Govt raises wage threshold for state insurance benefits

The government has overruled opposition from employers to allow an increase in the number of people eligible for Employees’ State Insurance (ESI), which provides medical care to industrial workers and their dependents, by raising the salary cap of beneficiaries to Rs. 21,000 per month from Rs. 15,000.

This means all industrial workers drawing a salary of up to Rs. 21,000 will be eligible for health care-from primary to tertiary- at more than 1,500 clinics and hospitals run by the Employees’ State Insurance Corporation (ESIC) directly or indirectly. The move will add three million workers to the ESIC pool, benefiting 12 million more people when their dependents are taken into account.

Under the Employees State Insurance Act, eligible employees contribute 1.75% of their salary (basic + allowances) and employers contribute 4.75% to the ESI corpus every month.”The ESIC board approved the wage ceiling hike to Rs. 21,000,” said Michael Dias, an ESIC board member and secretary of the Employers’ Association, Delhi.