Bangladesh garment wage board says it has reached a minimum wage agreement as protests continue

Bangladesh's wage board for the garment industry has said it reached an agreement to raise the minimum wage for garment workers, even as protests over pay continued. The AFP report did not give the level of the new figure, so the size of any increase is not yet known.

Garment workers have been demanding that the monthly minimum wage, the lowest monthly pay set for the sector, rise from 12,500 taka to 30,000 taka. The Reuters report on the wage board's meeting described those demands as ongoing. Taka is Bangladesh's currency.

The protests had been running for several days before the board's announcement. On November 3, 2026, workers staged a fourth day of wage protests, according to Reuters.

Earlier, on November 1, 2026, Bangladesh said it had set up a wage board to review garment workers' pay. In the same announcement, it urged employees to return to work amid violent protests, as Reuters reported. The Ministry of Labour and Employment has also listed a notification on the formation of the Minimum Wage Board dated November 1, 2026, on its website.

A wage board is a panel that reviews pay levels for a particular industry and makes recommendations on them. The board's agreement on a raise, as reported by AFP, was reached while the protests were still going on.