Minimum wage for clinic staff in India: 6 states, 2026 What the state notifications say a receptionist and an attendant must be paid.

The minimum wage for a clinic receptionist in India is whatever your state's minimum wage order fixes for the schedule that covers clinics and the skill category the receptionist falls into. In Bengaluru that is ₹19,246.63 a month for 2026-27 under Karnataka's schedule for hospitals and clinics; in Delhi it is ₹22,411 a month for a matriculate clerical employee from 1 April 2025. The rate changes with the city zone and with the dearness allowance most states add every six or twelve months. The table below gives six states, with the order each figure comes from.

Which law sets the minimum wage in 2026?

The Code on Wages, 2019. Notification S.O. 5322(E) of 21 November 2025 appointed that day for sections 1 to 41, sections 43 to 66 and most of the rest of the Code. Section 69(1) repealed the Payment of Wages Act, 1936, the Minimum Wages Act, 1948, the Payment of Bonus Act, 1965 and the Equal Remuneration Act, 1976. Section 69(2) then saves what the states had already done: "anything done or any action taken under the enactments so repealed including any notification ... shall be deemed to have been done or taken or provided for such purpose under the corresponding provisions of this Code and shall be in force to the extent they are not contrary to the provisions of this Code till they are repealed".

So the state order still governs. Most of the orders we read in October 2026 were still issued in the name of the Minimum Wages Act, 1948, and they continue under section 69(2). Section 5 of the Code is the duty itself: "No employer shall pay to any employee wages less than the minimum rate of wages notified by the appropriate Government." For a private clinic, the appropriate Government is the State Government.

The Code also allows a national floor wage. Section 9(1) says "The Central Government shall fix floor wage taking into account minimum living standards of a worker", and section 9(2) says no state rate may be lower. We found no notification fixing a floor wage under section 9 as of 26 October 2026, so there is no national figure to quote.

Minimum wage for a clinic receptionist and attendant, state by state

Each row is from the state labour department's own order, read on 26 October 2026. Where rates vary by zone we give the largest-city zone. A receptionist is usually clerical or semi-skilled; an attendant, peon or helper is usually unskilled. The order defines the categories, not us.

How to read your state's order in ten minutes

1. Find the schedule. Look for an entry that names hospitals, nursing homes, clinics or dispensaries first. If there is none, use shops and commercial establishments. Delhi applies one set of rates to all scheduled employments.
2. Find the zone. Karnataka's Zone I is "Notified areas of Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike"; Tamil Nadu's Zone A is "All Corporations and Special Grade Municipalities"; Gujarat's Zone I covers municipal corporation and municipality areas.
3. Find the category. Some orders name the job (Karnataka names the receptionist; Tamil Nadu lists "(31) Receptionist"). Others list skill levels only, and the category follows the work done.
4. Add the allowance. Most orders set a basic rate and a variable or special allowance revised every six or twelve months. The minimum is the sum, for the period the allowance covers.
5. Convert if needed. Tamil Nadu divides the monthly rate by 26 for the daily rate, and Karnataka's printed daily figures work out the same way. Gujarat's order gives a daily rate only.
6. Check the period. Maharashtra's January to June 2026 order and Gujarat's April to September 2026 allowance were the latest on those departments' pages when we read them, though their periods had ended. Look for a newer order before you pay.

What each state's order says about clinics

Karnataka

Karnataka has a schedule written for clinics: "Employment in Hospitals, Maternity Homes, Nursing Homes, Clinics and De-Addiction Centres". Its Part on clerical staff puts "Senior Clerk, Cashier ... Receptionist & Other Equivalent Jobs" at a basic of ₹16,420.63 plus VDA of ₹2,826 in Zone I, a total of ₹19,246.63 a month, and "Junior Clerk ... Telephone Operator, Data Entry operator" at ₹18,831.36. The VDA in the document runs from 1 April 2026 to 31 March 2027. Some compliance publishers report a further revision dated May 2026; we did not find it on the department's site, so check before you rely on these figures.

Delhi

Delhi's order of 15 April 2025 declares dearness allowance "payable for all categories w.e.f 01.04.2025" and lists rates "in all schedule employments". Unskilled is ₹18,066 plus ₹390, or ₹18,456 a month; semi-skilled is ₹20,371; skilled is ₹22,411. Clerical and supervisory staff are paid by education: non-matriculate ₹20,371, matriculate but not graduate ₹22,411, graduate and above ₹24,356. The order carries a warning worth repeating: "Case of tampering with the order has come to our notice. Employers/workers may confirm from website of Labour Department". The department's page, updated 23 October 2026, lists no order after this one.

