TANGILA TASNIM

Samia Khatun (pseudonym), 31, has faced injustice since her first day as a worker at a garment factory in Tongi, when she was just 16.

“I could not complete my education, and I work from early morning until late at night, sometimes even continuously for 24 hours during peak periods.

“Yet my pay is miserly, to say the least. When I ask my supervisor for a raise, I’m told I’m not educated enough to deserve a higher salary. But I see male workers, even those who joined much after me, earn more than I do… There is a lot of injustice against women in our factory. When I fall sick or ask for leave, my supervisor often scolds me or cuts my salary.”

Despite years of toiling, Samia’s monthly salary, which is also not paid on time, stands at Tk 18,000.

Apart from a glaring wage gap, women like Samia also fall victim to other workplace abuses. “When I was younger, I faced repeated sexual harassment at the workplace. I used to cry and thought about quitting many times, but I had responsibilities, so I could not leave.”

Such accounts align with broader findings that point to persistent gender inequality in wages and workplace conditions across the garment industry.

A 2023 report by the South Asian Network on Economic Modeling (SANEM), conducted with Microfinance Opportunities, finds that women garment workers in Bangladesh face a wage gap of 51-60 percent across major industrial hubs.

Women, who make up about three-quarters of the workforce, consistently earn less than men, according to the report, which was based on a survey of 1,300 workers since April 2020 in Dhaka, Chattogram, Gazipur, Narayanganj and Savar.

Median monthly earnings that year (2023), excluding overtime, stood at Tk 9,669 for women and Tk 10,928 for men. Both figures fall far short of living wage estimates set by the Global Living Wage Coalition, ranging from Tk 19,200 to Tk 26,000.

Research also shows that male supervisors frequently bully, harass and sexually abuse women workers, particularly those from marginalised backgrounds, often without consequence.

At the heart of Bangladesh’s economy lies the ready-made garment (RMG) sector, whose share of exports rose to around 60 percent over time, peaking at 84 percent in FY 2022-23, and it employs roughly four million workers, about 80 percent of them women.

According to Economic Observatory, the rise of the RMG sector has been dramatic -- from just $1.8 million in exports in 1980 to about $47 billion in 2023, driven by a mix of entrepreneurial initiative and state support.

Yet, despite its global success, compliance gaps remain widespread.

RMG Bangladesh’s 2026 report says that even after the newly elected government took power, nearly one-third of factories failed to pay Eid bonuses five days after the government-set deadline ahead of Eid-ul-Fitr this year.

Despite instructions to clear bonuses by March 12 and February wages by March 9, more than 3,000 factories, about 30 percent, had not paid Eid bonuses, according to the Industrial Police.

The non-compliant units include over 3,000 ready-made garment factories, as well as establishments in the textile, chemical and other sectors.

This failure comes amid mounting pressure on the RMG sector in recent years.

Before Covid-19, around 4,500 factories under the Bangladesh Garment Manufacturers and Exporters Association employed roughly 5.5 million workers, with 75-85 percent being women.

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