Mr. Nguyen Van Ha is currently working as a worker in Thanh Oai Industrial Park (Thanh Oai District, Hanoi) said that his basic salary is currently 5,700,000 VND/month, 4,960,000 VND/month higher than the current minimum wage in region 1. Combined with overtime pay, overtime pay, and allowances, Mr. Ha's total income is about 10 million VND/month. Mr. Ha's wife also works as a worker in Thanh Oai Industrial Park, with a total income of about 8,500,000 VND/month.
The couple has a total income of about 18,500,000 VND/month, but Mr. Ha said that he and his wife did not dare to take their two children from their hometown (Thanh Ba district, Phu Tho) to live with their parents because they could not bear the costs of renting a house and feeding their children.
"If it were just for me and my wife, we would work all day, so we would rent a small room and eat and drink easily. When bringing the children down, we have to rent a room big enough for 4 people, and their school meals and meals must also be calculated. We decided to let the children in our hometown study and live with their grandparents. Every month, my wife and I send 6 million VND back to our hometown so that our grandparents can take care of our children. The remaining amount, the couple frugally spends, after deducting rent, living expenses... they can hardly leave much. Every month, my wife spends 1,500,000 VND every full income, if she is sick or has many beggars, I don't have any money left," Mr. Ha shared.
Ms. Bui Thi Lan is currently a worker at a joint venture company in Taiwan (China), renting a room in Bau village, Kim Chung commune (Dong Anh district, Hanoi). Ms. Lan said that the boarding house she is renting has nearly 20 rooms, most of which are worker couples or groups of workers renting a room. No family has brought their children to live with them because they cannot worry about their children's living expenses and education in the city.
"The current rental price for a room is about 2,000,000 VND/room/month, including electricity and water bills of about 2,500,000 - 2,800,000 VND/month. I live with 2 colleagues from the same hometown, and the monthly rent alone costs about 900,000 VND. My basic salary is 5,900,000 VND/month, with overtime and overtime pay is about 9 million VND/month. In addition to the rent, we also have to pay for food and living expenses. For those who are not married like me, they still save about 2,000,000 VND/month, if they are married, they just hope not to borrow money at the end of the month and then pay back the salary, said Ms. Lan.
Ms. Nguyen Thi Lan Huong, former Director of the Institute of Labor Science and Social Affairs, emphasized that the minimum wage is the lowest level paid to people working under normal conditions. However, Vietnam's approach to minimum wages is based on labor contract conditions while signing labor contracts only accounts for about 60-70% and is only implemented in the group of state-owned and FDI enterprises.
The most important thing is that we have not yet developed a law on minimum wages, so each year we need to wait for the National Wage Council to meet to propose the increase and the time for adjustment. The adjustment is mainly based on the analysis of consumer price index, economic growth without comprehensive assessment to increase minimum wage, increase labor costs and labor supply-demand correlation...", Ms. Lan Huong said.
Ms. Huong hopes that the basic salary and minimum wage must be a living wage, capable of ensuring the necessary expenses of workers and their families such as dressing, living, traveling... "That standard of living must be adjusted according to economic development", Ms. Huong emphasized.
