The Telangana government has officially banned cash wage payments to workers, made electronic transfer mandatory, and brought gig workers under the ambit of minimum wages. A Government Order – GO.MS 6 — to this effect was issued on May 30, but came into force on Monday, June 1.

The GO activates the provisions of the Centre’s Code on Wages, 2019, completely repealing and superseding the Minimum Wages Act, 1948, across the state, a statement from the government explaining the provisions of the GO read.

The government statement on the GO issued Monday said: “Payouts via paper cash are explicitly banned. Employers must disburse wages through direct electronic transfer (NEFT/RTGS/IMPS) or bank check, building an unalterable trail for labour inspectors and protecting vulnerable workgroups”.

The GO has also brought to effect, “paid weekly rest days (Sundays off) into the basic monthly compensation matrix, ensuring workers do not lose income for resting,” the statement read. It has also granted overtime, stating: “Any task executed past standard 8-hour daily shifts, or requested on public holidays and weekly rest days, must be compensated as overtime at double (two times) the standard rate of wages”.

Telangana has formalised gig and platform protection by explicitly extending the minimum wage net to eCommerce, Courier Services, and LPG Distribution, the statement read. The GO formally recognised specialised designations such as Drone Technology Pesticide Sprayers under the ‘Highly Skilled’ category, securing premium wages for future professions.

To cut corporate red tape and ensure direct compliance clarity, the order eliminates hundreds of industry-specific schedules. The order categorises all non-agricultural, commercial, and industrial setups into four skill categories and workers are divided into four categories- Unskilled, Semi-skilled, Skilled and Highly skilled for fixing minimum wages. The state has been divided into three zones- Zone 1 covers Municipal Corporations, Zone 2-Municipalities and Zone 3-Rural Areas.

In Zone 1, the minimum wage for unskilled workers has increased from Rs 12,750 to Rs 16,000, for semi-skilled workers, from Rs 13,152 to Rs 17,000; for the skilled category, from Rs 13,772 to Rs 18,500; and for the highly skilled category, from Rs 14,607 to Rs 20,000.

“The clear distinction between Municipal Corporations (Zone-I), Municipalities (Zone-II), and Rural Areas (Zone-III) lets large-scale industrial developers set up labour-intensive projects such as textiles, manufacturing in lower-overhead rural zones while managing corporate setups in urban centres,” the statement read.

According to the statement, “the order established absolute gender neutrality, mandating perfectly uniform minimum wage rates for male, female, transgender, and physically challenged employees performing identical or equivalent work”.

To eliminate the legal loopholes of subcontracting, the order stated that “if a third-party agency fails to deliver wages, the principal employer is directly liable under law to ensure immediate payroll settlement”.

The GO creates “an ideal macro-economic harmony, proving that robust labour protections and a booming, highly competitive business climate can thrive together”, the statement read.