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The latest minimum wages in Tamilnadu, effective 01 April 2026, are notified by the Office of the Commissioner of Labour, Chennai under Notification No. Z3/3459/2026 dated 18 February 2026. Rates are paid as a basic wage plus a Dearness Allowance and are split across four wage zones.
The short answer For 01 April 2026 to 31 March 2027, minimum wages for shops and commercial establishments in Tamil Nadu run from ₹13,823 a month (₹531.65 per day) for a general worker in Zone D to ₹14,743 a month (₹567.04 per day) for a manager in Zone A. Every rate carries a Dearness Allowance of ₹7,353 a month, identical across all designations and all four zones – more than half the total wage. Tamil Nadu notifies over 70 scheduled employments; the figures on this page cover shops and commercial establishments.
The monthly minimum is the notified basic for the designation and zone plus the current DA – for a manager in Zone A that is ₹7,390 plus ₹7,353, or ₹14,743 a month. The daily rate is the monthly figure divided by 26 and the hourly rate is the daily figure divided by 8. Because the DA is a flat ₹7,353 for every designation, the spread across the entire schedule is only about ₹920 a month from top to bottom.
The mistake to avoid: there is no Tamil Nadu Minimum Wages Act. Tamil Nadu operates under the central Minimum Wages Act, 1948, with rates fixed by state notification. Searching for a separate state Act sends employers to the wrong source – what you need is the current notification from the Commissioner of Labour, Chennai, not a state statute.
Worked example — general worker, Zone A
Basic = ₹6,691 / month · DA = ₹7,353 / month
Total per month = 6,691 + 7,353 = ₹14,044
Per day = 14,044 ÷ 26 = ₹540.15
Per hour = 540.15 ÷ 8 = ₹67.52
One overtime hour = 67.52 × 2 = ₹135.04
Tamil Nadu does not use the unskilled, semi-skilled and skilled taxonomy that most states apply. It notifies rates by designation – around a hundred of them across general and special categories – which collapse into five basic bands. Get the band right and the zone right and you have the rate. The bands below show the Zone A total; each step down a zone reduces the figure.
Band 1Manager, Sales Manager, Field Officer, Development Officer, Officer in Charge. In the special category, Pharmacist and Chemist sit in the same band. Basic ₹7,390 in Zone A down to ₹7,214 in Zone D.
Band 2Assistant Manager, Accountant, Supervisor, Sales Executive, Purchaser, Store Keeper, Agent, Sales Promotion Employee. Also Carpenter, Watch Mechanic, Optical Mechanic, Hair Dresser, Beautician, Chief Accountant, Secretary and Auditor.
Band 3Cashier, Clerk, Typist, Stenographer, Salesman, Sales Representative, Tradesman, Bill Writer, Auction Bidder. Also Electrician, Mason, Plumber, Painter, Radiographer, Laboratory Technician and Compounder.
Band 4Bill Collector, Booking Clerk, Godown Keeper, Assistant Salesman, Accounts Assistant, Receptionist, Lineman, Tally Clerk, Weighman — and notably Security Guard and Driver, who sit here rather than in the lowest band.
Act on this: find the catch-all row before you classify anyone. Tamil Nadu’s schedule ends with a general workers category covering everyone in a shop or commercial establishment not named elsewhere, which means no employee falls outside the floor. If a role is not on the list, it is a Band 5 general worker – not unregulated.
Minimum wages in Tamil Nadu apply to workers in over 70 scheduled employments notified under the Minimum Wages Act, 1948 – shops and commercial establishments, hotels and restaurants, security agencies, hospitals, engineering, textiles, construction and many more. Each scheduled employment carries its own notification, its own basic rates and its own DA calculation, so an employer running a shop and a small factory in the same building applies two different schedules. Contract workers are covered on the same footing, and the principal employer is liable where a contractor underpays.
Paying below the notified rate exposes an employer to recovery of the full shortfall, 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. Claims reach back three years. Because Tamil Nadu revises annually, a missed April notification compounds across twelve months rather than six before anyone catches it.
Act on this: if you run more than one scheduled employment, keep a notification register listing each one and the date of its current order. Tamil Nadu’s 70-plus schedules do not all revise together, and the one nobody owns is the one that goes stale.
