LABOUR LAW COMPLIANCE · INDIA, 2026

India's Labour Codes 2026: Only 5 States Have Notified All the Rules, and What That Means for Employers

The codes are in force nationally. Whether they apply to your establishment still depends on your state's gazette — and for 25 of them, that gazette hasn't come yet.

By Sandeep Kumar, Co Founder, Praans Consultech
B.Sc., LLB, LLM, PGCHRM (XLRI) · 16+ years in labour law compliance · Last verified 20 August 2026

Ask an HR leader running payroll across several states if the Labour Codes apply to them, and you will get a confident yes. Ask which state's actual gazetted rules they are using, and the room goes quiet. That gap between nationally in force and state notified is where India's biggest employer compliance risk sits right now, in the second half of 2026.

QUICK ANSWER

India's four Labour Codes came into force nationally on 21 November 2025, and the Central Rules under all four were notified on 8 May 2026. At the state level, only 5 of 37 states and union territories have notified rules for every code (Andhra Pradesh, Arunachal Pradesh, Bihar, Gujarat, and the Central Rules). 7 have notified some codes but not others. 25 have not notified a single rule under any code. Until a state notifies, its earlier labour laws keep applying there.

Implementation Category	Jurisdiction Count	Notable States / UTs	Operative Law Right Now
Fully notified	5	Andhra Pradesh, Arunachal Pradesh, Bihar, Gujarat, Central Rules	New Labour Code rules across all four codes
Partially notified	7	Rajasthan, Ladakh, Nagaland, Manipur, Mizoram, Sikkim, Lakshadweep	New rules for notified codes, old state law for the rest
Draft or pending only	25	Maharashtra, Karnataka, Tamil Nadu, Delhi, Uttar Pradesh, West Bengal, Telangana	Old state labour laws, except the central wage definition and its 50 percent cap

If that number surprised you, you are not alone. A lot of employers assumed that once the codes were live nationally, compliance obligations shifted overnight everywhere. That is not how it works, and getting this wrong is an expensive mistake to make.

What "In Force" Actually Means for Multi-State Employers

The four codes replaced 29 older central labour laws. Each code carries a repeal and savings clause, and the effect of that clause is simple even if the drafting is not: until your state notifies its own rules under a code, the earlier state law connected to that subject keeps applying in that state. Central notification does not override it.

So a factory in a state that has not notified Industrial Relations rules is still governed by the old Industrial Disputes Act framework and the old Standing Orders rules as adopted by that state, not by the Industrial Relations Code's version of standing orders, layoff compensation, or the threshold for prior government permission before retrenchment. The Code exists. It is in force nationally. It just is not the operative law in that state yet, for that subject.

One significant exception trips up a lot of employers. Certain provisions read directly off the central Code regardless of state rule status. The wage definition under the Code on Wages is the clearest example. That definition, and the 50 percent cap on exempted components like HRA, conveyance, and special allowances, feeds directly into provident fund and gratuity calculations. It does not wait for a state notification to matter. If your CTC structure pushes exclusions above that cap, you have exposure today, not from the date your state eventually notifies its wage rules.

The 5 States That Have Notified All 4 Labour Codes

As of the most recent gazette review, five states or jurisdictions have notified final rules for all four codes: Andhra Pradesh, Arunachal Pradesh, Bihar, Gujarat, and the Central Rules themselves. Andhra Pradesh is the newest addition to this list, having closed out its Industrial Relations Code rules after already carrying Wages, OSH, and Social Security. Arunachal Pradesh and Gujarat moved earliest, notifying several of their rules years before the codes came into force nationally.

State / UT	Code on Wages	Industrial Relations Code	OSH Code	Social Security Code
Andhra Pradesh	Notified	Notified	Notified	Notified
Arunachal Pradesh	Notified	Notified	Notified	Notified
Bihar	Notified	Notified	Notified	Notified
Central	Notified	Notified	Notified	Notified
Gujarat	Notified	Notified	Notified	Notified

Being on this list matters practically. In these states, an employer restructuring CTC, revising standing orders, or setting up a new establishment is working against a settled rulebook rather than a moving one. Compliance calendars, form formats, and thresholds are fixed and gazetted, not draft language that could still change before it is finalised.

Partial Implementation: The 7 States With Mixed Rules

Seven states and union territories have notified some but not all of their codes, which is arguably the messier position to be in. Ladakh, Nagaland, and Rajasthan have each notified three of the four codes, but the missing piece is different in every case, which is exactly what makes this bucket easy to get wrong. Manipur and Mizoram sit at two out of four. Lakshadweep and Sikkim have notified just one code each, in both cases Wages, while the other three remain in draft or pending.

