Sir: In the 2014-15 budget, the federal government and the provincial governments of Punjab and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa have raised the minimum wage from Rs 10,000 to Rs 12,000 per month for unskilled workers. Sindh province has also raised its minimum wage from Rs 10,000 to Rs 11,000 per month. But Balochistan province has decided to retain its earlier minimum wage of Rs 9,000 per month, which was raised in 2012. In Pakistan, however, minimum wages are determined by the Minimum Wage Boards constituted under the Ordinance 1961, which applies to all industrial establishments’ employees whether skilled, unskilled or apprentices, and even domestic workers, but the Ordinance has been dishonoured by most industries. The private and semi-government educational institutions such as public schools, especially in the rural areas of Pakistan, exploit the abilities of their employees by denying commensurate compensation to them. Teachers, ministerial staff and lower staff working in these institutions are given a heavy burden of work but they are paid very meagre salaries ranging from Rs 4,000 to Rs 7,000 per month. Beside this, there is no provision of any kind of other allowances, increments and medical facility, etc, to them. Polio workers are hired on a daily wage basis by the World Health Organization (WHO) through provincial health departments to carry out vaccination drives throughout Pakistan. The polio workers perform complicated and precarious work by carrying out vaccination drives in far flung and high risk areas to protect the lives of our children from the polio virus. They are paid a meagre wage of Rs 250 ($ 2.29) per day. The World Health Organization had promised a minimum wage of Rs 1,000 ( $ 9.17) per day for them. Thousands of employees are working on petrol filling stations and CNG stations. These entities pay Rs 5,000-7,500 to their workers and also take 12 hours of work instead of eight hours from their employees per diem. Salaries of employees are deducted even when they take leave from duty owing to illness or some emergency. In this situation, employees of these entities are unable to arrange even two meals per day for their family members. This is sheer injustice with these employees. It is the responsibility of the government to enforce concrete and effective mechanism to ensure payment of salaries to all the employees according to the national and international laws and national economic and social conditions of the country. SHAIKH ABDUL RASHEED Shikarpur