Minimum wages in Tamil Nadu are fixed in two parts. The basic rate for each designation and zone is set by the Government of Tamil Nadu under the Minimum Wages Act, 1948. On top of it the Commissioner of Labour declares a Dearness Allowance linked to the Consumer Price Index. For the April 2026 revision the DA was calculated on the average CPI for Chennai City for calendar year 2025 – 344 points on the 2001 base series. The resulting allowance of ₹7,353 a month applies uniformly across every designation and zone in the shops and establishments schedule.
Act on this: diarise 01 April every year, not twice a year. Tamil Nadu runs an annual cycle where most states run half-yearly, so a payroll calendar imported from another state will schedule an October check that Tamil Nadu does not need and miss the fact that one missed April revision carries a full twelve months of arrears.
Revision history for shops and commercial establishments in Tamil Nadu. The DA is recalculated annually against the Chennai City CPI average for the preceding calendar year.
| Effective Period | Notified On | DA / Month | General Worker Zone A / Month | CPI Basis |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 01 Apr 2026 – 31 Mar 2027 | 18 Feb 2026 | ₹7,353 | ₹14,044 | Chennai City average for 2025, 344 points |
| 01 Apr 2025 – 31 Mar 2026 | – | – | – | Chennai City average for 2024 |
| 01 Apr 2024 – 31 Mar 2025 | – | – | – | Chennai City average for 2023 |
Figures marked – are to be filled from the corresponding notification. The DA rate per point differs by scheduled employment depending on the base year in the original gazette order for that sector, so the figures above apply to shops and commercial establishments only. Verify against Notification No. Z3/3459/2026 before finalizing payroll.
Tamil Nadu is unusual on two counts: it revises annually rather than half-yearly, and its Dearness Allowance is larger than its basic wage. Converted to a daily figure the floor sits below Goa and roughly level with Gujarat, but the structure behind it is quite different.
| State / Benchmark | Unskilled / Day | Structure |
|---|---|---|
| Tamil Nadu – Zone A | ₹540.15 | Basic ₹6,691 + DA ₹7,353 a month, revised annually from 01 Apr |
| Tamil Nadu – Zone D | ₹531.65 | Basic ₹6,470 + DA ₹7,353 a month, same allowance |
| Goa – Zone A | ₹561.00 | Basic ₹412.00 + VDA ₹149.00 a day, revised half-yearly |
| Gujarat – Zone I | ₹512.50 | Basic ₹452.00 + VDA ₹60.50 a day, revised half-yearly |
| Karnataka | Consolidated rate by scheduled employment | |
| National Floor Wage | – | Advisory floor, not directly enforceable on employers |
Lowest notified wage per day, compared with other states. Comparison figures are to be filled from each state’s own notification.
Act on this: do not carry a southern-states rate band across Tamil Nadu, Karnataka and Andhra Pradesh. The three run different structures, different zone maps and different revision cycles, and Tamil Nadu is the only one of them on an annual April cycle.
The table below sets out the minimum wages in Tamilnadu for shops and commercial establishments, effective 01 April 2026 to 31 March 2027. Designations are grouped into five basic bands; the DA of ₹7,353 a month is the same throughout. Daily figures are the monthly total divided by 26.
