Facing outcry after a garment factory collapse killed more than 1,000 people, a Bangladesh government panel followed through on its promise Monday to raise the sector’s minimum wage. Pending the Ministry of Labor’s approval, it will mean workers earn a minimum 5,300 takas ($66) a month, a 77 percent increase over the current $38 wage. That still makes Bangladesh’s garment workers among the worst-paid in the world, according to the Associated Press, and falls short of the $100 wage workers have demanded.
Poor wages is prevailing issue in most of the largest garment exporting countries, where workers make about or under one-third of a living wage in parts of the world like China, Indonesia, and Vietnam. At the $38 wage, Bangladesh held the number one spot, paying workers just 14 percent of a living wage. Even its last minimum wage “hike” in 2010 barely kept pace with inflation.