Among seven garment-exporting countries in Asia, Vietnam is the country with the highest rate of compliance with the minimum wage in the garment, textile and footwear sectors. The rate of extreme non-compliance in Vietnam, which means wage workers are paid less than four-fifths of the minimum wage in the country, is 3.8 per cent and moderate non-compliance (workers paid between 80 per cent and less than 100 per cent of the minimum wage) is 2.8 per cent.

In contrast, the Philippines, India, Thailand, Pakistan, and Indonesia each have a large proportion of garment sector workers who are paid far below the minimum wage. The extreme non-compliance rate in the Philippines and India is 38.8 and 34.9 per cent respectively. About one fourth of Indonesian garment workers also earn far below the minimum wage.

In all the countries, women are more likely than men to be paid below the minimum wage in the garment sector. Again, Vietnam is among the nations with the smallest male-female gap, behind Cambodia and Indonesia, whereas the largest male-female non-compliance gap is found in Pakistan.

Vietnam’s regional minimum wages increased by about 12 to 15 per cent on a yearly basis between 2014 and 2016 and will go up by 7.3 per cent next year.