At the first meeting of the National Wage Council, Ms. Tran Thi Thanh Ha - Member of the Standing Committee, Deputy Head of the Labor Relations Department of the Vietnam General Confederation of Labour - said that the Vietnam General Confederation of Labour has proposed adjusting the regional minimum wage in 2027 according to 2 options.
Option 1: Adjust the minimum wage to increase from 360 to 520 thousand VND, an average increase of 9.8% compared to 2026.
Option 2: Adjust the minimum wage to increase from 315 to 450 thousand VND, an average increase of 8.5% compared to 2026.
Talking to Lao Dong Newspaper, Mr. Le Quang Trung - former Deputy Director in charge of the Department of Employment (Ministry of Labor, Invalids and Social Affairs, now the Ministry of Home Affairs) supported the adjustment of the minimum wage from January 1, 2027 as 2 options proposed by the Vietnam General Confederation of Labor.
Regarding the factors that the National Wage Council will consider before finalizing the regional minimum wage adjustment plan for 2027, Mr. Trung said that there are three important groups of factors.
The first is the rate of economic development. The second is indicators related to consumption, prices, especially the fluctuation of essential goods for workers. The third is the affordability of businesses in the current context.
According to Mr. Trung, the assessment of the enterprise's ability to pay needs to be based on surveys and actual research to ensure appropriate adjustments.
He said that in addition to the general regulations of the State on the minimum wage, businesses and trade union organizations need to continue to promote the role of collective labor agreements, build more support policies to improve income and welfare for workers.
In the long term, the fundamental solution is still to improve labor productivity. According to Mr. Trung, workers need to be trained, improve their skills, adapt to the digital transformation process and apply new technologies to meet the needs of the labor market.
When workers have stable jobs, improve labor productivity and businesses create many new products and values, they will have conditions to improve income and life sustainably" - Mr. Trung said.
Mr. Le Dinh Quang - former Deputy Head of the Policy and Law Department of the VGCL - said that the regional minimum wage plays a role as a floor level to ensure the minimum living standard for workers. Therefore, when the minimum wage is increased, the general income of workers will be increased. Wages are also a motivation for workers to contribute.
Wage increases not only help improve the lives of workers but also create motivation to promote labor productivity, contributing to economic growth.
However, it is important to improve the capacity of grassroots trade unions to support workers in negotiating wages higher than the regional minimum wage, through collective labor agreements.
According to Mr. Le Dinh Quang, currently, with highly qualified workers with good legal knowledge and skills, they can negotiate directly with employers to have appropriate salaries.
This is a trend of the labor market and needs to be expanded to vulnerable workers. At that time, the regional minimum wage will become the lowest basis for workers to negotiate wages.
