Centre Hikes MGNREGS Wages By 2-7% For FY26

The Centre has hiked the wages under the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme (MGNREGS) in the range of 2-7% for the financial year 2025-26.

The Ministry of Rural Development (MoRD), which is the nodal ministry to run the rural job guarantee programmes, on March 27 issued a notification revising the NREGS wages for the FY 2025-26.

According to notification, the NREGS wage rates for 2025-26 has been hiked in the range of 2.33-7.48%. In absolute terms, the NREGS wages have seen a hike in the range of Rs 7 to Rs 26. The NREGS wages have been hiked by ₹7 in five states, Andhra Pradesh, Arunachal Pradesh, Assam, Nagaland, and Telangana. The highest increase of Rs 26 has been recorded in Haryana, where NREGS wages will touch the Rs 400-mark during 2025-26 from its current rate of Rs 374 per day. This will be first time the NREGS wages will touch Rs 400 per day in any state.

The government notifies the NREGS wage rates under sub-section (1) of Section 6 of the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act, 2005. The new rates become effective from the 1st day (April 1) of the financial year.

The NREGS wage rates are fixed according to changes in the CPI-AL (Consumer Price Index for Agricultural Labourers), which reflects the increase in inflation in rural areas.

In the current financial year (2024-25), Goa had seen the maximum hike of 10.56% over its previous year (2022-23) wage rate; Uttar Pradesh and Uttarakhand recorded the lowest 3.04%.

During the current financial year (2024-25), 5.66 crore households have availed the rural job guarantee scheme till March 19.

Under MGNREGA, every rural household, whose adult members volunteer to do unskilled manual work, is entitled to get at least 100 days of wage employment in a financial year.

While Section 3 (1) of MGNREGA provides for “not less than 100 days” work per rural household in a financial year, it has become de facto upper limit as the NREGA software does not allow data entries for employment above 100 days to a household unless specifically requested by the State/UT.

In some cases the government allows additional 50 days of wage employment (beyond the stipulated 100 days). For instance, every Scheduled Tribe household in a forest area is entitled to get 150 days of work under NREGS, provided that such families have no other private property except for the land rights granted under the Forest Right Act, 2016.

Besides, the government, under Section 3(4) of MGNREGA, can also provide an additional 50 days of unskilled manual work in a financial year in such rural areas where drought or any natural calamity (as per Ministry of Home Affairs) has been notified.

Source: Agencies