in Bangladesh A R Khan The importance of real wages as an indicator of income distribution and poverty in Bangladesh derives from two facts: (a) wages are a high proportion of income of the poorer rural families; and (b) the number of rural families depending on wages as the main source of income has been increasing over time. Documenting the course of real wages can, therefore, shed useful light on trends in incomes of the rural poor, the extent of rural poverty and the distribution of rural income.