The Maharashtra Labour Department has notified the revised Variable Dearness Allowance (VDA) applicable for the half-yearly period from 1 October 2025 to 31 March 2026, computed with reference to movement in the Consumer Price Index for Industrial Workers (CPI-IW) for the state.

Under the revised notification, minimum wages across scheduled employments in Zone I (Mumbai, Pune, Nagpur, Thane and other major municipal corporation areas) have moved upward by approximately ₹340–₹410 per month depending on the skill category, with corresponding but comparatively smaller increases in Zone II and Zone III areas.

Employers should note that Maharashtra continues to apply a skill-based classification — unskilled, semi-skilled, skilled, and highly skilled — and that the revised VDA is added to the basic minimum rate to arrive at the total minimum wage payable; failure to update payroll masters for both basic and VDA components separately, rather than only the consolidated figure, is a common audit finding during labour department inspections.

The notification also reiterates the requirement to display the revised minimum wage rates prominently at the workplace in the local language, and to maintain Form-I wage registers reflecting the revised rates from the effective date, with retrospective correction required for any wages already disbursed for October 2025 at the pre-revision rate.

For establishments with a large contract labour workforce, the principal employer remains jointly responsible for ensuring that the contractor pays wages at not less than the revised minimum rate; principal employers should obtain updated wage compliance certificates from contractors for the October 2025 cycle onward.

Non-compliance attracts penal consequences under Section 22 of the Minimum Wages Act (soon to be subsumed under the Code on Wages once notified in the state), including the potential for claims of up to ten times the amount of wages due, in addition to reputational and audit risk during statutory due-diligence exercises.

Payroll teams should update wage masters immediately, process any shortfall for wages already paid at the earlier rate as an off-cycle correction, and communicate the revised structure to contract labour vendors operating in Maharashtra.