A study by the Centre for Policy Dialogue (CPD) suggests that as against Taka 8,000 per month, an entry level worker should receive a minimum of Taka 17,568 per month due to the high inflation. “This can be made possible if the western buyers of garment increase the per unit price by just seven cents,” the study observed.
CPD urged global garment brands to consider hiking the per unit cost by seven cents per unit for the betterment of the Bangladeshi apparel exporting sector. The current minimum wage set by the Bangladesh government in 2018 is Taka 8,000 for the workers and CPD recommended a 55 percent increase in basic pay under the minimum wage board. “The study noted that there has been a continuous rise in per unit cost of the surveyed factories from US $3.0 in 2017 to $4.1 in 2023, or an expansion of 37 percent,” media reports stated.
However, in the years under review, the unit price of the top exported garment products enhanced, albeit
slowly from $3.87 to $4.64, up by just 20 percent. However, labor unions opposed the findings of the study and argued that the minimum wage should be Taka 25,000 considering that inflation has been surging for the last three years.
