Union Cabinet Hikes EPFO Wage Ceiling to ₹25,000

Gist The Union Cabinet has approved a long-pending proposal to raise the wage ceiling for mandatory Employees' Provident Fund Organisation EPFO coverage from ₹15,000 to ₹25,000 . This policy shift extends provident fund and pension benefits to approximately 51 lakh additional workers in the organised sector. While this expansion strengthens the social security net for middle-income employees, long-standing demands to revise the stagnant minimum pension and index it to inflation remain unaddressed, exposing the vulnerabilities of India's retirement framework. Background The Employees' Provident Fund Organisation EPFO is a statutory social security body that manages the retirement savings of India's organised sector workforce. Under the governing framework, establishments employing a minimum number of workers must deduct a percentage of an employee's basic salary, which is matched by the employer, and routed into the Provident Fund and the Employees' Pension Scheme EPS . Prior to this cabinet approval, mandatory EPFO coverage was capped at a monthly wage of ₹15,000 , a threshold that was last revised a decade ago in September 2014 . Before the 2014 amendments, all employees in covered establishments…