On the first of May, the world does more than commemorate labour; it measures the distance between economic growth and those who actually produce it. The origins of this day lie in the Haymarket Affair in Chicago, where a demand as basic as an eight-hour workday was met with violence, yet ultimately reshaped global labour standards. Nearly 140 years later, that legacy exists alongside a global economy in which, according to the International Labour Organization (ILOSTAT, 2023), over 60% of Pakistan’s workforce remains in informal employment, without contracts, pensions, or enforceable protections. Globally, the United Nations estimates that more than four billion people lack adequate social security coverage. The defining feature of modern labour markets is no longer employment alone, but the quality, visibility, and protection attached to it.

In Pakistan, the imbalance is not abstract. It is embedded in daily survival. A construction worker in Lahore earning roughly PKR 2,500 a day helps build homes he will never inhabit, while his purchasing power is steadily eroded by inflation in food, fuel, and utilities. Consumption taxes on essentials-petrol, electricity, transport, and mobile services-extract value at every transaction, quietly compressing disposable income long before savings become possible. What appears as revenue generation in fiscal terms functions, at the household level, as continuous pressure on subsistence.

The contrast becomes sharper in urban real estate markets. In high-value enclaves such as Defence Housing Authority, property routinely reaches hundreds of millions of rupees. Yet the labour force that physically constructs this capital remains structurally excluded from asset ownership. Capital appreciation and wage stagnation thus move in opposite directions within the same economy. Growth is visible, but not shared.

Wage policy alone cannot resolve this imbalance. Pakistan has repeatedly adjusted minimum wages over the past........

© Daily Times