Choosing the right mix and match
Working as a worker at Thang Long industrial park (Dong Anh commune, Hanoi City) for about 4 years, Mr. Nguyen Van Bon's current basic salary is 5.9 million VND/month, higher than the regional minimum wage of Region 1 currently implemented at 5.31 million VND/month. Combined with overtime, overtime, and allowances, Mr. Bon's total income is about 11 million VND/month. Mr. Bon's wife also works as a worker in this industrial park, with a total income of about 8.5 million VND/month.
The couple has a total income of about 19.5 million VND/month, but Mr. Bon confided that he and his wife do not dare to bring their 2 children from their hometown (Hien Quan commune, Phu Tho province) to live with their parents because they cannot afford the rent and tuition fees of their children.
Each month, my husband and I send 5 million VND back to my hometown for my grandparents to take care of the grandchildren. The remaining money, my husband and I save money on living expenses, after deducting rent, living expenses... we hardly save much. Every month, my wife saves 2 million VND, if she is sick or has many weddings or funerals, it's considered that there is no money left" - Mr. Bon shared.
Meanwhile, in Vinh Long, male worker Thach Da Ra said that although he does not have to pay rent to rent a room near the company, but with an income of 6-7 million VND/month if he does not work overtime, his whole family has to spend sparingly to save a little room for unexpected work.
“Every day, I cook three meals myself, taking it with me to work. The cost of food for the 3 fathers and children ranges from 100,000 VND/day. The average cost of food, living and taking children to school ranges from about 5 million VND/month” - Mr. Da Ra said.
The minimum wage must be enough to live on
This reality shows that the gap between the minimum wage and the minimum living needs is still quite large. Ms. Nguyen Thi Lan Huong - former Director of the Institute of Labor Science and Social Affairs (Ministry of Labor, Invalids and Social Affairs, now the Ministry of Home Affairs) - emphasized that the minimum wage is the lowest level paid to people working in normal conditions. However, Vietnam's approach to the minimum wage is based on labor contract conditions, while labor contract signing only accounts for about 60-70% and is only implemented in the group of state-owned enterprises, FDI.
The most important thing is that we have not yet built a law on the minimum wage, so each year we need to wait for the National Wage Council to meet to propose an increase and adjustment time. The adjustment is mainly based on analyzing consumer price indexes, economic growth but has not comprehensively assessed the minimum wage increase, labor costs increase and labor supply and demand correlation..." - Ms. Lan Huong said.
Ms. Huong hopes that the basic salary and minimum wage must be a salary enough to live on, capable of ensuring the necessary costs for workers and their families such as clothing, accommodation, travel... and must be adjusted according to economic development.
