“Govt fixes wage structure for expat workers”

The government has launched a wage structure for the country's outbound workers to ensure their desired income, and help boost the country's foreign-exchange earnings.

The wages have been fixed under three categories - less-skilled, semi-skilled and skilled - for 11 manpower-receiving countries.

From now on, the recruiters will have to bring demand for jobs from abroad following the salary structure. The government will not accept any job offers below the wage structure, officials said…

The meeting opined that a uniform salary structure should be formed for the expatriate workers from Bangladesh, as they are often employed in job destination countries with lower than standard wages…

However, an analysis shows that the government-fixed wages are still lower than those of the workers of many other labour-sending countries.

According to the International Organization for Migration's (IOM) Migration Report 2019, per capita average monthly income of Filipino migrants was $564.1, that of Chinese migrants $532.71, Indian $395.71, Pakistani $275.74, and Bangladeshi $203.33.

On the other hand, a study of the same organisation revealed that workers' migration cost is the highest in Bangladesh across the world...