Increasing regional minimum wage, are workers happy?

At the 7th Session of the 15th National Assembly, along with the approval of the policy of increasing the basic wage by 30%, the National Assembly also resolved to increase the regional minimum wage by 6%. This information made workers happy but also worried. Happy because when the minimum wage increases, in theory, income will increase, life will be better. But worried because they do not know if in reality the actual amount of money received will increase, and whether the price of consumer goods will be stable or will "follow the rain"...

This concern of workers and laborers is not without basis. In order to attract workers and laborers, most enterprises in Hai Duong have paid their employees a salary equal to or higher than the regional minimum wage. This is also the level that enterprises use as a basis for paying social insurance for employees. Therefore, when the minimum wage increases in the condition that enterprises do not really consider employees as "assets" to take care of, they have many ways to not increase salaries for employees without violating the law, such as cutting some other regimes and switching to calculating monthly salaries. In this way, in reality, salaries increase but employees "have the reputation but no profit". This has happened in previous salary increases.

According to a survey on the living conditions, employment, and income of workers in 2023 by the Vietnam General Confederation of Labor, implementing the adjustment of regional minimum wages from July 1, 2022, more than 95% of enterprises have built salary scales, of which more than 23% of enterprises have the lowest salary in the salary scale equal to the regional minimum wage.

However, more than 23% of enterprises, when determining the minimum wage, have cut off the two allowances for hazardous work and training allowance. In addition, nearly 40% of employees in the surveyed enterprises belong to salary level 1 (corresponding to the regional minimum wage without allowances).

In addition, when wages increase, workers and laborers are also worried about rising consumer costs. According to statistics in Hai Duong, the consumer price index has increased continuously in the first 6 months of 2024. It is worth noting that the group of goods that increased are all essential needs for people such as: housing, electricity, water, fuel, food and catering services... Most workers only rely on their wages to cover their living expenses, so when the price of each consumer good increases a little, it also affects their living standards. For workers and laborers who live in rented houses, it is even more difficult when prices increase, many landlords even use the excuse of increasing wages to increase rent.

Currently, many workers and laborers are still concerned because workers' income increases very slowly, depending on the increase in minimum wage. In a recent share, the leader of the Institute of Workers and Trade Unions (Vietnam General Confederation of Labor) said that our country is calculating the minimum wage according to the poverty line to solve the problem of hunger eradication and poverty reduction, but has not yet calculated the minimum wage to ensure a living wage, ensure the costs for dependents (children, the elderly) and be suitable for each development period. In early 2024, the International Labor Organization (ILO) held a meeting of experts on wage policy and concluded that countries need to promote a living wage. The ILO's conclusion stated: "Promote the gradual increase from the minimum wage to a living wage." This is also the wish of Vietnamese workers and laborers.

Thus, in order for workers and laborers to truly enjoy a pay increase, the authorities, especially the trade union organization (in enterprises that have established a grassroots trade union), need to pay attention to and monitor the implementation of the enterprise's policies. In the case of enterprises "circumventing the law" by cutting workers' benefits to compensate for the increase in the minimum wage, there must be opinions and guarantees for the rights of workers. The provincial authorities need to properly implement the Government's instructions on stabilizing market prices, not allowing the situation of wages increasing and prices increasing accordingly. Localities where people build houses for workers to stay need to do a good job of propaganda and mobilization, not allowing the phenomenon of increasing housing prices at this time.

According to current legal regulations, when the minimum wage increases, in addition to the monthly salary increase, employees will receive increased benefits such as: Increased severance pay; increased minimum wage when changing jobs; increased social insurance contribution; increased unemployment insurance contribution; increased maximum unemployment benefit.

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