The Equal Remuneration Act, 1976 mandated equal pay for men and women doing the same or similar work, and barred gender discrimination in recruitment, following India’s ratification of an ILO equal-pay convention.

What replaced it, and one genuine refinement

The Act came into force on 8 March 1976 and remained standalone law for nearly five decades. It was repealed on 21 November 2025 and its substance carried directly into the Code on Wages, 2019, Sections 3 and 4, which define comparable work as “the same work or work of a similar nature.” The successor provision includes one meaningful refinement: it bars discrimination on the ground of “gender” rather than the original Act’s narrower “sex,” a textual widening that extends the protection to transgender persons. The underlying equal-pay principle also has independent constitutional standing under Article 39(d), a Directive Principle, separate from either the old Act or its replacement.

Frequently asked questions

Is this Act still separately operative?

No, it was repealed and its provisions absorbed into the Code on Wages, though the underlying principle continues unchanged in substance.

What’s the practical difference between “gender” and “sex” in the wording?

The updated wording under the Code on Wages reaches transgender persons explicitly, something the original 1976 Act’s narrower language didn’t clearly cover.

How does this relate to pay equity as a company practice?

This Act set the legal floor; pay equity as a broader HR practice covers auditing for and fixing unexplained pay gaps beyond just the legal minimum.

See pay equity for how this principle plays out as an ongoing company practice, and the Code on Wages that now houses it.