State / UT	Code on Wages	Industrial Relations Code	OSH Code	Social Security Code	Codes Notified
Ladakh	Notified	Notified	Draft	Notified	3 of 4
Nagaland	Draft	Notified	Notified	Notified	3 of 4
Rajasthan	Notified	Notified	Notified	Draft	3 of 4
Manipur	Notified	Draft	Draft	Notified	2 of 4
Mizoram	Draft	Draft	Notified	Notified	2 of 4
Lakshadweep	Notified	Draft	Draft	Draft	1 of 4
Sikkim	Notified	Draft	Draft	Draft	1 of 4

What this means in practice is that an employer in, say, Rajasthan is dealing with three different finalised rulebooks and one that still runs on the old state law until the Social Security rules catch up. Your compliance calendar, registers, and filing formats can differ code by code within the same state, and a generic assumption that Rajasthan is fully compliant will miss the one code still hanging.

Rajasthan moved fast on the Wages and Industrial Relations fronts in August 2026, with both sets of final rules notified on the same day under the same file series from the state labour department. That coordinated release suggests the remaining Social Security rules are not far behind, but not far behind is not the same as notified, and Andhra Pradesh's own move from three codes to four is a reminder that this list can shift with a single gazette entry.

The 25 States With No Code Notified Yet

This is the biggest bucket by far. Twenty five of the 37 tracked jurisdictions have not notified a single rule under any of the four codes, and it includes states that carry an enormous share of India's organised workforce, among them Maharashtra, Karnataka, Tamil Nadu, Delhi, Uttar Pradesh, and West Bengal.

State / UT	Code on Wages	Industrial Relations Code	OSH Code	Social Security Code
Andaman and Nicobar Islands	Draft	Draft	Draft	Draft
Assam	Draft	Draft	Draft	Draft
Chandigarh	Draft	Draft	Draft	Draft
Chhattisgarh	Draft	Draft	Draft	Draft
Dadra and Nagar Haveli	Draft	Draft	Draft	Draft
Delhi	Draft	Draft	Draft	Draft
Goa	Draft	Pending	Draft	Draft
Haryana	Draft	Draft	Draft	Draft
Himachal Pradesh	Draft	Draft	Draft	Draft
Jammu and Kashmir	Draft	Draft	Draft	Draft
Jharkhand	Draft	Draft	Draft	Draft
Karnataka	Draft	Draft	Draft	Draft
Kerala	Draft	Draft	Draft	Draft
Madhya Pradesh	Draft	Draft	Draft	Draft
Maharashtra	Draft	Draft	Draft	Draft
Meghalaya	Draft	Draft	Draft	Draft
Odisha	Draft	Draft	Draft	Draft
Puducherry	Draft	Draft	Draft	Draft
Punjab	Draft	Draft	Draft	Draft
Tamil Nadu	Draft	Draft	Draft	Pending
Telangana	Draft	Draft	Draft	Draft
Tripura	Draft	Draft	Draft	Draft
Uttar Pradesh	Draft	Draft	Draft	Draft
Uttarakhand	Draft	Draft	Draft	Draft
West Bengal	Draft	Draft	Draft	Draft

Goa and Tamil Nadu are worth a second look inside this bucket. Both carry one code marked Pending rather than Draft, meaning that specific code has nothing on the table yet, not even a version for comment, while the other three codes in each state at least have draft rules circulating.

For most of these, draft rules exist and public comment periods have closed or are ongoing, a meaningfully different position from a state that has issued nothing at all. Karnataka, Maharashtra, and Tamil Nadu all have draft rules on the table across multiple codes. But draft is draft. It is not enforceable, it can still change before it is finalised, and building your compliance program around a draft that has not been gazetted is a bet, not a plan.

If your workforce sits mainly in one of these large industrial states, the practical reality right now is that the old state labour laws, the ones the Labour Codes were meant to eventually replace, are still what governs your day to day filings, registers, and standing orders. Your payroll wage definition still needs to reflect the new Code's 50 percent cap regardless, but almost everything else waits on your state's gazette.

Why Employers Cannot Just Wait This Out

The instinct to sit tight until a state finalises its rules is understandable, but it creates two separate problems.

The first is the CTC and payroll exposure already mentioned. That clock is running everywhere, notified or not, because the wage definition sits in the central Code itself.

The second is operational readiness. Rules do not usually appear with a long runway. When a state finalises its Industrial Relations rules, the new standing orders format, retrenchment and layoff thresholds, and OSH compounding provisions can become operative law from the date of gazette publication, sometimes the same day. Ladakh's Wages and Social Security rules, Rajasthan's Wages and Industrial Relations rules, and several other 2026 notifications all took effect from their publication date with no transition window. An employer that reads the notification only after it lands is already behind on registers, contracts, and internal policy documents.

A quieter risk sits in multi state operations, inconsistent treatment across your own branches. If your Gujarat unit is fully on the new rules and your Maharashtra unit is still on the old Shops and Establishments and Industrial Disputes framework, your HR and legal teams are running two different playbooks at once, and centrally drafted policy can easily assume one uniform national rule set that does not exist yet.

What a Sensible Compliance Posture Looks Like Right Now

A few things are worth doing regardless of where your state stands.

