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Minimum Wage Board

parliamentary_committee · partial (verified 2026-05-17)

Profile

Head
Mamunur Rashid
Role
Chairman
Annual budget
—
Staff
—
Established
1959
Legal basis
Bangladesh Labour Act 2006 (Act No. XLII of 2006), Sections 138-149: Section 138 (establishment of the Board), Section 139 (recommendation of minimum wage rates), Section 140 (government power to declare minimum rates), Section 141 (factors to be considered), Section 142 (periodic review of minimum rates), Sections 148-149 (binding enforcement and obligations on employers); board originally established 1959 under the Minimum Wages Ordinance (then East Pakistan), reconstituted under the 2006 Act

Overseeing sector-by-sector wage reviews with no new RMG rate (Tk 12,500/month, set November 2023, with 9% annual increment gazetted January 2025 continuing until next board review); submitted Bakery/Biscuit/Confectionery and Poultry wage recommendations in 2025; agricultural workers and domestic workers remain explicitly excluded from coverage; board is seeking Labour Act amendments to add enforcement powers (on-site inspections, mobile courts) under proposed Sections 149(3) and 149(4).

Recent activity

Provenance & notes

Verification status is 'partial' because: (1) the current chairman Mamunur Rashid's exact appointment date is not documented in English-language press -- he is confirmed in role by Bonikbarta (November 23 2025) and New Age (April 28 2025) and apparelresources (November 15 2024), satisfying the 2+ source rule for identity but not for the date; (2) the MWB portal (mwb.portal.gov.bd) returned SSL certificate errors and could not be directly fetched -- all portal data was accessed via cached search results and secondary references. The board has 6 permanent members: chairman (always a senior district judge per practice and the board's own reform proposal), two employer representatives, two worker representatives, and one independent academic member; sector-specific wage reviews also add two temporary members from the relevant sector. The previous chairman was Senior District Judge Liaquat Ali Molla, who led the 2023 RMG wage review (April 2023 - November 2023). Three permanent members replaced in November 2024 by interim/BNP-transition government: Asif Ayub (BEF, employers), Anwar Hossain (Jatiyatabadi Sramik Dal, workers), Md Nazim Uddin Bhuiyan (Dhaka University, independent). RMG wage of Tk 12,500/month (grade-4 entry) was set November 2023 and gazetted by the Ministry of Labour and Employment; this rate remains in force as of May 2026. The 9% annual increment (raised from the contractual 5%) was gazetted January 2025 and is disputed by owners as a temporary measure (Financial Express, October 2025). Bangladesh has no single national minimum wage; the MWB sets rates sector by sector across 42-47 sectors and has explicitly not set rates for agricultural workers or domestic workers. The board was originally established in 1959 under the then-Government of Pakistan in the former East Pakistan, drawing on ILO Convention No. 26 (1928) and Recommendation No. 30; it was reconstituted under the Bangladesh Labour Act 2006.

Sources