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Minimum wages in Karnataka changed fundamentally on 22 May 2026. The Government of Karnataka notified a uniform minimum wage rate applicable to all scheduled employments, replacing the long-standing practice of notifying a separate schedule for each employment. The revision carried a reported increase of around 60 per cent and restructured the state into three wage zones.
The short answer Under the notification dated 22 May 2026, Karnataka now applies one uniform minimum wage rate across all scheduled employments rather than a different schedule for shops, hospitals, security agencies and so on. The state is divided into three zones – Zone 1 covering areas under the Greater Bengaluru Authority, Zone 2 covering other Municipal Corporations and all District Headquarters, and Zone 3 covering everywhere else.
The notification runs to five annexures and applies to 81 scheduled employments, including newly added categories such as e-commerce platforms and courier and delivery services. Reported daily rates run in a band of roughly ₹817 to ₹1,316 depending on zone and category; read the exact figure for your zone and category from the notification.
Under the new structure, identify the zone of the workplace and the worker’s category, then read the notified rate. Where a rate is notified daily, the monthly equivalent is the daily figure multiplied by 26. The total payable wage – basic plus VDA plus any statutory components counted as wages – must meet or exceed the notified minimum; it is not enough for the basic alone to match. Overtime is paid at twice the ordinary rate, and Karnataka also applies double wages for work on gazetted holidays.
The mistake to avoid: comparing only the basic salary against the notified figure. Karnataka’s notified rates assume the VDA is included, so an employer who checks basic against the schedule and treats the allowance as a top-up will read compliance where there is a shortfall. Check the total payable wage, not one component of it.
How to apply the 22 May 2026 structure
Step 1 – fix the zone of the workplace: Zone 1, 2 or 3
Step 2 – confirm your industry is within the 81 scheduled employments (check Annexure 3 if it is not obviously in Annexure 1)
Step 3 – place each worker in the correct category
Step 4 – read the notified rate; monthly = daily × 26
Step 5 – verify total payable wage meets the floor, not just basic
Karnataka classifies workers by skill level – unskilled, semi-skilled, skilled and highly skilled – and has historically also notified a separate wage schedule for office staff and drivers, a category employers routinely overlook on the assumption that office roles fall under the general skilled or semi-skilled bands. Under the earlier framework those designations carried their own individual wage structures rather than mapping onto the four skill levels.
Office staff and drivers – a separate schedule
Karnataka has notified a distinct schedule for office staff and drivers, with individual designations carrying their own wage structures rather than being folded into the four skill bands. Check this schedule separately before assuming an office role is covered by the general classification.
Act on this: re-map every employee after the 22 May 2026 restructure rather than porting the old classification across. The notification replaced per-employment schedules with a uniform rate, so the category labels your payroll carries from the previous framework may no longer point at the right row.
Karnataka labour minimum wages apply to workers in the scheduled employments listed in the notification, and coverage does not depend on headcount. The 22 May 2026 order expanded the list to 81 employments, adding categories such as e-commerce platforms and courier and delivery services that were previously outside the schedule. Employers whose industry is not obviously named should check the residual annexure before concluding the notification does not apply. Contract workers are covered on the same footing, with the principal employer liable for a contractor’s shortfall.
Paying below the notified rate exposes an employer to recovery of the shortfall for the whole affected period, compensation on top, and prosecution. Under the Code on Wages, 2019 a first offence attracts a fine of up to ₹50,000, and a repeat offence within five years can mean up to three months imprisonment and a fine of up to ₹1 lakh. Karnataka’s Labour Department enforces actively, and with a revision of this size the arrear exposure from a missed cycle is unusually large.
Act on this: calculate arrears from the effective date of the 22 May 2026 notification, not from the date you became aware of it. Given the reported scale of the increase, an employer who ran two or three payroll cycles at the old rates is carrying a materially larger liability than a normal missed revision would create.
Karnataka minimum wages are notified by the Government of Karnataka through the Office of the Labour Commissioner. The framework in force before May 2026 rested on Notification No. KAE 20 LMW 2017, originally dated 30 December 2017 and published in the Gazette dated 29 March 2018, with rates revised annually for the period 1 April to 31 March and a Variable Dearness Allowance calculated at 4 paise per day for every Consumer Price Index point above a base of 6,537 points. The notification dated 22 May 2026 replaced the per-employment approach with a single uniform rate across all scheduled employments.
Act on this: read the 22 May 2026 notification in full rather than relying on a summary. It runs to five annexures, restructures the zones from four to three, and changes which schedule applies to whom – a change of that kind cannot be absorbed by updating a rate field.
Notification history for minimum wages in Karnataka.
| Date | Notification | Structure | Note |
|---|---|---|---|
| 22 May 2026 | Government of Karnataka | Uniform rate across all scheduled employments, three zones, 81 employments | Reported increase of around 60%; five annexures |
| 1 Apr 2026 – 31 Mar 2027 | KAE 20 LMW 2017 | Per-employment schedules, zone and skill based, annual VDA revision | Superseded framework for shops and commercial establishments |
| 30 Dec 2017 | KAE 20 LMW 2017 | Original notification, Gazette dated 29 March 2018 | Basis of the pre-2026 structure |
Rate figures should be read directly from the annexures to the 22 May 2026 notification, available from the Office of the Labour Commissioner, Karnataka. Reported daily rates run in a band of roughly ₹817 to ₹1,316 across zones and categories — verify the exact figure for your zone and category before finalizing payroll.
After the May 2026 revision Karnataka moved from the middle of the pack to among the highest wage floors in India. It is also now structurally unusual: most states notify separate schedules per employment, whereas Karnataka applies one uniform rate to all of them, which removes an entire layer of classification work.
