Proposing to increase the minimum wage in the region enough to compensate for price slippage

Le Dinh Quang, deputy head of the Policy and Law Department (Vietnam General Confederation of Labor), said that the salary reform orientation of the state has been determined from 2021 to adjust the minimum wage every year. 2016-2020 period, Region minimum wage average growth of 7.4% per year.

After 2 years, the minimum wage has not been adjusted, so far many factors are used as a basis salary increase There have been great fluctuations, such as inflation, economic growth… In addition, due to low wages, it has not been able to attract workers to return to the market, leading to a shortage of labor for the period of economic recovery.

“The epidemic has revealed the difficulties of employees, when the salary is not enough to live, there is no accumulation, they have to work overtime continuously. Since the beginning of the year until now, after 2 years, the minimum wage has not increased, so businesses have not adjusted wages, leading to labor disputes asking for increased wages and benefits. Therefore, we propose to increase the salary from July 1, instead of leaving it until the beginning of next year,” Quang said.

The representative agency of workers did not specify the proposed increase in the regional minimum wage in the near future, but according to Mr. Quang, the salary increase must at least compensate for the price slippage of the past 2 years in order to keep the actual income of employees and the ability to payment of enterprises. If the increase is equal to the average rate of the previous period, after 2 years, this time must increase by nearly 15%, enterprises will not be able to withstand it, so it is necessary to calculate a more harmonious increase.

The representative of employees also proposed to review the formula for calculating the minimum living needs. Because the current formula still takes the proportion of food, food (eating) accounts for 48%, non-food needs (culture, study, entertainment…) account for 52%.

According to Mr. Quang, this is the rate applicable to countries with underdeveloped socio-economics, when the need to eat is more important than other needs. While Vietnam is already a low-middle-income country, the share of food needs to fall and non-food needs to increase.

Specifically, for many years, Vietnam still charged a rent of 194,000 VND/person/month while in urban areas, it was impossible to rent a house at this price. While as a rule, from 2021, General Statistics Office is the agency that publishes the minimum living needs index, but so far it has not been. Therefore, Mr. Quang expects that in the coming time, the General Statistics Office can announce this indicator as a basis for increasing the regional minimum wage.

It is expected that, next week, the National Wage Council will meet for the second time to discuss increasing the regional minimum wage for 2023, at this meeting the parties will make proposals on the increase according to their survey to discuss. , come to unification.