Sri Lanka minimum wage
The statutory national minimum monthly wage payable to all workers in any industry or service, fixed by section 3(1) of the National Minimum Wage of Workers Act, No. 3 of 2016 as amended. Sri Lanka sets this by primary legislation, not by an annual indexation order — it changes only when Parliament amends the Act.
| Current value | 30000 LKR/month (national minimum monthly wage; the corresponding national minimum daily wage is LKR 1,200) |
|---|---|
| In force from | 2026-01-01 |
| Official source | National Minimum Wage of Workers (Amendment) Act, No. 11 of 2025 (certified 23 July 2025; Gazette supplement of 25 July 2025), section 2 substituting section 3(1)(b) of Act No. 3 of 2016: 'With effect from January 1, 2026, the national minimum monthly wage for all workers in any industry or service shall be thirty thousand rupees, and the national minimum daily wage of a worker shall be one thousand two hundred rupees' |
| Last verified | 2026-07-24 |
| Verification | primary — No verification limitation recorded — read from the official source cited. |
| Provenance | source fingerprint |
What this value means
One single national floor — Sri Lanka has NO occupational or regional minimum-wage matrix at national level (sector wage boards under the Wages Boards Ordinance may set higher rates for particular trades, but the Act's figure is the universal floor). Act No. 11 of 2025 legislated a TWO-STEP increase in one instrument: LKR 27,000/month and LKR 1,080/day for 1 April 2025 to 31 December 2025, then LKR 30,000/month and LKR 1,200/day from 1 January 2026. That more than doubles the previous statutory figure of LKR 12,500/month, but the headline jump overstates the real increase: section 3 of the same Act consolidated the two long-standing Budgetary Relief Allowances INTO the minimum wage rather than adding to it. The Budgetary Relief Allowance of Workers Act, No. 36 of 2005 and the Budgetary Relief Allowance of Workers Act, No. 4 of 2016 were both terminated with effect from 31 March 2025 by the Budgetary Relief Allowance of Workers (Amendment) Acts Nos. 9 and 10 of 2025 (both certified 23 July 2025, both deemed to operate from 1 April 2025), and the allowances payable as at 31 March 2025 'shall form part of' the new minimum wage. Section 4 forbids an employer from cutting wages or allowances in a way that negates the increase, and section 5 obliges the Commissioner-General of Labour to direct employers — including the final employer where labour is supplied through an intermediary or contractor — to implement it. Act No. 11 of 2025 was certified 23 July 2025 but is deemed to have come into operation on 1 April 2025. Administered by the Department of Labour under the Ministry of Labour; verified against the certified Act text at documents.gov.lk (Department of Government Printing) because labourdept.gov.lk carries only circulars, not the consolidated Act.
Earlier values
| From | Value | Source |
|---|---|---|
| 2021-08-16 | 12500 | National Minimum Wage of Workers (Amendment) Act, No. 16 of |
| 2025-04-01 | 27000 | National Minimum Wage of Workers (Amendment) Act, No. 11 of |
Get it programmatically
curl https://asiaref.dev/v1/lk/minimum-wage
# $0.001 per call — x402 on Base (USDC). No key, no signup.
# History: curl https://asiaref.dev/v1/lk/minimum-wage/history?from=2020-01-01
# Provenance: curl https://asiaref.dev/provenance/lk/minimum-wageOther Sri Lanka series: policy interest rate · VAT rate · public holidays · inflation rate (CPI) · corporate tax rate · income tax rates