Cambodia boosted the minimum monthly salary for workers in the country’s important textiles and footwear industries by US$2 (RM8) today, to US$194, effective January next year, falling short of the US$12 increase demanded by major unions.
Factory wages have long been a difficult balancing act for Cambodia’s government, as it seeks to keep costs competitive for investors and brands while satisfying powerful unions representing 700,000 workers, who have previously launched strikes.
Before the pandemic, the garment sector was Cambodia’s major employment and provided essential money for rural households, producing clothing for companies such as H&M, Adidas, Nike, and Gap.
According to Pav Sina, head of the Collective Union Movement of Workers, the new wage set by the labour ministry will be difficult to survive on.
As of April, garments and textiles were no longer Cambodia’s dominant export product, with agricultural goods and other new products on the rise.
Exports of travel goods to the US market were worth US$3.5 billion in 2020, up 3.6 per cent from 2019, compared to US$2.6 billion to the European Union, a 35 per cent contraction.
