Under Section 15 of the Code on Wages, 2019, all wages shall ordinarily be paid in current coin or currency notes, or by which of the following alternative modes, unless the appropriate Government mandates a specific mode by notification? 

Section 15 of the Code on Wages, 2019 provides that all wages shall be paid in current coin or currency notes, or by cheque, or by crediting the wages in the bank account of the employee, or by electronic mode. The proviso to Section 15 empowers the appropriate Government to notify specific industrial or other establishments whose employer shall pay wages only by cheque or by crediting wages directly into the employee's bank account, thereby promoting formal, traceable modes of wage payment and curbing cash-based wage practices prone to underpayment or non-payment disputes. This provision consolidates the mode-of-payment rules earlier found in the Payment of Wages Act, 1936, while expressly recognising electronic payment modes for the first time, reflecting the shift toward digital financial transactions.