Fixing Minimum Wage in Pakistan: Comparative Analysis of the ILO Convention No. 131 and the Islamic Principles of Adal and Ihsan
Fixing Minimum Wage in Pakistan: Comparative Analysis of the ILO Convention No. 131 and the Islamic Principles of Adal and Ihsan
Muhammad Amin
 
Abstract: The existing economic theories on fixing wages for labourers, including the demand and supply theory and the minimum wage theory, are meant to address the economic inequality in the world. At the international level, the struggle between the labourers and the capitalists was ripe at the time of the League of Nations. However, economic experts could not find an adequate solution then. As a result of this struggle, the International Labour Organization (ILO) was established in 1919.1 Ever since, the ILO has passed eight core wages conventions,2 including the Convention No. 131 in 1970,3 which creates the principle of minimum wage. This article compares this principle of minimum wage with the principles of Adal and Ihsan in Islamic law. The article examines if minimum wage can be regulated more adequately based on a combination ILO’s minimum wage principle and the principles of Adal and Ihsan in Islamic law. Placing this analysis in the perspectives of Pakistan, the article concludes that a regulation of minimum wage based on the combination of ILO’s minimum wage principles and Islamic principles will improve the conditions of economic inequality in Pakistan.

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