Cambodia textile workers wage hiked

Cambodia has agreed to raise to $153 from next year the minimum monthly wage of workers in its crucial textiles and footwear industry, which generates $6 billion annually for the economy. The industry has created 600,000 jobs that sustain rural families and have spurred years of robust growth, but strikes by increasingly assertive and politicised unions have become a problem for the country.

The increase will help to raise workers? standards of living and boost productivity, the labour ministry said in a statement, but added, ?Other benefits that workers have been receiving must be kept the same.?