Prolonged annual inflation near 9 percent has pushed millions of factory laborers to reduce spending on essential nutrition, education, and healthcare. While recent mass street demonstrations prompted authorities to pledge a revised pay scale by December, factory owners maintain that meeting steep wage demands would critically undermine export competitiveness against regional manufacturing rivals. To cope with soaring rents and food prices, employees frequently pull their children out of school and skip basic medical treatment. Meanwhile, manufacturers argue that high energy costs already squeeze margins, even as workers push to raise the monthly minimum wage from 12,500 taka to 30,000 taka.
Key points
Bangladesh's garment industry generates more than 80 percent of the nation's total export…: Bangladesh's garment industry generates more than 80 percent of the nation's total export earnings while employing over 4 million people.
Factory owners argue that steep pay raises could critically damage their competitiveness…: Factory owners argue that steep pay raises could critically damage their competitiveness against export rivals like India and Vietnam.
High energy costs and average annual inflation of around 9 percent since 2022 continue to…: High energy costs and average annual inflation of around 9 percent since 2022 continue to strain both factory margins and worker living standards.
Sources checked by our analysis pipeline: 1
GAZIPUR, Bangladesh: Before dawn each day, garment worker Shilpi Khatun cooks over a wood-fired clay stove because her family cannot afford gas, before heading to a factory in Gazipur, an industrial hub on the outskirts of Dhaka.
The 27-year-old is the sole breadwinner in a household where her husband is unemployed and her parents and in-laws depend on her wages.
Rising prices have left Khatun struggling to afford basic necessities despite five years in the garment industry, a frustration shared by thousands of Bangladesh's garment workers who staged protests last week demanding the minimum monthly wage be raised to 30,000 taka (US$242.82) from 12,500 taka.
"Everything costs more now. Rent has doubled, food is more expensive and whatever I earn disappears before the month is over," Khatun said as she gathered leafy greens outside her home to eat with rice for lunch.
WAGE PRESSURE MOUNTS
Last week's unrest, some of it violent, forced hundreds of factories to shut down as workers staged protests and clashed with police, who used tear gas and sound grenades to disperse demonstrators.
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