<![CDATA[This study analyzes Indonesia’s minimum-wage policy after the enactment of Law Number 6 of 2023 and Government Regulation Number 51 of 2023, with particular attention to its legal design, implementation, and contribution to workers’ welfare. It uses normative legal research with statutory and conceptual approaches. Primary legal materials comprise the 1945 Constitution, manpower legislation, and wage regulations, while secondary materials include scholarly literature and official labor statistics. The materials are analyzed qualitatively through interpretation, systematization, and evaluation of the consistency between legal norms and implementation. The study finds that minimum wages function as a mandatory wage floor for workers with less than one year of service, whereas workers with longer service should be protected through a wage structure and scale. Although this framework can support purchasing power and prevent excessively low wages, its welfare effect remains uneven because of employer non-compliance, limited labor inspection, regional disparities, and the exclusion of many informal workers from wage-setting protection. The effectiveness of minimum-wage policy therefore depends not only on the annual formula but also on enforceable supervision, accessible complaint mechanisms, application of wage structures and scales, and coordination with social-security and productivity policies. The study’s novelty lies in evaluating the post-2023 framework through the combined lenses of normative protection, enforcement capacity, and the differentiated coverage of formal and informal workers.]]>
