Ms. Bui Thi Nga - from Thanh Hoa, a worker at a company in Thang Long Industrial Park (Dong Anh district, Hanoi) currently has a basic salary of 8.9 million VND/month. This is the basic salary she has earned after more than 17 years of working.
“The company doesn’t have much work so they don’t organize much overtime. I want to work overtime to earn more income but I can’t,” Ms. Nga shared.
According to Ms. Nga, in addition to her basic salary, she also receives allowances. After deducting social insurance contributions, she receives about 9 million VND/month.
Her husband works as a salesman. The couple's total income is about 20 million VND. They use this money to support their two school-age children; pay rent; and cover living expenses for the whole family.
"This amount of money is only enough for my family to cover monthly expenses, it is very difficult to have any savings" - the female worker shared.
Because they cannot save much, they do not dare to think about buying a house in Hanoi. In the long term, the family plans to return to their hometown to live.
Ms. NTH (Bac Giang) currently has a fairly low basic salary, only 4.7 million VND/month. The company has little work and little overtime, so including allowances and overtime pay, her total income is about 9-10 million VND/month. Ms. NTH sends more than half of this income back home to raise her children; the rest she has to spend frugally on many expenses: rent, food, living expenses, etc.
Ms. NTH expressed her wish that the basic salary would continue to increase to better ensure workers' lives, so that income would not depend too much on overtime pay.
“I expect a basic salary of about 8-9 million VND/month. With this salary, I only need to work a little more time, be more proactive in my life, have time to rest, take care of my health while still ensuring income and stabilizing my life,” Ms. NTH shared.
Talking to reporters, Ms. Pham Thi Thu Lan - Deputy Director of the Institute of Workers and Trade Unions (Vietnam General Confederation of Labor) said that it is necessary to increase basic wages and ensure working hours, not increase wages and increase working hours. When having a living wage, ensuring life, workers will have more choices. They can choose to work extra to save for their children; or not work extra to have time and conditions to take care of their family or do other jobs that they like more.
The basic salary of a worker is understood as the salary that the worker and the employer agree on as the basis for calculating the actual salary received.
Base salary does not include allowances, bonuses or other benefits.
The basic salary is agreed upon by the parties but must not be lower than the regional minimum wage.
