Why garment wage unrest keeps returning

For some garment workers, earning Tk 19,000 to Tk 20,000 a month means working 15 to 16 hours a day, including overtime, labour representatives told The Daily Star.

Even then, their earnings barely cover rent, food, children’s education and medicine. One representative said monthly rent for accommodation that cost Tk 2,500 a few years ago has risen to around Tk 7,500.

Workers in Uttara took to the streets this month, demanding Tk 30,000 in wages and payment of arrears. The protests led to clashes with police on October 17, leaving at least 50 people, including 18 police personnel, injured.

“Our only demand is either to lower the prices of essential commodities or raise our wages so that we can afford to make ends meet,” protester Sharifa Begum told The Daily Star during an earlier blockade.

The protests come nearly three years after the last minimum-wage revision, followed by a separate agreement with workers and an increase in annual increments.

Interviews with labour representatives and manufacturers reveal broad agreement that international buyers should do more to fund higher wages. But they disagree on why Bangladesh has so little bargaining power.

WHAT WAGES CAN BUY

The minimum monthly wage for garment workers was set at Tk 12,500 in November 2023. This is the gross minimum wage, while some protesters in Uttara are demanding Tk 30,000 in basic pay, so the two figures are not directly comparable.

Prices have continued to rise. Bangladesh Bureau of Statistics data show inflation at 8.34 percent in September 2026, with food inflation at 7.22 percent and non-food inflation at 9.30 percent. The World Bank’s October Bangladesh Development Update also said persistent inflation was reducing household purchasing power and raising business costs.

Labour representatives say many workers depend heavily on overtime to meet household expenses, raising concerns about excessive working hours and compliance with labour laws.

Labour rights advocate Kalpona Akter said wage demands must be assessed against rising costs of essentials and healthcare. She questioned the government’s response to inflation, saying workers had heard assurances about forming a wage board but received little clarity on possible relief or when a decision might come.

She also highlighted the confusion between minimum and living wages. A living wage should cover a decent standard of living through normal working hours, without relying on overtime.

The government must establish a clear framework, manufacturers must implement it, and buyers should help cover the extra costs.

THE PRICE OF HIGHER WAGES

MA Jabbar of DBL Group acknowledged that inflation justified a wage adjustment but questioned how manufacturers could afford another increase amid rising raw-material and energy costs and fierce competition for export orders.

He said manufacturers had raised pricing concerns with international buyers for more than a decade. While demanding stronger labour and sustainability standards, buyers also pressed suppliers to increase productivity, reduce waste and offer discounts. Jabbar questioned why buyers could not pay even five or ten US cents more per garment to help cover rising costs.

Fakir Kamruzzaman Nahid of Fakir Fashion also supported an inflation-based adjustment but questioned the scale of the current demand and continued protests as preparations for another wage board were under way. Citing higher energy and logistics costs and international competition, he said some factories had already closed.

Kamruzzaman also acknowledged the industry’s weaknesses, saying Bangladeshi factories lacked bargaining power with major retailers, especially when operating below capacity. Greater investment in design, research, product diversification and marketing could help exporters negotiate better prices, he said.

Kalpona, however, blamed manufacturers for giving international brands too much leverage and failing to build stronger negotiating positions. Fear of losing orders, she argued, could not indefinitely dictate how factories responded to workers’ wage demands.

A 2016 International Labour Organization survey found that Bangladeshi suppliers said only 17 percent of their buyers were willing to reflect minimum-wage increases in purchasing prices. Across the countries surveyed, suppliers waited an average of 12 weeks for price adjustments to cover higher wage costs.

A STITCH-BRAC University study found that 67 percent of surveyed garment factories outside export processing zones (EPZ) received no price increase from international brands after the 2023 minimum-wage revision. Even when buyers raised prices, the increases covered only part of the additional production costs.

Separately, the Centre for Policy Dialogue estimated that a seven-cent increase in the price per garment could have accommodated its proposed minimum wage of Tk 17,568 in 2023 without reducing manufacturers’ profit margins.

International brands offered a different account. In responses collected by the Business & Human Rights Resource Centre in 2024, nine of the ten responding brands said they had adjusted purchasing prices to account for higher wages. H&M, Inditex, Next and BESTSELLER reported including wage costs in their pricing arrangements. However, the responses did not establish how much of the additional wage expenditure buyers had actually covered.

WAGE DECISIONS AND THEIR IMPLEMENTATION

Following unrest in 2024, workers, manufacturers and the then interim government agreed on 18 demands. In December, the government approved an additional 4 percent increment on top of the regular 5 percent.

However, implementation of the previous minimum-wage revision was inconsistent. A STITCH consortium and BRAC University study, published in April 2025, found that 32 percent of 385 factories surveyed had not fully implemented the revised wages as of September 2024. All non-compliant factories in the sample were outside EPZ.

Separately, a labour ministry report presented in November 2024 said more than 99 percent of BGMEA-member factories had implemented the revised wages. The studies covered different groups of factories and periods, so their findings cannot be directly compared. However, they raise questions about compliance across the wider industry, particularly among factories outside BGMEA membership.

In November 2024, the labour ministry said a committee would assess minimum wages against inflation and recommend by April 2025 whether another review was needed. The outcome remains unclear.

A 2026 amendment to the Labour Act shortened the interval between minimum-wage reviews from five years to three. The government has now sought nominations from employers and workers for a new wage board.

The Minimum Wages Board chairman told The Daily Star that he would facilitate discussions under the prescribed process once the relevant committee was formed.

Kalpona questioned the lack of a clear timetable for relief, while Kamruzzaman said workers should allow negotiations to proceed. Both recognise the need to account for inflation but disagree on manufacturers’ ability to pay and how the additional costs should be financed.

Not all garment-sector unrest stems from minimum wages. Unpaid salaries, dismissals and factory closures have separate causes that a revised wage structure alone cannot address.

As another round of wage talks begins, the new board may help resolve the dispute. But two questions remain: will agreed wages reach workers, and can manufacturers afford them without securing better prices from buyers?