles the registers and PF/ESI returns. If you place security guards or use contract labour, see our security agency software and contract labour compliance guide.

Related calculators

Work out the deductions on a Maharashtra wage with our free tools: the in-hand salary calculator, the PF calculator and the ESI calculator. Confirm the official rates on the Maharashtra Labour Commissioner website.

Frequently asked questions