Labour Minister Santosh Gangwar on Wednesday said the Wage Code Bill 2017 would be pushed for passage while the Labour Code on Social Security Bill 2018 would be tabled for consideration in the monsoon session of Parliament. “The Standing Committee on Labour has finalised its report on the Code on Wages. We would push the bill for passage in the next session,” Gangwar told reporters at a FICCI event. He also said the ministry had circulated the Code on Social Security for comments on its portal and it would be its endeavour to table the bill in forthcoming session of Parliament. The Wage Code will enable the Centre to set benchmark minimum wages for different regions across the country. The bill's provision provides that states cannot set minimum wages below the benchmark set by the Centre. The draft code on the bill was introduced in the Lok Sabha in August 2017. Thereafter, it was referred to the committee for scrutiny which is expected to submit its report in the Monsoon session. The bill also seeks to combine Payment of Wages Act, 1936, the Minimum Wages Act, 1949, the Payment of Bonus Act, 1965, and the Equal Remuneration Act, 1976, into one code. The draft Labour Code on Social Security 2018 provides concept of community service order to reform offenders and linking pecuniary penalty with inflation. At present, violation under social security laws attracts either fines, imprisonment or a combination of both. Once the code is implemented, the government will not have to approach Parliament for increasing fines under the social security legislation. The draft code would subsume 15 social security laws including Unorganised Workers’ Social Security Act, 2008; Employees’ State Insurance Act, 1948; Employees’ Provident Funds and Miscellaneous Provisions Act, 1952; Maternity Benefit Act, 1961; Payment of Gratuity Act, 1972 and Building and Other Construction Workers Cess Act, 1996, among others.