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Ministry

Ministry of Labour and Employment

The Ministry of Labour and Employment is the Union government's department for the terms of work: it drafts and enforces labour law, sets minimum-wage policy, and runs India's contributory social-security machinery through the EPFO and ESIC. Labour is a Concurrent-List subject, so the ministry legislates alongside the states, and its writ reaches the organised workforce directly and — through the e-Shram database and welfare schemes — the far larger unorganised workforce. It is the seat of power that consolidated 29 central labour statutes into four Labour Codes, brought into force in November 2025.

Updated

Headquarters
Shram Shakti Bhawan, Rafi Marg, New Delhi
Statutory bodies
EPFO, ESIC, Directorate General of Training, Labour Bureau, DGFASLI
e-Shram registrations
over 31 crore unorganised workers (Nov 2025)
Legal footprint
29 central labour laws consolidated into 4 Labour Codes
Coverage since 194721 recorded events ·100% from official & primary sources
1945–1949: 2 events1950–1954: 1 event1950196019701980199020002005–2009: 3 events2010–2014: 3 events20102015–2019: 4 events2020–2024: 4 events20202025–2026: 4 events

Role

The Ministry of Labour and Employment is the institution through which the Union government sets and polices the terms of employment. Because labour sits on the Constitution’s Concurrent List, the ministry legislates in parallel with the states: it frames the central statutes and rules, while state governments notify their own rules and enforce much of the law on the ground. Its direct reach is over the organised workforce — enforced through the Employees’ Provident Fund Organisation (retirement savings and pension) and the Employees’ State Insurance Corporation (health and cash benefits) — while its indirect reach, via the e-Shram database and linked welfare schemes, extends toward the unorganised workers who make up the large majority of Indian labour.

The ministry’s defining act of the decade has been legal consolidation: folding 29 central labour laws into four Labour Codes covering wages, industrial relations, social security, and occupational safety. It also runs the employment-facing machinery of the state — the National Career Service, the Directorate General of Training, and, since 2025, the Employment Linked Incentive scheme that pays employers and first-time workers through the EPFO. This places the ministry at the centre of two linked contests: how work is regulated, and whether the economy is generating enough formal jobs.

Desk maintained by IndiaStand editorial cycles. Officeholders are transient; this dossier tracks the institution.

Timeline since 1947

  1. reference

    Labour portfolio constituted at independence

    The Union government constituted a dedicated labour portfolio at independence, giving the centre a standing department for labour legislation, industrial relations and worker welfare.

    source 1

  2. reference

    Foundational labour statutes enacted

    The Minimum Wages Act, the Factories Act and the Employees' State Insurance Act framed post-independence labour protection.

    source 1

  3. reference

    Employees' Provident Funds Act; EPFO established

    Created the contributory provident-fund system that the Employees' Provident Fund Organisation still administers.

    source 1

  4. reference

    Rashtriya Swasthya Bima Yojana launched under the labour ministry

    The ministry began running a cashless hospitalisation insurance scheme for below-poverty-line families, implemented across 25 states; roughly 36 million families were enrolled by February 2014.

    source 1

  5. reference

    Unorganised Workers' Social Security Act, 2008 receives assent

    The Act gave the ministry its first statutory framework for the unorganised workforce, mandating welfare schemes for life and disability cover, health and maternity benefits, and old-age protection.

    source 1source 2

  6. reference

    National Social Security Board constituted

    The board created under the 2008 Act was formally set up to recommend social-security schemes for unorganised workers to the central government.

    source 1

  7. reference

    EPS-95 wage ceiling raised from ₹6,500 to ₹15,000 a month

    The revision more than doubled the wage base for the Employees' Pension Scheme, widening mandatory EPFO coverage and raising the pensionable-salary cap.

    source 1

  8. reference

    Universal Account Number launched for EPFO members

    The UAN gave each covered employee a single portable identifier across employers, the first step in making provident-fund accounts follow the worker rather than the job.

