The current geopolitical environment has created a ripple effect in decision making. Executives tasked with weighing a massive amount of complex variables, including raw material costs, proximity, productivity and capabilities, are now faced with calculating the cost of tariffs in an increasingly volatile environment. As geopolitical pressures increase, many companies are reexamining all facets of their businesses to determine where they can offset these margin killers. That scrutiny is putting labor under the microscope.
Here, HGI provides labor rates across nine global apparel manufacturing and textile countries, as they relate to the U.S. dollar.
Monthly Apparel Worker Minimum Wage
Countries set their minimum wages nationally or regionally, with further specification across industry and skilled and unskilled workers. Across the nine countries analyzed, four have a wage set at the national level: Bangladesh, Cambodia, Egypt, and Turkey. China, India, Mexico (2 zones), Pakistan, and Vietnam have minimum wages set at the provincial or regional level.
Bangladesh, the global second largest producer accounting for 16% of global textile and apparel exports, had the lowest monthly minimum wage in 2025 equivalent to $102. The country’s national minimum wage is set every five years, with the last minimum wage set in 2023 and the next full review in 2028. While the government has committed to increasing the minimum wage by 5% every year until then, it is only on labor, which comprises one portion of the minimal wage, making the increase nominal.
Turkey had the highest monthly minimum wage at $533, driven by the country’s attempt to keep pace with its explosive inflation rates, and has raised minimum rates four times since January 2023. Turkey’s inflation rate reached an all-time high in April 2024 at 75.8%. Egypt has consistently raised its national minimum wage, most recently 100% in 2024, to combat YoY soaring inflation.
Looking to the regional minimum wage increases in China’s Hangzhou apparel and manufacturing region and Vietnam’s Region 1, both followed similar patterns of inconsistent YoY minimum wage increases from 2020 to 2025. Region 1 in Vietnam is a major apparel manufacturing hub, including Ho Chi Minh City and Binh Duong. In 2022, Region 1 raised its minimum rates by 5.9%, and then again in 2024 by 6.0% with no increase in 2025.
Similarly in China, the country sets its minimum wages by provinces and regions; Hangzhou, known for its e-commerce manufacturing, silk and women’s apparel, raised its minimum wages by 13.4% in 2021 and then held rates for two years, raising again by 9.2% in 2024 with no increase in 2025.
Minimum Wage (YoY)%
The global minimum wages shown in USD is impacted by the currency fluctuations for each country, as show below.
Average Gross Monthly Apparel Worker Minimum Wages in USD, 2020-2028E
Currency Appreciation
From December 30, 2022 to September 30, 2025, seven of the nine countries of comparison have weakened against the dollar. Mexico and Cambodia have strengthened. Currency depreciation makes a countries’ products less expensive for the importing country. For example, the 6.9% currency depreciation of the Indian Rupee can somewhat help to offset the 50% tariff on Indian tariffs.
Currency Appreciation, December 31, 2022 vs. September 30, 2025 (% Change)
