The Anoop Satpathy Committee is an Expert Committee constituted by the Ministry of Labour and Employment, Government of India, to recommend a methodology for fixing the National Minimum Wage (NMW). It was formed on January 17, 2018, under the chairmanship of Dr. Anoop Satpathy, a Fellow at the V. V. Giri National Labour Institute, and submitted its report on February 14, 2019. The committee was created to address the need for a scientific, evidence-based approach to set a baseline minimum wage for all workers across India, a requirement that gained urgency with the introduction of the Code on Wages Bill, 2017.
The committee's mechanism for wage fixation was based on the norms established by the Indian Labour Conference (ILC) of 1957 and the Supreme Court judgment in Workmen vs Reptakos Brett & Co. (1992). It recommended a need-based national minimum wage of ₹375 per day (₹9,750 per month) as of July 2018 for a family of 3.6 consumption units, irrespective of sector or location. The methodology included a "balanced diet approach" based on nutritional requirements from the Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) and proposed that the wage cover essential non-food items. Furthermore, it recommended an additional house rent allowance (city compensatory allowance) averaging up to ₹55 per day for urban workers and suggested different NMWs for five geographical regions.
The committee's work is directly connected to the Code on Wages, 2019, which amalgamates four labour laws, including the Minimum Wages Act, 1948, and mandates a National Floor Wage. However, the central government did not fully adopt the recommendations, and instead constituted the Ajit Mishra Committee in June 2021 to provide further technical inputs on minimum wage fixation, effectively replacing the process initiated by the Satpathy Committee.