Not enough to live on in a job
Ms. Le Thi Binh is currently working as a worker at a garment company in Yen Nghia Industrial Park (Ha Dong Ward, Hanoi). Ms. Binh has been with the company for 8 years, currently receiving a salary of more than 7 million VND/month; additional shift allowances, bonuses based on labor productivity, total income of about 9.5 million VND/month.
Previously, Ms. Binh's husband worked at the same company as her. Since the beginning of 2024, he lost his job when the company cut staff, thereby driving a technology motorbike taxi.
Ms. Binh said that the total income of the couple is about 17-18 million VND/month, the family of 4 is currently renting a room in Ha Dong ward.
"Income is not yet 18 million VND/month, the monthly rent alone costs 3.5 million VND. I have to be very organized to ensure my family's food and expenses, and take care of my two children's education. After 8 years of working, I still find my current income not being able to meet my living standards. New workers have to work, their salaries and incomes are even lower than mine, many of them have children going to school, so it is even more difficult, said Ms. Binh.
Ms. Binh's condition is also a difficult problem for many workers today. Not only in the group of workers, many workers in administrative and office work also have a hard time with their salary to ensure their lives.
Ms. Nguyen Thu Thuy is currently an administrative employee of a technology company in Dong Da ward (Hanoi). With a salary of 8 million VND/month, Ms. Thuy has to do another job to ensure her life.
In addition to my main job, I am collaborating with an event organization company. Every month, I attend about 3 events with the company. My job is behind-the-scenes coordinating, the remuneration for an event is about 1.5 - 2 million VND. With the additional income of both jobs, I have about 15 million VND per month, said Ms. Thuy.
According to Ms. Thuy, although she does not have a family, because the company is in the city center, she rents a house at a high price and the cost of living is expensive, so if she only does one job, she cannot make a living.
According to Anphabe, employees need support in all aspects, in which financial health and physical health are the two most urgent issues.
According to a survey by Anphabe, about 2/3 of employees feel worried because their current income does not meet their basic needs and they do not receive worthy wages, and are not assured about future income. To ensure finances, workers choose to study and manage scientific spending, find additional jobs to earn income or find jobs with higher salaries, causing talent to leave the workplace and challenging businesses to retain them.
In addition, this group also believes that they have more than 1 fixed source of income, mainly from freelance/part-time work and savings interest. Also due to these reasons, the group of employees encounter serious physical health problems, affecting work performance. A third of respondents said they were not confident that they were healthy enough to meet their daily work needs, especially the group of employees.
2 biggest problems that employees are facing
In that context, businesses need to have appropriate social security strategies towards employees in the organization, especially programs/activities to care for all aspects of employees' health, specifically for the health problems that employees are facing.
To solve the two biggest problems that employees are facing, Anphabe encourages some financial health care and physical health care activities for employees that businesses can carry out to improve existing difficulties for employees.
Regarding building and encouraging financial health for employees, it is necessary to train and improve personal financial knowledge; provide direct financial support through salary and benefit policies; encourage a sustainable financial culture with other benefits such as supporting preferential loans, supporting education and scholarships, product discount and discount coupons, flexible bonuses, etc.
Regarding support for improving physical health, businesses create conditions in terms of time and facilities; organize appropriate health programs; organize seminars on nutrition and exercise...