Know your state's status per code, not as a single label. Partial or notified covers four separate rulebooks, and treating a state as one block hides the code still pending.
Fix your wage structure to the 50 percent cap now. This is not state dependent, and retrofitting payroll after an audit flags it costs far more than getting ahead of it.
Keep standing orders and HR policy documents mapped against whichever rulebook is actually operative in each state, and update that mapping the moment a notification lands, not at your next scheduled review.
Where OSH single registration has come into force in a state, check for duplicate registrations under the old regime. Running both is not extra safety, it is a compliance gap in itself.
Watch the gazette, not the news cycle. Coverage often treats the Labour Codes as a finished story. New state notifications, draft rules, and corrigenda are being published through 2026 on an almost weekly basis, and the practical picture keeps shifting under that headline, as Andhra Pradesh's move from partial to fully notified shows.

Tracking a Moving Target Across 37 Jurisdictions

This is genuinely difficult to do manually if you operate in more than two or three states. Every state runs its own timeline, its own gazette, and its own numbering and file reference system, and a rule that was draft last month can be final this month with no advance notice beyond the gazette itself.

We built the Labour Codes 2026 State Wise Implementation Status Tracker for exactly this reason. It tracks all 37 states and union territories against all four codes individually, not as a single overall label, with each entry linking through to the gazette reference, the notification date, and the detail page for that specific rule. It is reviewed against fresh gazette notifications on an ongoing basis, so it reflects where things actually stand rather than where they stood when a report was first written.

If you want the current picture for the specific states your organisation operates in, that tracker is the fastest way to get it, and it costs nothing to check.

The Bottom Line

India does not have one Labour Codes compliance date. It has 37 of them, running at 37 different speeds, plus a set of central provisions that apply everywhere regardless. Five states have finished the job. Seven are partway through. Twenty five have not started notifying anything, even though draft rules exist for many of them. None of that changes the fact that your payroll wage definition already needs to reflect the new Code, and none of it excuses waiting until a state notification catches an employer off guard.

Check every state you operate in, code by code, not as one overall label, and check it again the next time a gazette lands, because that is how often the picture actually moves.

Frequently Asked Questions

Have the Labour Codes actually come into force in India?

Yes, at the central level, from 21 November 2025, with Central Rules notified on 8 May 2026. But most day to day compliance obligations still depend on your specific state notifying its own rules, so being in force nationally does not automatically mean it applies to your establishment yet.

How many states have notified all four Labour Codes so far?

Five, as of the current tracking period: Andhra Pradesh, Arunachal Pradesh, Bihar, and Gujarat among the states, alongside the Central Rules. Twelve of the 37 tracked states and union territories have notified at least one of the four codes.

What happens in a state that has not notified any Labour Code rules?

The repeal and savings clause in each code keeps the state's earlier labour laws operating until that state notifies its own rules. Employers there continue following the existing state law rather than assuming the new Code applies automatically.

Does the new wage definition apply even if my state has not notified anything?

Yes. The wage definition and the 50 percent cap on exempted pay components sit in the central Code itself and feed directly into provident fund and gratuity calculations, so this applies regardless of your state's notification status.

Where can I check my state's current status?

Check your state's status on the Labour Codes 2026 Tracker, which covers all 37 states and union territories against all four codes individually and is updated as fresh gazette notifications come in.

Talk to Praans Consultech

If your organisation runs payroll or HR operations across more than one state, working out which Labour Code rules actually apply to you, code by code, state by state, is not something to leave to a quarterly review. Praans Consultech tracks central and state gazette notifications on an ongoing basis and helps employers translate that into an actual compliance calendar, wage structure review, and documentation update. Talk to us before your next payroll cycle or policy revision, not after a notification catches you off guard.

Call 9050576838 or write to info@praansconsultech.com to get started.

About the Author

Sandeep Kumar is Co Founder and Labour Law Consultant at Praans Consultech, India's labour law compliance platform. He holds a B.Sc., LLB, LLM, and PGCHRM from XLRI, and is currently pursuing a PhD. He has over 16 years of experience advising employers on labour law compliance across India.

Sources

Ministry of Labour and Employment, Government of India, notifications bringing the Code on Wages 2019, the Industrial Relations Code 2020, the Code on Social Security 2020, and the Occupational Safety, Health and Working Conditions Code 2020 into force.
Central Rules under all four Labour Codes, notified 8 May 2026.
State labour department gazette notifications for Andhra Pradesh, Arunachal Pradesh, Bihar, Gujarat, Ladakh, Nagaland, Rajasthan, Manipur, Mizoram, Lakshadweep, and Sikkim, as cited on the respective state detail pages of the Praans Consultech Labour Codes tracker.
Praans Consultech, Labour Codes 2026 State Wise Implementation Status Tracker, last verified 20 August 2026.

Disclaimer: This article is for general awareness only and does not constitute legal advice. It has been prepared in good faith based on bare acts and publicly available government notifications current as of the date of publication. Rules under the Labour Codes are being notified by states on an ongoing basis, and the status described here can change. Employers should verify the current position for their specific state and establishment with a qualified professional before making compliance or payroll decisions.

India's Labour Codes 2026: Only 5 States Have Notified All the Rules, and What That Means for Employers

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