With effect from 1 April, 2017 the minimum wage for unskilled labour in Uttar Pradesh has been fixed at:

The correct answer is B) Rs.7400 per month, effective from 1 April 2017. Minimum wages are fixed by the state government under the Minimum Wages Act, 1948, and the figures are revised periodically through notifications by the state labour department. The 2017 revision is the one this question tests.

Why the others are wrong:

• A) Rs.7000 is a figure from an earlier revision, not the one notified from 1 April 2017.
• C) Rs.7800 and D) Rs.8200 are not the notified unskilled rates for that date.

The core concept is that minimum wages are a statutory floor set by the appropriate government, with categories (unskilled, semi-skilled, skilled) and zones, and they are reviewed at intervals. For Mains, this links to wage policy, the code on wages, and the gap between notified and actual wages in the informal sector.

These rates change, so verify the figure against the latest labour department notification before relying on it for any other year.

Trap: aspirants often memorise a number without checking the effective date, and pick a later or earlier revision that looks plausible.