Salary is not enough to live on
For more than 2 years, Mr. Bui Van Hanh (from Phu Ly ward, Ninh Binh) - currently an employee of a printing company in Phuong Liet ward (Hanoi) - has often lived the scene of "eating instant noodles over meals" in the last days of the month.
Graduating from a college in Hanoi in 2023, Mr. Hanh applied to work at his current company and has been attached to it until now. Mr. Hanh's daily job is to prepare materials and control quality at the printing workshop. The salary when he first started working was 7.5 million VND/month, and now he earns 11 million VND/month.
Mr. Hanh currently rents an old apartment near Ha Dong market (Ha Dong ward, Hanoi) for 4 million VND/month. In addition to renting houses accounting for more than 1/3 of his monthly salary, Mr. Hanh also spends on food, transportation, electricity and water. "The total fixed expenses for renting houses, eating, gasoline... is about 8.5 million VND/month. Of the remaining money, I have to balance spending on other unnamed expenses. In months when luck does not lead to many weddings or illnesses, I just manage to spend within the 11 million VND salary; in months when work arises, in the last days of the month, I only eat instant noodles for meals," Mr. Hanh said.
Mr. Hanh shared that he once thought about finding a new job with higher income to improve his life, but for workers with college degrees and no in-depth expertise like him, finding a job worth more than 10 million VND/month is not simple.
For the past 2 months, Mr. Hanh has taken advantage of working part-time as a technology motorbike taxi driver in the evening. "Every night I drive for about 3 hours, a day I earn 200,000 VND, a day I earn less than 100,000 VND, each month I earn about 3-4 million VND more. This amount of money helps me spend more "easily" but often falls into fatigue and exhaustion," Mr. Hanh said.
Reality shows that in big cities, the common income level of young workers ranges from about 7-9 million VND/month. With this figure, workers can maintain regular work, but it is very difficult to ensure a minimum living standard when living expenses are increasing.
Faced with spending pressure, many workers choose to work overtime or take part-time jobs. After working hours, they drive technology cars, sell online, work freelance or take on short-term jobs.
Although it helps increase immediate income, prolonged part-time work poses a risk of affecting health and the efficiency of main jobs. Many workers fall into the vortex of "doing a lot but still not getting better", when rest time is reduced and the ability to improve skills is limited.
Job quality is a "bottleneck
Ms. Le Thi Anh Hoai - Head of Human Resources Department of Hanh Binh An Medical Technology Group (Cua Nam ward, Hanoi) - said that the core cause of the "low-income trap" is not only the salary level but also the quality of the job. Many jobs today are short-term, flexible contracts, with few opportunities for salary increases and promotions.
Businesses tightening costs and optimizing personnel make it easy for workers to fall into a situation of working hours being reduced, bonuses being cut, or income not being adjusted commensurate with the general price increase of the market. Jobs exist but are unstable and lack prospects, making it difficult for workers' incomes to improve in the long term. In addition, the informal service and labor sector – which attracts a large number of young workers – is the most vulnerable group.
The situation of "having jobs but not enough to live on" is prolonged, the consequences do not stop at each individual. Low-income workers easily leave the social insurance system, choosing informal jobs to have additional short-term income, reducing the social security foundation. In the long term, the "low-income trap" also affects the quality of human resources, when workers do not have enough conditions to invest in learning and improving skills - key factors to improve productivity and income," Ms. Anh Hoai said.
To remove the "low-income trap", Ms. Nguyen Thi Lan Huong - former Director of the Institute of Social Labor Science - believes that a comprehensive approach is needed.
First of all, salary policy needs to continue to be adjusted towards approaching the minimum living standard, accurately reflecting living costs, especially in large cities; salary increases cannot be separated from the goal of improving labor productivity. In addition, it is necessary to improve the quality of employment, create conditions for workers to access higher value-added positions through training, retraining and skill conversion. For businesses, improving the working environment and building a clear career path will help workers see development opportunities and be ready to stick with them for a long time.
It's a bit of a bit of a bit of a bit of a bit of a bit.
