Equal Remuneration: Meaning, Rules & Same Work
Updated 4 min read
Definition
Equal remuneration means one employer paying its employees the same wages for the same work or work of a similar nature, whatever their gender.
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What Is Equal Remuneration?
The Act that most pages still name for this rule stopped existing in November 2025.
Equal remuneration means one employer paying its employees the same wages for the same work or work of a similar nature, whatever their gender. Section 3 of the Code on Wages, 2019 carries the rule in India, and section 69(1) repealed the Equal Remuneration Act, 1976.
The test is not the job title. It is what the work actually demands.
How Same Work Is Decided
Section 2(v) sets the test, and it is tighter than it looks. Two jobs are the same work where the skill, effort, experience and responsibility they require are the same, performed under similar working conditions.
Differences are weighed, not counted. One that is not of practical importance to the terms and conditions of employment does not break the match. The jobs still count as the same work.
A difference has to be real and priced into the job, not a label on an offer letter.
Equal Remuneration vs Minimum Wages
Both sit inside the same Code and answer different questions.
| Aspect | Minimum wages | Equal remuneration |
|---|---|---|
| Sets | A floor nobody is paid below | No gap on the same work |
| Benchmark | A government notification | What a colleague is paid |
| Breach | Paying under the notified rate | Paying less on the ground of gender |
| Section | 5 and 6 | 3 |
A business can clear the minimum wage in its state and still breach section 3. The floor says nothing about two people doing the same job.
Equal Remuneration Example
A garment unit in Delhi (an example) runs two single-needle machine lines in March 2026. Both operators do the same stitching, the same hours and the same output target. One is a man and one is a woman.
| Operator | Daily wage |
|---|---|
| A (man) | ₹648 |
| B (woman) | ₹572 |
Note: this is an invented example for illustration only. The unit, the dates and the wage figures are made up.
That ₹76 gap has to answer to the four-factor test. Where the skill, effort, experience and responsibility match, section 3 does not care which line ran faster last month.
What settles it is the record: which operation each line ran, what training each operator had, and what each has been paid since joining.
What Employers Get Wrong
Three things catch businesses out:
- Levelling down is not allowed. Section 3(2)(i) says an employer may not reduce anyone’s wages in order to comply. Closing a gap means lifting the lower wage.
- The rule reaches hiring and the terms, not just payroll. Section 3(2)(ii) covers recruiting for the same work and the conditions of employment. The exception is work where a law prohibits or restricts the employment of women.
- The ground is not the same in both places. Section 3(1) says gender for wages. Section 3(2)(ii) says sex for hiring and terms. The wider word sits on the pay rule.
A dispute about whether two jobs are the same work is not the employer’s to settle. Section 4 sends it to an authority the appropriate government notifies, so write down why two roles differ before anyone asks. Our guide to who the Code on Wages covers sets out the rest of the Code.
The Pay Records a Claim Turns On
The answer lives in your records: what each person does, what each is paid, and how long each has done it. Attendo (formerly Petpooja Payroll) is a complete workforce management system for every kind of business. It holds employee records, attendance and pay together, so two histories can be read side by side.
To see how that sits against your own payroll, take a look at Attendo. It will not decide whether two jobs are the same work, and no software should.