Mr. Nguyen Van Tam and his wife have been working at Thang Long Industrial Park (Hanoi) for more than 15 years. To improve their children's income and invest in their future education, the couple opened a small sweet and snack shop near their boarding house.
Recently, when the electricity bill every month keeps increasing by hundreds of thousands of VND, the worry is even greater.
"In June, the electricity bill payable in May at the restaurant was 2,012,000 VND. As for the electricity bill for June, this month I have to pay 2,123,000 VND. The electricity bill at home has also increased by nearly VND150,000, from VND848,000 to VND997,000" - Mr. Tam shared.
Not only has electricity bill increased, but raw material prices such as sugar, milk, pearls, etc. have also increased due to the operating costs of suppliers increasing according to electricity prices.
"If the weather is hot and the air conditioners are not turned on, customers will not enter. But increasing the price of sweet soup makes me afraid of losing customers" - he added.
Although he has saved all his money but the electricity price has increased, Mr. Tam said that there is only one way to "fight" to spend money.
Also in a similar situation, Ms. Pham Thi Ngan - a worker in Thang Long Industrial Park said that her electricity bill this month has increased by 150,000 VND, from 450,000 VND to 600,000 VND.
Although not much has been increased, with the cost of renting a room of only 500,000 VND and the high electricity bill, she cannot help but feel impatient.
Because in the past 2 months, the company has not organized overtime, with an income of 7 - 7.5 million VND/month, she has to worry about the cost of renting 500,000 VND, food, living expenses and other expenses.
"Last week, going to the hospital cost nearly a million VND, and this month, there were two more weddings of close friends in the countryside, the electricity bill increased. I calculate that I will have to borrow more from colleagues until the end of the month to spend" - Ms. Ngan sighed.
According to her, although the increase is not too large, in the context of having to spend every penny, it becomes a real burden.
According to a survey conducted by the Vietnam General Confederation of Labor in March - April 2025 with nearly 3,000 workers in 10 provinces and cities, up to 26.3% of workers have to make ends meet and spend miserably; 7.9% are not enough to live on, forced to do many other jobs to earn more income.
Notably, 12.5% of workers have to borrow regularly monthly to maintain their lives, while 29.9% have to borrow every few months.
The survey results also show that only 54.9% of workers said their salaries were enough to meet basic spending needs. That means nearly half of the workers are living in a situation of having to "work around the fish sauce", even accepting debt to make ends meet.
Electricity prices increased in the context of prolonged hot weather, causing increased demand for electricity. For many workers' families living in small, spacious boarding houses, there are not many options for saving electricity.
"It's too much to not turn on the fan or air conditioner, especially with a small child. But seeing the electricity bill, I was very heartbroken" - Mr. Tam shared.
While many opinions say that adjusting electricity prices is necessary to ensure balancing production costs, from the perspective of low-income workers, each price adjustment is an additional calculation of living expenses.
"I hope to have more practical support policies from controlling reasonable household electricity prices to supporting rental prices and electricity prices for poor and far-from-hast households. Because, while income has not increased, any expenses, no matter how small, can become a big burden for every worker" - Ms. Ngan expressed.
