Overview
- Congress general secretary Jairam Ramesh on Monday accused the Labour Bureau of adopting a new sampling framework without a press release or website notice and said that change produced an artificial surge in reported rural wages.
- The party cited official series that showed annual rural wage growth rising from about 6% to roughly 17–18% between June 2025 and March 2026 and flagged a single-month 12.7% jump in average daily wages as unusually large.
- Congress says the new sample added workers from several northeastern states, NCT Delhi, and Goa that together make up about 1.2% of India’s workforce but roughly 11% of the survey sample and whose average wages are about 50–55% higher because they have less agricultural work and more skilled jobs.
- Using a spliced counterfactual, the party cited analysis that estimates genuine rural wage growth at about 4.3% per year, and the coverage contains no government or Labour Bureau rebuttal so the claim remains contested and unverified.
- The allegation builds on the party’s 2024 complaints about changes to employment definitions tied to the RBI and raises broader risks to public trust in official statistics plus pressure for methodological disclosure or an independent audit.