Labour Side Proposes Tk 32,000 Minimum Wage for Bangladesh RMG Workers

Labour representatives on Bangladesh's Minimum Wages Board have proposed a minimum monthly wage of Tk 32,000 for Grade 4 workers in the export-oriented ready-made garment (RMG) sector — a 156% jump from the current Tk 12,500 floor set in 2023. The figure landed at the board's second meeting on 9 November in Segunbagicha, Dhaka, while garment workers keep protesting in the streets for higher pay.

The workers' side didn't stop at a single number. It laid out a full grade ladder:

• Grade 1: Tk 48,000 per month
• Grade 2: Tk 43,000 per month
• Grade 3: Tk 38,000 per month
• Grade 4 (entry to the scale): Tk 32,000 per month
• New recruits and apprentices: Tk 30,000 per month

Put in sourcing terms, the lowest proposed grade works out to roughly Tk 384,000 a year per worker, against Tk 150,000 under the existing structure — a cost gap that any buyer with Bangladesh volume in its base will need to model across headcount.

What's behind the numbers?

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. In other words, the labour side is anchoring its ask to a cost-of-living basket rather than to productivity or sector competitiveness arguments — the framing that typically shapes how owners' representatives counter.

The proposal's timing is not incidental. It arrives amid ongoing worker protests demanding higher wages, which have already disrupted industrial areas badly enough that factory owners cited the unrest when asking for more time to prepare their own numbers.

Who decides, and when?

The wage-setting machinery is only just in place. The six-member Minimum Wages Board was formed on 1 November with a mandate to recommend a revised wage structure for the country's garment workers, and this was just its second meeting.

The owners' representatives now have four working days to submit their proposed wage structure. Their request for additional time, granted on the grounds of unrest in industrial areas, means the buyer-side picture — what factories say they can pay — is still unknown. History in this sector suggests owners' proposals typically come in far below labour's opening ask, and the gap between Tk 32,000 and whatever the owners table will define the negotiation ahead.

What does this force on sourcing teams?

For apparel brands and sourcing directors with Bangladeshi suppliers, the story sets a concrete planning variable. A move from Tk 12,500 toward anything close to the labour side's ladder would materially raise FOB labour costs in the industry's second-largest exporting country. confirmed proposals so far exist only from the workers' side; the owners' figure and the board's final recommendation remain open.

The compliance decision is straightforward to state, harder to price: sourcing teams should stress-test Bangladesh costing models against a range between the current Tk 12,500 floor and the proposed Tk 32,000 Grade 4 figure, and track the board's next meetings for the owners' counterproposal before locking 2026 order pricing.