Assam Lifts Tea-Garden Daily Wage by Rs 30 to Rs 280

Assam raised the statutory minimum daily wage for its tea-garden workers by Rs 30 from April 1, taking Brahmaputra Valley pay to Rs 280 (about US$3.30) a day and Barak Valley pay to Rs 258.

The revision, notified by the state's Department of Labour Welfare, follows a Minimum Wages Advisory Board recommendation on February 26 and is described in the notification as an interim increase, Business Standard and The Sentinel reported. It applies to large and small gardens in both valleys.

Brahmaputra Valley pay has moved from Rs 205 a day in 2021 to Rs 232 in 2022, Rs 250 in 2023 and Rs 280 now; Barak Valley pay from Rs 183 to Rs 210, Rs 228 and Rs 258 over the same steps, according to figures published by The Sentinel. It is the first rise since October 2023, and the state government puts the cumulative increase since 2021 at more than 40%.

Field and plucking labour is among the largest operating costs a tea garden carries, and a statutory floor sets what every estate must pay before a kilogram of the crop reaches the auction. The rise is set by valley, not by garden, so it reaches the whole of Assam's organised and small-holding tea alike.

The word "interim" signals more to come. Business Standard reported that Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma indicated daily wages could cross Rs 300 once the Centre's new Labour Codes are implemented. The state has not set a date for that revision.

That promise did not satisfy the Adivasi worker bodies, which had asked for far more. The All Adivasi Students' Association of Assam, which sought Rs 551 a day, said the promise of a Labour Codes revision was "nothing but a misleading and hollow assurance," its president Rejan Horo said, according to The Assam Tribune. The Adivasi Youth-Students' Association of Assam, which sought at least Rs 500, said the increase was "contrary to the spirit and objective of the law," its president Nipen Munda said.

The statutory rate is also a floor on paper, not a guarantee of take-home pay. A day's wage in the gardens is conditional on a plucking quota, roughly 24 kilograms of leaf at the height of the season, and a shortfall brings deductions, so earnings can land below the notified figure, EastMojo reported. Assam's own notified rate for unskilled work outside the gardens stands at Rs 345 a day, and estate plucking pays Rs 475 in Tamil Nadu and Rs 546 in Kerala, according to the same report.

The auction can move a garden's tea. It cannot move its payroll.

Sources: Business Standard, Hike in Assam tea garden workers' daily wage by Rs 30 from Apr 1 (March 10, 2026); The Sentinel, Assam Tea Garden Workers to Get Rs 280 Daily Wage in Brahmaputra Valley From April 1 (March 11, 2026); The Assam Tribune, Tea garden bodies slam Assam govt's Rs 30 daily wage hike as inadequate; EastMojo, Assam's tea industry at a crossroads: why wages deserve centre stage (March 31, 2026).