    source 1

  9. reference

    Skill development carved out into a separate ministry

    Responsibility for skill development was transferred from the labour ministry to the newly created Ministry of Skill Development and Entrepreneurship, splitting training policy from labour regulation.

    source 1

  10. reference

    RSBY transferred to the Health Ministry

    The ministry gave up its flagship health-insurance scheme for BPL families to the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare, narrowing its social-security footprint to the contributory EPFO and ESIC machinery.

    source 1

  11. reference

    National Career Service portal launched

    The ministry stood up a national online exchange linking job seekers and employers, the successor to the physical employment-exchange network.

    source 1source 2

  12. reference

    RSBY subsumed into Ayushman Bharat PM-JAY

    In 2018-19 the scheme the labour ministry had launched in 2008 ceased to exist as a standalone programme, folded into the health ministry's PM-JAY.

    source 1

  13. reference

    Code on Wages, 2019 receives assent

    The first of the four codes, it introduced a national floor wage and a uniform statutory definition of wages.

    source 1

  14. reference

    Three remaining Labour Codes receive assent

    The Industrial Relations, Social Security, and Occupational Safety, Health and Working Conditions Codes were assented to on the same day.

    source 1

  15. reference

    Unorganised Workers' Social Security Act, 2008 repealed

    The 2008 Act was repealed and its subject matter absorbed into the Code on Social Security, 2020, consolidating the ministry's statutory basis for unorganised-worker welfare.

    source 1

  16. reference

    e-Shram portal launched

    A national database of unorganised workers, seeded with Aadhaar, issuing a Universal Account Number on self-declaration.

    source 1

  17. reference

    EPF interest rate cut to 8.10% for 2021-22

    The EPFO lowered the declared rate on provident-fund balances to 8.10%, the lowest in decades, a decision taken by the ministry-chaired trustee board on a corpus that had reached about ₹15.6 lakh crore in May 2021.

    source 1

  18. reference

    EPFO death-relief ex-gratia raised to ₹15 lakh

    The ex-gratia payable from the Employees' Deposit Linked Insurance-adjacent death relief fund was raised from ₹8.8 lakh to ₹15 lakh.

    source 1

  19. official

    Cabinet approves the Employment Linked Incentive (ELI) Scheme

    A ₹99,446-crore scheme routed through the EPFO to subsidise first-time formal jobs and additional hiring, with a stated target of more than 3.5 crore jobs over two years.

    source 1

  20. reference

    Four Labour Codes brought into force

    The government notified the effective date for the major provisions of the codes, consolidating 29 central labour laws into four.

    source 1

  21. reference

    Draft Central Rules under the codes gazetted

    The ministry published draft rules for stakeholder comment, the operational detail beneath the enacted codes.

    source 1

Frequently asked

What is Ministry of Labour and Employment?
The Ministry of Labour and Employment is the Union government's department for the terms of work: it drafts and enforces labour law, sets minimum-wage policy, and runs India's contributory social-security machinery through the EPFO and ESIC. Labour is a Concurrent-List subject, so the ministry legislates alongside the states, and its writ reaches the organised workforce directly and — through the e-Shram database and welfare schemes — the far larger unorganised workforce. It is the seat of power that consolidated 29 central labour statutes into four Labour Codes, brought into force in November 2025.
When was Ministry of Labour and Employment established?
Ministry of Labour and Employment was established 1947.
What does Ministry of Labour and Employment do?
Its remit covers Labour legislation and its enforcement (Concurrent List), Minimum wages and the national floor wage, Contributory social security via the EPFO (provident fund, pension) and ESIC (health insurance), Occupational safety, health and working conditions, Industrial relations, trade-union recognition and dispute resolution, Registration and welfare of unorganised, gig and platform workers (e-Shram).
What is the latest on Ministry of Labour and Employment?
As of 2026-07-06: Draft Central Rules under the codes gazetted. The ministry published draft rules for stakeholder comment, the operational detail beneath the enacted codes.

Official sources

The government's own pages for this institution — go straight to the primary.

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