Structure comparison. Karnataka figures should be read from the 22 May 2026 annexures; comparison figures are to be filled from each state’s own notification.
| State / Benchmark | Unskilled / Day | Structure |
|---|---|---|
| Karnataka – Zone 1 | – | Uniform rate across all scheduled employments, Greater Bengaluru Authority area |
| Karnataka – Zone 3 | – | Same uniform structure, all areas outside Zone 1 and Zone 2 |
| Tamil Nadu – Zone A | ₹540.15 | Basic ₹6,691 + DA ₹7,353 a month, per-employment schedules |
| Telangana – Zone I | ₹504.15 | Basic ₹3,700 + VDA ₹9,408 a month |
| Goa – Zone A | ₹561.00 | Basic ₹412.00 + VDA ₹149.00 a day |
| National Floor Wage | – | Advisory floor, not directly enforceable on employers |
Act on this: if you run establishments across the southern states, treat Karnataka as the outlier from May 2026 onward. A rate band shared with Tamil Nadu, Telangana or Andhra Pradesh will now sit well below the Karnataka floor.
The table below sets out the structure of Karnataka labour minimum wages under the 22 May 2026 notification. Because the notification applies a uniform rate across all scheduled employments and runs to five annexures, exact figures should be read from the annexure applicable to your establishment.
| Zone | Coverage | Skill Categories | Rate |
|---|---|---|---|
| Zone 1 | Areas under the Greater Bengaluru Authority | Unskilled, Semi-Skilled, Skilled, Highly Skilled | – |
| Zone 2 | Other Municipal Corporations and all District Headquarters | Unskilled, Semi-Skilled, Skilled, Highly Skilled | – |
| Zone 3 | All areas other than Zone 1 and Zone 2 | Unskilled, Semi-Skilled, Skilled, Highly Skilled | – |
| All zones | Office staff and drivers – separate designations | Individual designation-wise structure | – |
| All zones | 81 scheduled employments across five annexures | Includes e-commerce and courier or delivery services | – |
Source: Government of Karnataka notification dated 22 May 2026, issued through the Office of the Labour Commissioner, Karnataka. Rate figures marked — are to be read from the annexures to the notification. Reported daily rates run in a band of roughly ₹817 to ₹1,316 across zones and categories.
The 22 May 2026 notification restructured Karnataka into three wage zones, replacing the four-zone classification used under the earlier framework.
The zone follows the workplace
Apply the zone of the establishment where the employee actually reports, not the registered office. A Bengaluru-headquartered company with a plant in a taluk town runs Zone 1 and Zone 3 rates in the same payroll.
No Karnataka city carries a separate notification; the rate follows the zone. Bengaluru sits in Zone 1 and carries the highest rates in the state. Mysuru, Hubballi-Dharwad, Mangaluru, Belagavi, Kalaburagi and every district headquarters sit in Zone 2. Taluk towns and rural areas fall in Zone 3. For a daily wages list in Karnataka applicable to your establishment, read the annexure matching your zone and category from the 22 May 2026 notification – the uniform-rate structure means one table now covers every scheduled employment rather than a separate list per industry.
The Government of Karnataka notified revised rates on 22 May 2026, applying a single uniform minimum wage across all scheduled employments with a reported increase of around 60 per cent. The state is divided into three zones, and reported daily rates run in a band of roughly ₹817 to ₹1,316. Read the exact figure for your zone and category from the annexures to the notification.
Two things. First, Karnataka replaced separate wage schedules for each scheduled employment with one uniform rate applicable to all of them. Second, the zone structure moved from four zones to three. The notification also expanded coverage to 81 scheduled employments, adding categories such as e-commerce platforms and courier and delivery services.
Zone 1 covers areas under the jurisdiction of the Greater Bengaluru Authority. Zone 2 covers other Municipal Corporations and all District Headquarters, including Mysuru, Hubballi-Dharwad, Mangaluru and Belagavi. Zone 3 covers all other areas. The zone follows the workplace, not the registered office.
Under the framework in force before May 2026, Karnataka calculated the Variable Dearness Allowance at 4 paise per day for every Consumer Price Index point above a base of 6,537 points. Whatever the mechanism, the notified figure assumes the allowance is included — the total payable wage must meet the floor, not the basic alone.
Yes, and this is routinely missed. Karnataka has notified a distinct schedule for office staff and drivers, with individual designations carrying their own wage structures rather than being folded into the general skilled or semi-skilled bands. Check that schedule separately rather than assuming office roles map onto the four skill categories.
The Code on Wages, 2019 removes the concept of scheduled employment and extends minimum wage obligations to every employee. The 22 May 2026 Karnataka notification is nonetheless framed around 81 scheduled employments, which has drawn comment. Until the position is settled, the practical course is to apply the notified rates and treat coverage as universal rather than relying on a schedule exclusion.
Alpesh Vaghasiya (CEO)
Alpesh Vaghasiya is the Co-founder and CEO of Superworks, a smart business management solution that Indian SMBs and large enterprises use to run attendance, payroll, and statutory compliance from a single system. He has spent over 15 years building software out of Surat, founding Artoon Solutions, now a 350+ person product engineering firm serving clients across 30+ countries, in 2009, before launching Superworks in 2020.
His writing comes from the operator's side of compliance - what actually breaks when payroll has to absorb a minimum wage revision, reconcile attendance across multiple sites, or file returns under different state rules in the same month. A Charter Member of TiE Surat and an active angel investor in early-stage Indian startups, he holds a B.E. in Computer Engineering from Gujarat University.
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