Definition
Wages: Wages are defined to include all remuneration capable of being expressed in monetary terms and also payable/paid more or less regularly in each pay period to workers (defined above) as compensation for work done during the accounting year. It includes:
(i) Direct wages and salary (i.e. basic wages/salaries, payment of overtime, dearness, compensatory, house rent and other allowances);
(ii) Remuneration for period not worked (i.e. basic wages), salaries and allowances payable for leave period, paid holidays, lay-off payments and compensation for unemployment (if not paid from source other than employers);
(iii) Bonus and ex-gratia payment paid both at regular and less frequent intervals (i.e., incentive bonuses and good attendance bonuses, production bonuses, profit sharing bonuses, festival or yearend bonuses etc.).
It excludes layoff payments and compensation for employment except where such payments are for this purpose, i.e., payments not made by the employer. It excludes employer's contribution to old age benefits and other social security charges, direct expenditure on maternity benefits and creches and other group benefit in kind and travelling and other expenditure incurred for business purposes and reimbursed by the employer. The wages are expressed in terms of gross value, i.e., before deductions for fines, damages, taxes, provident fund, employee's state insurance contribution etc. Benefits in kind (perquisites) of individual nature are only included.
