Bangladesh’s government formed a new wage board on Sunday to review garment workers’ pay amid intensifying protests over low wages that have shuttered hundreds of factories and paralyzed transport across major industrial areas. Despite the announcement, thousands of garment workers continued to stage demonstrations in and around Dhaka, resulting in clashes with police who fired tear gas and water cannons to disperse the crowds. In the Mirpur neighborhood, at least one police vehicle was set on fire.
Workers are demanding a minimum monthly wage of 30,000 Bangladeshi taka ($245), more than double the current 12,500 taka ($100), saying that their earnings can no longer keep pace with inflation, which has driven up the cost of food, transportation, housing and healthcare, making day-to-day living untenable. Exacerbating matters are the unrelenting gas and power shortages, which, coupled with U.S. tariff uncertainty, have forced partial or total work stoppages. Over the past year, a sustained decline in production orders has led to tens of thousands of job losses and made overtime pay, once a crucial means of bridging the affordability gap, no longer a guarantee.
“Workers have made clear that the current minimum wage is insufficient in supporting workers’ needs, particularly in the current climate,” Mayisha Begum, labor program officer at the Business and Human Rights Centre, a labor advocacy group, told Sourcing Journal. “The demands of protesting unions and workers, who form the backbone of Bangladesh’s largest export sector, must be at the center of the decision.”
Formed after discussions with workers’ representatives and industry leaders, the six-member board comprises two representatives each from workers and employers, along with a government representative and a neutral member, Ariful Haque Choudhury, the labor minister, told reporters. He urged workers to return to work, warning that prolonged disruptions could delay export shipments and payments from international buyers, further straining an industry currently under pressure from mounting production costs and widespread market uncertainty.
Indeed, the escalating situation recalls the 2023 minimum wage protests that resulted in four worker deaths, hundreds of arrests and mass criminal charges against tens of thousands of workers that were dropped by the interim government only two years later.
Already, protests in multiple enclaves have disrupted operations at 529 factories, affecting nearly 1 million workers, according to the Bangladesh Garment Manufacturers and Exporters Association. Mahmud Hasan Khan, the trade group’s president, told Reuters that if protests persist, “we will have no option but to invoke the ‘no work, no pay’ provision” due to illegal striking—a warning employers have issued before.
For labor advocates, a further recurring theme is the role brands play in creating the conditions that make such protests necessary in the first place. It’s why the protests keep cropping up, they say.
“Garment workers in Bangladesh are in the streets because 48 cents an hour is not enough to feed their children,” said Scott Nova, executive director at the Worker Rights Consortium, a Washington watchdog group. “Brands drive the problem by demanding unreasonable prices from suppliers, and brands can fix it by committing to absorb the cost of the wage increase workers are seeking. If brands do not act responsibly, workers will face the brutal repression and criminalization of their protests, as happened in 2013…and 2018…and 2023.”
Begum said that the brands that “depend on garment workers to make their profits” must not only publicly support a union-backed minimum-wage increase, but they must also take demonstrable steps to implement it, so that their purchasing practices “do not lead to workers and suppliers bearing the weight of the cost.” Equally important, she added, workers’ rights to freedom of association and assembly must be respected without repercussions “as we have previously seen attempts to silence workers’ minimum wage demonstrations through tactics such as violence and blacklisting.”
The American Apparel & Footwear Association, which repeatedly called on the Bangladeshi government to drop “baseless” criminal charges and First Information Reports filed against garment workers and labor leaders following the 2023 demonstrations, called the establishment of a new wage board a “critical opportunity” to deliver a fair wage that allows garment workers to support themselves and their families.
While a 2026 amendment to the Bangladesh Labour Act reduced the traditional wage review cycle from five to three years, the trade group contends that an annual review would keep garment workers’ wages better aligned with inflation and rising living costs.
“AAFA continues to call for a transparent, annual, inclusive minimum wage review process that meaningfully engages all stakeholders, particularly labor groups and trade unions, and takes into account Bangladesh’s economic realities,” Stephen Lamar, its president and CEO, wrote in an email. AAFA’s members include Adidas, Gap Inc., Levi Strauss & Co., Ralph Lauren and New Balance. “A fair outcome depends on a process in which workers can make their voices heard safely and freely,” he said.
The Bangladeshi government, he added, must “safeguard union and collective bargaining rights, unequivocally condemn violence, threats and intimidation and ensure that workers and other participants are protected from retaliation throughout the review process and beyond.”
In a call, Nazma Akter, founder and executive director of the Dhaka-based workers’ rights group Awaj Foundation, expressed dismay at the mayhem that has unfolded during the demonstrations, including reports of police and protesters hurling brick chips at one another. Vandalism and burning are “not the solution,” Akter said, adding that union leadership does not condone such actions and that any grievances should be aired through legitimate, non-violent means. She also said the unrest wasn’t being organized by the usual labor movement. Since Saturday, at least 58 police officers have been injured and 57 people have been arrested, according to authorities.
Like other labor advocates, Akter encouraged brands to intervene and offer fair prices that would facilitate better wages and keep workers “happy and satisfied.”
“If brands chose to support a living wage for workers rather than squeezing supplier profit margins, workers would be significantly better off,” M. Azizul Islam, director of the Centre for Sustainability, Accountability and Governance at the University of Aberdeen, told Sourcing Journal. His research found that brands frequently engage in unfair purchasing practices with Bangladeshi suppliers, burdening them with additional costs and squeezing their profit margins. In some cases, suppliers sold their clothes for less than it cost to make them, even to major purveyors such as H&M Group and Inditex.
“This severely impacts suppliers’ capacity to pay even minimum wages,” he said. “If brands claim themselves as responsible brands, they must ensure a living wage for workers. We need a global accountability mechanism surrounding this to ensure that brands implement their commitment.”
And while governments often worry that raising wages too sharply could erode competitiveness, this isn’t necessarily the case, said Md. Rafiqul Islam Rana, an assistant professor of retailing at the University of South Carolina. Pointing to the examples of Cambodia and Vietnam, which he said have raised garment wages over time without losing their standing in global sourcing, Rana argued that better compensation can improve retention, reduce absenteeism and turnover, and support productivity and product quality.
“Bangladesh also needs to recognize that its competitiveness depends on much more than cheap labor,” he said. “Unreliable energy supplies, infrastructure limitations, financing difficulties and transportation delays can be just as damaging to factories as rising wages.”
There’s also the fact that as automation and AI play a growing role in apparel manufacturing, Bangladesh will find it increasingly difficult to compete on low labor costs alone, Rana said.
“The industry’s long-term competitiveness must come from productivity, quality, innovation, reliable infrastructure and a workforce that is fairly compensated,” he added. “Otherwise, Bangladesh risks remaining trapped in a cycle of low prices, low wages, and limited opportunities to move into higher-value production.”
On Monday, Salahuddin Ahmed, the home minister, said the government was taking firm action to halt the protests, which he suggested were being instigated by industrialists and factory owners with links to the deposed Awami League government in order to create instability.
Ahmed said that Prime Minister Tarique Rahman had instructed officials following an emergency cabinet meeting late on Sunday to “ensure workers’ rights and improve their living standards” while ensuring that production and exports continued “unhindered.”
“Over the past few days, certain factions backed by a fallen autocratic regime have been plotting to create instability by using innocent workers,” he said after meeting with industry leaders. “Those engaging in unlawful activities and conspiracies under the guise of labor movements will be tackled with an iron hand.”
