Average wage not higher than in 2011: Aussie university professor
Minimum real wage growth declined by 5.9% on average annually during the 2010-2019 period in Bangladesh, despite its annual average productivity growth recorded at 5.8%, according to an Australian university professor.
"The data showed that, on average, average workers in Bangladesh did not receive better pay in 2021 than in 2011," said Iyanatul Islam, a visiting professor at Griffith University, during a special lecture at the SANEM annual conference at the BRAC Center in the city on Saturday.
"The numbers do not expose the dark underbelly of Bangladeshi capitalism. Isn't it a disappointing feature despite a 4-6% growth in labour productivity?" Iyanatul questioned, referring to his presentation on "The labor market and macroeconomic policy: Is there an 'anti-workers' bias?"
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Average workers do not receive any real income increase, he said, adding, "During my visit, I observed that all of you are in a difficult situation to hire domestic servants as they charge so much, and even the wages they receive probably do not compensate for inflation."
"The average wage today is not higher than it was in 2011," said Iyanatul, also a former branch chief of the Employment and Labour Market Policy Branch at the ILO Headquarters in Geneva.
"Those who are working on the Bangladesh labor market will be able to challenge numbers, but I cannot defend those," he said, pointing out that his presentation relies on the Bangladesh data collected from the original government sources.
In his presentation, he showed that the annual average minimum real wage growth declined by 4.5% in Sri Lanka during the period from 2010 to 2019, despite the country's annual average productivity growth recorded at 4%.
However, India has maintained annual minimum real wage growth and annual average productivity at 3.9% and 5.5%, respectively, said Iyanatul.
Rizwanul Islam, a former special advisor for the International Labour Organization based in Geneva, Switzerland, presided over the event.
