Low-income and unskilled workers in Bangladesh’s agriculture, industrial, and service sectors are struggling as inflation continues to outpace wage growth, reducing their real income and forcing them to cut consumption. According to the Bangladesh Bureau of Statistics (BBS), wages grew by an average of 8.01% in September, while inflation stood at 9.92%. This marks over two and a half years where inflation has consistently exceeded wage growth.
In August, the inflation rate was even higher at 10.49%, surpassing wage growth by 2.53 percentage points. This trend has persisted for the past 32 months. Across all economic sectors, wage growth in September was modest, with the industrial sector seeing a slight increase to 7.61%, agriculture at 8.28%, and the service sector at 8.29%. Despite these minimal gains, wage growth remains insufficient to keep up with the rising cost of living, exacerbating financial pressures on workers.
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