Labour costs in Myanmar is expected to see a 33 per cent increase this year, and sourcing costs may also follow.

The country’s National Committee for Minimum Wage has agreed to set the daily salary wage for workers at 4,800 kyat ($3.55) up from the current 3,600 kyat ($2.66) that has been in place since 2013, and a 33 per cent hike.

This is based on an 8-hour work day, six days a week, garment workers in Myanmar will be earning a minimum wage of $85 a month.

Though the hike may seem significant percentage-wise, it comes in lower than the 55 per cent increase to 5,600 kyat ($4.14 a day, $99 a month) that workers and unions had been demanding. Of course the unions aren’t happy about it.

Secretary of the Cooperating Committee of Trade Unions (CCTU) and a former workers’ representative of Central Labour Dispute Arbitration Committee U Ye Naing Win was reported to have said, “We are not satisfied with the committee’s daily wages of K4800. We [workers] are asking for increase in wages since we are starving. They shouldn’t ask for a discount.”

The country’s Labour Union Federation, however, has objected to even raising the wage rate to 4,800 kyat, even though Myanmar’s Minimum Wages Act of 2013 calls for a review of wage rates every two years; which technically should have happened in 2015 and again in 2017.

For now, unions in Myanmar are demanding that the government consider the actual cost of living when evaluating an appropriate raise, especially in light of impending rental fee increases. Though the wage panel has set its rate, the committee will take suggestions and objections in the coming weeks and set a final figure within 60 days.

Other low-cost sourcing countries, like Mauritius, Mexico and Cambodia, have been increasing wages of late and correspondingly labour costs are set to climb this year.