| Band | Zone | Basic / Month | DA / Month | Total / Month | Total / Day |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Band 1 – Manager, Pharmacist | Zone A | ₹7,390 | ₹7,353 | ₹14,743 | ₹567.04 |
| Zone B | ₹7,328 | ₹7,353 | ₹14,681 | ₹564.65 | |
| Zone C | ₹7,264 | ₹7,353 | ₹14,617 | ₹562.19 | |
| Zone D | ₹7,214 | ₹7,353 | ₹14,567 | ₹560.27 | |
| Band 2 – Supervisor, Accountant | Zone A | ₹6,880 | ₹7,353 | ₹14,233 | ₹547.42 |
| Zone B | ₹6,815 | ₹7,353 | ₹14,168 | ₹544.92 | |
| Zone C | ₹6,753 | ₹7,353 | ₹14,106 | ₹542.54 | |
| Zone D | ₹6,691 | ₹7,353 | ₹14,044 | ₹540.15 | |
| Band 3 – Clerk, Electrician | Zone A | ₹6,829 | ₹7,353 | ₹14,182 | ₹545.46 |
| Zone B | ₹6,753 | ₹7,353 | ₹14,106 | ₹542.54 | |
| Zone C | ₹6,680 | ₹7,353 | ₹14,033 | ₹539.73 | |
| Zone D | ₹6,619 | ₹7,353 | ₹13,972 | ₹537.38 | |
| Band 4 – Driver, Security Guard | Zone A | ₹6,767 | ₹7,353 | ₹14,120 | ₹543.08 |
| Zone B | ₹6,691 | ₹7,353 | ₹14,044 | ₹540.15 | |
| Zone C | ₹6,619 | ₹7,353 | ₹13,972 | ₹537.38 | |
| Zone D | ₹6,553 | ₹7,353 | ₹13,906 | ₹534.85 | |
| Band 5 – Helper, General Worker | Zone A | ₹6,691 | ₹7,353 | ₹14,044 | ₹540.15 |
| Zone B | ₹6,619 | ₹7,353 | ₹13,972 | ₹537.38 | |
| Zone C | ₹6,541 | ₹7,353 | ₹13,894 | ₹534.38 | |
| Zone D | ₹6,470 | ₹7,353 | ₹13,823 | ₹531.65 |
Source: Office of the Commissioner of Labour, Chennai – Notification No. Z3/3459/2026 dated 18 February 2026, effective 01 April 2026 to 31 March 2027, for shops and commercial establishments. Other scheduled employments carry separate notifications. Daily figures are the notified monthly total ÷ 26.
Tamil Nadu uses a four-zone classification based on the type of local body governing the place where the work is performed – not where the employer is registered.
No Tamil Nadu city carries a separate notification. Chennai, Coimbatore, Madurai, Trichy, Salem and the other corporation cities all fall in Zone A, so a general worker in any of them earns ₹14,044 a month or ₹540.15 a day, and a manager earns ₹14,743 a month.
The zone follows the workplace, not the head office – a company registered in Chennai with a branch in a municipal town applies Zone B rates at that branch, and a warehouse in a village panchayat area applies Zone D. Across the whole schedule the Zone A to Zone D gap is ₹176 to ₹221 a month.
From 01 April 2026 to 31 March 2027, minimum wages for shops and commercial establishments in Tamil Nadu run from ₹13,823 a month or ₹531.65 a day for a general worker in Zone D, to ₹14,743 a month or ₹567.04 a day for a manager in Zone A. Every rate includes a Dearness Allowance of ₹7,353 a month.
No. Tamil Nadu operates under the central Minimum Wages Act, 1948. There is no separate state Act. What changes state to state is the notification — for Tamil Nadu that is currently Notification No. Z3/3459/2026 dated 18 February 2026, issued by the Office of the Commissioner of Labour, Chennai.
Annually, with effect from 01 April, which is unusual — most states revise twice a year. The current notification holds until 31 March 2027. The DA is recalculated against the average Consumer Price Index for Chennai City for the preceding calendar year; the 2026 revision used 344 points on the 2001 base series.
Zone A covers all Corporations and Special Grade Municipalities — Chennai, Coimbatore, Madurai, Trichy, Salem, Tirunelveli, Erode, Vellore, Thoothukudi and Tiruppur among others. Zone B is other municipalities, Zone C is townships, town panchayats and cantonments, and Zone D is everywhere else.
Divide the notified monthly total by 26 for the daily rate, then by 8 for the hourly rate. A general worker in Zone A at ₹14,044 a month earns ₹540.15 a day and ₹67.52 an hour. Overtime is twice the ordinary hourly rate, so ₹135.04 an hour for the same worker.
Yes, and they sit higher than most employers assume. Drivers and security guards fall in Band 4, at ₹14,120 a month or ₹543.08 a day in Zone A — above helpers, peons and general workers. Any role not named in the schedule falls into the general workers category, so no employee in a shop or commercial establishment sits outside the floor.
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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