Consumer Price Indexes for Agricultural Labourers and Industrial Workers have been available since the 1960s. Here’s a long term chart of how they’ve fared.
Farm Workers (Agricultural Labourers)
Source: Labour Ministry
Farm Workers have had it rotten. With inflation spiking in the 70s to over 40% from oil shocks and supply constraints, things had largely gotten under control until about 2004. Then came NREGA which changed a lot – and took Farm CPI Inflation to 18% in Jan 2010. A small reveral took rates below 10% but since mid-2012, rates are rising again.
In Jun 2013, the number is 12.85%.
CPI: Industrial Workers
Source: Labour Ministry
CPI (IW) data shows a similar pattern. The current number is 10.7% for May 2013.
Bonus: CPI (Rural Labourers)
Oh yes, there’s another CPI number, for Rural Labourers. Data only from 1995.
Source: Labour Ministry
We’re at 12.65% (June 2013).
And for the “New” CPI, check out the CPI chart (Jun 2013). Currently at 9.87%.
Key Point: For workers, costs have gone up 25-28x since the 60s. Compounded rate of 13% per year.
