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Bangladesh’s readymade garment workers are receiving monthly wages on average 50 per cent lower than the minimum living wages, according to a study conducted by South Asian Network on Economic Modeling and the Microfinance Opportunities.
The report released on Sunday said that workers had been increasingly relying on overtime and excess hours of work to make up for this gap.
SANEM, in collaboration with the US-based Microfinance Opportunities, conducted survey on 1,300 selected garment workers in Chattogram, Dhaka city, Gazipur, Narayanganj and Savar under the project ‘Garment Worker Diaries’.
Using an adjusted version of the Anker Methodology, the study estimated the monthly minimal living wage range in Bangladesh was Tk 19,200 to Tk 22,900 for Dhaka, Tk 21,300 to Tk 26,000 for Chattogram and Tk 19,200 to Tk 22,900 for Gazipur, Narayanganj and Savar, on the outskirts of Dhaka.
‘The median earnings reported by workers in Q2 of 2022 for working a regular work month (without accounting for overtime) was Tk 9,984 (Tk 9,669 for women and Tk 10,928 for men), resulting in a wage gap between 51 per cent and 60 per cent for women workers, and 45 per cent to 54 per cent for male workers,’ the report said.
Depending on the area and the living wage benchmark used, the current wage gap is anywhere from Tk 9,408 or 49 per cent to Tk 15,616 or 60 per cent a month for women and Tk 7,947 or 41 per cent to Tk 14,400 or 55 per cent for men, the study found.
To calculate the cost of a basic but decent life the Garment Worker Diaries used expenses related to food, housing, other essential needs, and a small margin for unforeseen events.
The methodology calculates the gap for an average household in Bangladesh, a household of four, over the average number of adult earners in a household, which in Bangladesh is 1.58, the report said.
According to the Global Living Wage Coalition, living wage can be defined as the remuneration received for a standard work week by a worker in a particular place sufficient to afford a decent standard of living for the worker and her or his family.
Elements of a decent standard of living include food, water, housing, education, health care, transport, clothing, and other essential needs, including provision for unexpected events, it said.
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