Country’s combined nominal wage rate of agriculture, industry and services in the last fiscal year (FY20) increased by the slowest pace in the last five years. Wage Rate Index (WRI), released by the Bangladesh Bureau of Statistics (BBS), showed that the index increased by 6.35 per cent in FY20 against the growth rate of 6.40 per cent in FY19 and 6.45 per cent in FY18. It also showed that the WRI increased by 6.50 per cent in FY17 and 6.52 per cent in FY16. WRI registered 4.64 per cent growth in FY15 which was the lowest increase in general nominal wage in the last six years. BBS WRI is intended to measure the movement of nominal wages of low paid skilled and unskilled labour over time in different sectors of the economy. BBS data also showed that though general or national WRI for agriculture registered higher growth than the previous year, the index for industry and services posted lower rates of growth compare to the past year. Average nominal wage in agriculture increased by 6.48 per cent in FY20 which was 6.42 per cent in FY19, according to BBS. The nominal wage in industrial sector registered 5.99 per cent growth in FY20 which was 6.22 per cent in FY19. Again, the WRI for services sector posted 6.41 per cent in the last fiscal year against 6.69 per cent in FY19. Currently the WRI measures average monthly nominal wage rate of low paid skilled and un-skilled labourers in 11 occupations from agriculture sector, 22 occupations from industry sector and 11 occupations from services sector.
