One of the earliest labour legislations in India, the Minimum Wages Act was enacted in 1948 immediately after India attained Independence. But even today a large section of the workforce remains outside the purview of the Minimum Wages Act. This paper takes a look at the efforts made by the Government of India since the enactment of the Act to improve the relevance of minimum wages, its impact in bringing the workers out of the poverty line, the issues that still persist and the way forward.