Bangladesh RMG Board Proposes Tk 32,000 Monthly Minimum Wage

Labour representatives on Bangladesh's Minimum Wages Board have proposed a Tk 32,000 monthly minimum wage for the export-oriented ready-made garment industry, 156% above the current Tk 12,500 floor.

The proposal was submitted at the board's second meeting on 9 November in Segunbagicha, Dhaka, amid ongoing worker protests demanding higher wages.

The figure remains a board recommendation, not an enacted pay rate. Garment owners' representatives have four working days to submit their proposed wage structure.

The six-member board was formed on 1 November to recommend a revised wage structure for the country's garment workers.

What wage levels have workers proposed?

The workers' side submitted a four-grade schedule, with a separate rate for newly recruited entry-level and apprentice workers:

• Grade 1 workers: Tk 48,000 per month.
• Grade 2 workers: Tk 43,000 per month.
• Grade 3 workers: Tk 38,000 per month.
• Grade 4 workers: Tk 32,000 per month.
• Newly recruited entry-level and apprentice workers: Tk 30,000 per month.

The schedule would set pay floors above the current Tk 12,500 minimum, announced in 2023. It provides no factory-specific rates or payroll calculations.

It also does not define how the four grades map to job titles, skill levels or factory roles. Those definitions would determine which production categories carry the greatest exposure to a higher wage structure.

What does the proposal mean for sourcing costs?

A revised minimum would reach factories through labor costs and, where contracts reopen, through buyer orders and supplier budgets.

For brand sourcing teams, the unresolved question is cost allocation: who absorbs the increase if the final recommendation approaches the workers' proposal.

The submission does not specify brand cost-sharing, factory margins or payment-term changes. It also gives no new lead times, capacity commitments or certification conditions.

Until the board compares both structures, the Tk 32,000 headline figure cannot serve as a final landed-cost input.

The submission also provides no manufacturer productivity case against which buyers could test the proposed payroll increase. That leaves purchasing teams without an operating model for estimating the effect on quotations.

Why do workers seek the increase?

Babul Akhter, a workers' representative on the board, said: 'The proposed wages account for inflation, rising living costs, housing rent, healthcare, and children's education.'

The stated rationale rests on household costs, but the proposal does not quantify rent, healthcare or education spending for a representative household.

For buyers, the relevant question is how much of the proposed increase would pass through production quotations, but the submission does not model that pass-through.

What happens before a recommendation?

Garment owners requested additional time because of ongoing unrest in industrial areas. Their four-working-day deadline now sets the timetable for the next submission.

A lower owner schedule would leave a wider gap against the workers' proposal; a closer schedule would narrow it before the board considers its recommendation.

The unrest cited in the wage process remains relevant to factory continuity, but no production, logistics or delivery disruption has been quantified.

No effective date, contract reset or payment-term change is specified, so brands should not build those assumptions into current sourcing plans.

The next decision point is the owners' submission within four working days, which will show whether the board faces a narrow or wide gap between the two wage structures.