India: Employee Benefits & Compensation

The implementation of the Occupational Safety, Health and Working Conditions Code, 2020 (“OSH Code”) has significantly changed the labour-compliance landscape in Maharashtra (hereinafter referred to as the “State”). However, it should not be treated as a blanket replacement of the Maharashtra Shops and Establishments (Regulation of Employment and Conditions of Service) Act, 2017 (“Maharashtra Shops Act”).

The Ministry of Labour & Employment has issued a notification dated September 17, 2026, notifying INR 25,000 per month as the new wage ceiling for the purposes of the provident fund provisions (“PF“) of the Code on Social Security, 2020 (“SS Code”). The notification is effective from September 17, 2026. The wage ceiling was last revised 12 years ago in September 2014, when it was increased from INR 6,500 per month to INR 15,000 per month.

For years, Indian professionals on temporary assignments in the UK faced a quiet but costly problem: paying into two social security systems for the same job, with no additional pension benefit to show for it. That changed on 15 July 2026, when the India-UK Double Contributions Convention (DCC) came into force alongside the broader Comprehensive Economic and Trade Agreement (CETA), finally addressing what officials on both sides had long acknowledged as a sunk cost for mobile talent.