THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: Alappuzha could well be called a labourer’s paradise in Kerala where skilled and unskilled workers get higher wages. A report on the wages of ten categories of labourers released by the economics and statistics department recently showed that Alappuzha topped the list for the most.
The daily wages for unskilled male and female labourers in Alappuzha were Rs 975 and Rs 925 respectively as against state averages of Rs 837.5 and Rs 742.9 respectively. While a class-II carpenter in Alappuzha gets Rs 1,175 per day, his counterparts in neighbouring Kottayam and Pathanamthitta districts get only Rs 975 and Rs 950. The state and national average wages were Rs 976.8 and Rs 504.3 respectively, stated the “Annual average market price of building materials and labour wages 2022-23”.
“Considering all 10 types of labourers, wages of most of them are the highest in Alappuzha district, while in Malappuram and Thiruvananthapuram the wages of all the workers are above the state average. The level of industrialisation and economic activity in a district can influence construction labour wages,” the report said. Wages were the lowest in Palakkad district, mainly due to the availability of cheap labour from neighbouring Tamil Nadu.
Masons continued to be the highest-paid category, Rs 1,112.5 per day. They were followed by carpenter class-I, Rs 1,102.7, and plumber class-I, Rs 1,031.3. Wages of workers in all categories increased over the previous year, the report said. The highest percentage increase was seen in the wages of unskilled female workers (5.85%) and the lowest was for unskilled male workers (4.22%). On average, unskilled male workers earned 14.5% more wages than their female counterparts.
The report also throws light on the gender disparity in wages. The state average wage for male unskilled labourers was Rs 837.5 while that for females was Rs 742.9. The highest wage difference between male and female was observed in Palakkad, Rs 200. “It is notable and welcoming that in 10 districts, the wage difference is equal to or less than 100 and in the capital city, male and female unskilled workers are equally paid,” the report said. Kerala provides the highest wages to labourers in the construction sector. For example, the wage of a mason in Tamil Nadu, the state with the second highest wage for this category, was 24.53% less than that in Kerala.
