The Congress on Monday accused the Narendra Modi government of inflating rural wage growth figures through changes in data collection methods, alleging that the reported surge in rural earnings is more a result of “data doctoring” than actual improvements in workers’ incomes.
Congress general secretary Jairam Ramesh claimed that the government had quietly altered the sampling framework used by the Labour Bureau to calculate rural wages, creating an artificial impression of strong wage growth while masking what he described as persistent stagnation in real incomes.
In a post on social media, Ramesh argued that stagnant real wages remain one of the key reasons behind India's economic slowdown, as weak income growth has constrained consumer demand and discouraged private investment.
“We have consistently flagged that the root cause of India’s economic slowdown is the stagnation in real wages, which has weakened consumption growth and deterred private investment. Unable to fix this original sin, the Modi Government is now ‘doctoring’ a rural wages boom,” he said.
According to Ramesh, official data showed annual rural wage growth accelerating sharply from around 6 per cent to 17-18 per cent between June 2025 and March 2026, while average daily wages reportedly rose by 12.7 per cent in a single month.
The Congress leader alleged that this apparent jump was driven by a methodological revision rather than genuine wage gains. He claimed that the Labour Bureau introduced a new sampling framework without issuing a public announcement or website disclosure, bringing workers from several northeastern states, Delhi and Goa into the sample pool.
Ramesh contended that the newly added regions account for only about 1.2 per cent of India’s workforce but make up nearly 11 per cent of the revised sample. He further argued that wages in these regions are significantly higher than in the earlier sample because of lower dependence on agricultural employment and a greater concentration of higher-skilled workers.
“Most importantly, their average wages run 50-55 per cent above the old sample because newly added regions have far less agricultural employment and more higher-skilled workforces,” he said.
Based on what he described as an analysis of the underlying data, Ramesh claimed that actual rural wage growth would have been around 4.3 per cent annually, which he said would represent the weakest increase in four years.
The Congress leader also drew parallels with what he described as earlier changes in employment statistics. He alleged that in 2024 the government, through the RBI, had modified the definition of employment to project a sharp increase in job creation since FY18.
“This is the entire political science of data doctoring at play,” Ramesh said, taking a swipe at the government.
The Centre has not yet responded to the allegations. The issue is likely to intensify political debate over economic indicators, employment trends and rural distress in the run-up to key policy discussions and upcoming elections.