The Bangladesh government has raised the minimum monthly pay for garment workers to 3,000 Taka from the present 1,662. Labour and Employment Minister Khandaker Mosharraf Hossain made the formal announcement of the new wage structure for ready-made garment factory employees in his office at Dhaka today based on the recommendations of the wage board which had representatives from factory owners and workers. The Minister also said the new pay structure for all the seven grades of employees will be effective from November 1st this year. More than 3.5 million workers are employed in the ready made garment sector with nearly 2.9 million of them being women and accounts for nearly 80 percent of the country’s export earnings.