Glossary
Floor wage
A national wage baseline that state minimum wages cannot fall below, set by the central government under the Code on Wages to reduce regional wage disparity.
The floor wage is a national baseline the central government sets, considering factors like cost of living, below which no state can fix its minimum wage. States remain free to set higher minimum wages than the floor.
It replaces the old system where minimum wages varied entirely by state and scheduled employment, with no nationwide baseline at all.
Why it matters now: for multi-state employers, the floor wage is the backstop figure to check. Use it when a state hasn’t yet updated its own minimum-wage notification under the new regime.