Fair pay cannot be left to corporate 'goodwill'

In the air-conditioned classrooms of our universities, we are fed an expensive lie. Many of us spend four years burying our noses in books on marketing theories from the West and human resources philosophies from global conglomerates, which teach us one fundamental truth: human resources are the most valuable asset of an enterprise.

It sounds beautiful. It sounds logical. But when a fresh graduate steps into the corporate reality of Dhaka’s offices, that theory doesn’t just dissolve; it is ripped apart. The reality we have cultivated in Bangladesh is not just inefficient; it is despicable. We have allowed a culture to fester where employees are not treated as assets, but as liabilities to be tolerated. The corporate elites have weaponised the one thing we have in abundance: our youth. Because of the surplus of graduates, companies know they have the upper hand. They know that for every person asking for a dignified wage, there are 50 others desperate enough to accept half that. This reserve of the unemployed allows corporations to abuse talent with pay structures that are insulting and treatment that is dehumanising.

The tragedy is that these organisations are shooting themselves in the foot. You cannot bully an employee into productivity. When a person feels unwanted and realises that they are viewed as a burden rather than an asset, their motivation collapses. We are currently sitting on a goldmine of bright young minds capable of transforming industries. But they are instead suffering, unable to perform adequately because their employers are too stingy to honour their loyalty.

But the true cost of Bangladesh’s corporate culture isn’t reflected on companies’ balance sheets. It is evident in the living rooms of our homes. 

Consider the “officer.” In our society, this title carries weight—they must look the part, wear the suit, maintain the facade, and keep up an “officer-level” lifestyle. But with payment structures that haven’t kept pace with inflation, many of these professionals are living a lie. They have no savings and are drowning in unpayable liabilities. Most of these high-up professionals are one medical emergency away from ruin.

In an economy like ours, financial instability is the primary building block of domestic chaos. You cannot have a peaceful home when a breadwinner is returning every evening humiliated, exhausted, and broke. The parents are too stressed to do parenting right, and the home becomes a source of anxiety. 

The offspring of these underpaid executives are passive victims of corporate greed. They grow up deprived of opportunities and witnessing profound injustice. They see their parents follow the rules, work hard, and still get crushed by the system. This implants a trauma in them that is hard to undo, and teaches them that the “straight path” leads to misery.

We are inadvertently pushing our youth towards an unsocial—or rather, anti-social—lifestyle. When the system fails to provide dignity, the path of crime and corruption becomes an attractive alternative. 

This must be fixed now. We cannot rely on the “goodwill” of capitalists to solve a problem they profit from. Fair pay cannot be left to the “goodwill” of corporations; it must be a non-negotiable legal mandate. We must establish a mandatory salary floor for professionals, scaled to the size and resources of the employer. This shouldn’t be a polite suggestion, but rather a law of the land. Any company that chooses to exploit talent by ignoring these minimums must face swift and severe disciplinary action.

The Ministry of Labour and Employment can no longer remain a passive observer. It needs to launch genuine research and investigations to see if this crisis is accidental or if it is deliberated by powerful lobbies for unethical gain.

We need a higher level of inclusion and transparency. We need to stop pretending that this is just “how the market works.” It is time to admit that our culture of employee marginalisation is not just bad business—it is a social crime.

Nafis Ehsas Chowdhury is a columnist and studies business at the United International University (UIU).
The author acknowledges guidance from Md Jakowan, assistant professor of human resource management at UIU.

Views expressed in this article are the author's own. 

Follow The Daily Star Opinion on Facebook for the latest opinions, commentaries, and analyses by experts and professionals. To contribute your article or letter to The Daily Star Opinion, see our guidelines for submission.