Maharashtra

Maharashtra publishes basic rate plus special allowance per scheduled industry for each half-year. The order for 1 January to 30 June 2026 has two schedules a clinic could fall under: shops and commercial establishments, and the dawakhana (dispensary) industry. In Zone 1 the dawakhana total is higher: ₹16,707 a month for unskilled against ₹13,921 for shops. Which one applies to your clinic is a question for the Labour Commissioner's office or your CA; when in doubt, the higher rate is the safe one to pay.

Madhya Pradesh

The Labour Commissioner, Indore, issued revised rates on 30 September 2026 for 1 October 2026 to 31 March 2027 under the Minimum Wages Act, 1948, covering 67 scheduled employments. Two of them reach a clinic: item 34, employment in a private hospital "जिसमें परामर्श केन्द्र तथा विकृति विज्ञान (पेथालॉजिकल) प्रयोगशाला सम्मिलित है" (including a consultation centre and pathology laboratory), and item 43, shops and commercial establishments. Monthly rates are computed on 26 days and include ₹3,000 VDA.

Tamil Nadu

Tamil Nadu's hospital G.O. (G.O.(2D) No. 21, 26 May 2025) defines a hospital as a building where patients are received and treated, but it "does not include dispensary which gives medical or surgical aid only and not treating them as in-patients". An OPD-only clinic therefore falls under the shops and commercial establishments G.O., No. 65 of 20 August 2024, which lists "(31) Receptionist" and "(42) Attender". Its figures are basic rates; dearness allowance is added at ₹40.18 a month for every point the Chennai consumer price index stands above 161, "calculated every year on the first April". We did not find the 2026 DA figure on the department's site.

Gujarat

Gujarat's schedule 8 covers "any dispensary of a medical practitioner or ... any establishment of medical consultant". It places "Clerk-typist", nurse and compounder in the semi-skilled category and "Compounder (untrained) Dresser, Boy, Ayah, Peon" in unskilled. The basic notification also says part-time employees working up to four hours are paid "50% of the minimum rates of wages plus special allowance".

Hours, overtime and the weekly off

The Code on Wages leaves working hours to the appropriate Government: section 13(1) lets it fix "the number of hours of work which shall constitute a normal working day", provide "a day of rest in every period of seven days", and require payment for work on a day of rest "at a rate not less than the overtime rate". The overtime rate itself is in section 14: where an employee works beyond a normal working day, the employer pays "for every hour or for part of an hour so worked in excess, at the overtime rate which shall not be less than twice the normal rate of wages".

The daily and weekly limits a clinic actually works to come from the state Shops and Establishments Act, which differs from state to state; our post on the shop and establishment licence for clinics has the state table. A receptionist who does the morning OPD and the evening OPD is working one spread-over; add the two shifts before you decide whether overtime is due.

When and how wages must be paid

Pay by bank transfer or UPI to the employee's own account. It leaves a record for both sides, and section 36(4) of the Income-tax Act, 2025 disallows an expense paid in cash above ₹10,000 to one person in a day, which a monthly salary usually is. The month's salary sheet and transfer list go into the monthly accounts pack for your CA.

What to put in the appointment letter

The Ministry of Labour's release of 21 November 2025 announcing the four Labour Codes lists "Mandatory appointment letters to all workers" and, for media workers, an appointment letter "clearly stating their designation, wages, and social security entitlements". Whatever your state, one page signed by both sides settles most disputes before they start.

1. Name, designation (receptionist, attendant, nurse) and the date of joining.
2. Monthly wage, split as the state order splits it (basic and allowance), and the schedule and category you are paying under.
3. Working hours for each OPD shift, the weekly off day, and how overtime is calculated (at least twice the normal rate).
4. Wage period and pay date (before the seventh of the next month), paid to the employee's bank account.
5. Leave as the state Shops Act provides, and the notice period on either side.
6. Whether provident fund and ESI apply. For most clinics under ten people they do not; our post on PF and ESI for small clinics has the thresholds.

Where Vitels fits

Vitels does not run payroll or calculate wages. It runs the front desk: registration, the token queue and billing, so the receptionist you are paying spends the day on patients rather than registers. What the desk does in a day, and what it should not be asked to do, is in our receptionist duties checklist.