Accept long-term rental living
On the morning of January 8, Ms. Le Thi Tam was home alone in her rented room in Nhue village (Kim Chung commune, Dong Anh district, Hanoi). Her husband was working a shift, and her two children were at school. Originally from Thanh Hoa, Ms. Tam had worked as a worker in Thang Long Industrial Park for 13 years, working for 2 companies. She is currently working for a company specializing in manufacturing printer components.
As a long-time worker, her current basic salary is 8 million VND/month. She receives 450,000 VND/month in allowances (including attendance, housing, and travel allowances). Her monthly income varies depending on how much overtime she works.
“At the end of the year, the company organized overtime for workers, but not much, only 2 overtime sessions a week; 1 session lasts 3 hours. In total, my current total income is only about 10 million VND/month,” said the female worker.
Ms. Tam's husband also works as a factory worker, earning more than 12 million VND/month. The total income of the couple is about 22 million VND/month, but, according to Ms. Tam, "we can barely save any money because we have to spend too much."
The 33-year-old female worker listed: The tuition for her two children (4-year-old kindergarten in a private school and 2nd grade in a public school) alone is 4.3 million VND/month. That does not include other expenses, such as milk or hospital expenses when the children are sick. "My salary is only enough to cover the expenses for my two children," said Ms. Tam.
With two children, the worker couple has to rent two rooms for 500,000 VND/month/room. “In winter, including rent, electricity and water, my husband and I spend about 1.8 million VND/month,” Ms. Tam shared.
When they got married, the couple saved up money to buy a 200 million VND plot of land in their hometown. “However, since having children, we have not been able to save any money, spending all our money each month. I wish I could work more overtime, even though it is hard, but I would have more income to make my family life more comfortable,” said Ms. Tam. The female worker said that she did not dare to think about buying a house in Hanoi, so she planned to stick with this job in Hanoi for a long time so that she would be eligible to retire, accepting the situation of living in a rented house for a long time.
Hope the company has more work
Also having to rent 2 rooms like Ms. Tam's family is Ms. Dinh Bao Yen's family (from Phu Tho). The female worker's family of 4 people, if living in 1 room would be very cramped, so she agreed to pay an additional 500,000 VND/month to have twice the space for the whole family.
Currently, the company where she works has little work, and almost no overtime at the end of the year, so the income of a female worker who has been in this profession for 10 years is around 10 million VND/month. Meanwhile, if she works overtime a lot, her income can increase by a few million VND/month. Her husband is a chef, and his income is better, from 17-18 million VND/month.
“People say that my husband and I have a good income, but in fact, because of the high expenses, we don’t save much. The cost of education for our two children alone is 6-7 million VND/month. At the end of the year, like many other workers, I hope the company will have more work so that I can have a higher salary,” said the female worker born in 1996.
