Home ›› 20 Jul 2022 ›› Front
Skyrocketing inflation is robbing wages of low-income workers like Md Ashraful Islam.
His paycheck doesn’t go as far as it used to due to the highest inflation in eight years. A father of around four-year child, Islam has to maintain his family of six members with Tk 9,100 he receives per month. As he struggles to maintain his family with the paltry wage, his wife also works at a RMG factory to support him.
“We earn around Tk 21,000 per month, including overtime payment but fail to meet our basic needs,” said Islam.
His landlord recently hiked monthly house rent Tk 500 and the government also increased electricity tariff. He has to budget more for child care and medical treatment for his sick parents. His grocery bills go up. And there’s no room for higher prices in his already stretched budgets.
“It’s outrageous as everything has gone up,” he said. “When my wife goes to work, my child is crying for her. I was left no choice,” Islam told The Business Post while he was operating a sewing machine at Gazipur’s Cheragali.
While inflation is rising everywhere, price hikes are particularly devastating to lower-income households with already tight budgets. Nearly all their expenses go to necessities — food, electricity, housing — which have seen some of the largest increases at different points over the past year.
Like Islam, Mahfuzur Rahman, another RMG worker, said “Living cost is increasing day by day and I’ve never seen in my life such a rising prices of essentials.”
His yearly salary growth is just 5 per cent, which is eroded by the soaring inflation.
The country’s households have been facing the most severe pressure from rising living costs in eight years after a fresh rise in inflation in June, fuelled by record prices for food and commodities.
In June, the country’s overall inflation hit 7.56 per cent, the highest in eight years. In May, it was 7.42 per cent, according to the Bangladesh Bureau of Statistic (BBS).
Food inflation reached 8.37 per cent, up from 8.30 percent while non-food inflation climbed to 6.33 per cent from 6.08 per cent during the period.
“Assuming a 5 per cent annual increment as per the existing wage structure, the minimum wages for workers in all industries would not be sufficient to afford a regular diet this year,” said Centre for Policy Dialogue (CPD) Executive Director Fahmida Khatun.
BGMEA President Faruque Hassan said, “As per the labour law, the annual wage increment is 5 per cent, we increased it up to 12 per cent due to labour shortage during the pandemic.”
Demanding an increase in wages in the wake of price hikes of essentials, hundreds of RMG workers took to the streets in January and June, but the protests were quelled by police and the ruling party’s supporters.
During the protests, Awami League lawmaker and worker leader Shajahan Khan pledged that wages would be increased on time after consulting with factory owners and labour leaders.
“State Minister for Labour and Employment Begum Monnujan Sufian would take steps to form a new wage board to set minimum salaries for RMG workers after returning from abroad,” Khan said.
Monnujan Sufian told The Business Post, “I know that the workers are going through a hard time and I’m taking an initiative to form a new wage board.”
But as per the labour law, a new wage structure will be implemented after 2023, she said.
“However, we’ll form a new wage board as soon as possible taking the situation into account. During this period, we plan to issue ration cards to the workers which will help them buy some basic commodities at lower prices.”
