Basic salary increase 30% to 2.34 million VND: Half happy, half worried

Salary reform is one of the hot issues discussed by the National Assembly at its 7th session. In the supplementary agenda, on the afternoon of June 25, the National Assembly will hear the Government's report on salary reform; adjustment of pensions, social insurance benefits, preferential benefits for people with meritorious services and social benefits from July 1, 2024 and discuss this content in groups.

Best immediate solution

Discussing this issue on the sidelines of the National Assembly, National Assembly member Nguyen Thi Viet Nga ( Hai Duong delegation) said that the salary adjustment from July 1 is the largest adjustment ever, with the basic salary increasing by 30% - the largest increase ever. For workers receiving salaries from the State budget, this news will be received with a "half-happy, half-worried" mood.

According to Ms. Nga, she is happy because her salary income has increased significantly (up to 30%). But she is worried because she is afraid that the situation will continue as it has happened before, when every salary increase, prices will increase accordingly, making the salary increase almost only increase the amount of money in the account and not improve the living standards of workers.

Therefore, Ms. Nga believes that the current problem is quite difficult for the Government, which is how to reform and direct the macro and micro economy to control prices.

According to the delegate, the phenomenon of "following the flow", taking advantage of salary increases to increase prices without any rules is a real phenomenon and requires close management and direction from the authorities to ensure that salary increases are truly aimed at improving the lives of workers, so that the joy of salary increases for workers receiving salaries from the State budget is more complete and not "half happy, half worried".

The female delegate from Hai Duong also said that we had planned to reform wages but in the end, we increased wages at the present time. These two things have one thing in common, that is, when reforming wages or increasing wages, the wages of workers are generally adjusted in an upward direction, but the fundamental difference is the way wages are calculated.

National Assembly Delegate Nguyen Thi Viet Nga.

For example, salary reform has eliminated the traditional method of calculating salaries based on base salary, rank, seniority and allowances and instead will calculate salaries based on the employee's job position.

With salary reform, there are many advantages, especially ensuring fairness and more science in salary calculation, such as current workers with the same job position and same qualifications, but if they have different seniority, the salary of workers, even though they have to undertake the same job, the salary is extremely different, even several times different.

For example, a new graduate is very capable of taking on those jobs compared to someone who has been doing that job for many years, the two salaries are very different, leading to unfairness.

"If we can reform, we will have a very scientific, modern, fair way of calculating wages, and it will also be close to the way of calculating wages in many advanced countries in the world," the delegate emphasized.

However, to change the way wages are calculated with truly radical change, there must be many accompanying conditions.

“When we move from the old to the new, there are many conditions to prepare, first of all there must be conditions regarding resources,” Ms. Nga said.

Accordingly, in terms of resources, we have first obtained a certain budget, saved for a number of years to implement salary reform.

However, the delegate said that wage reform is not just about saving resources, because this is a long-term problem. Therefore, besides saving, many other solutions are still needed to improve labor productivity, increase income, so that the average annual GDP index increases higher, not simply about "how much money" we can save to implement wage reform.

In addition, institutional amendments are needed, because currently the traditional way of calculating salaries involves many different legal regulations. For example, the Social Insurance Law that we have just reviewed and amended, the basis for employees to pay insurance is the basic salary. Now that we are amending the way of calculating salaries, of course we will have to amend it. In addition, it is also necessary to review and amend other legal regulations related to emulation and rewards...

According to the Government's report at the 7th Session, by the end of 2023, the Government has set aside about 680,000 billion VND to implement the new wage policy.

In addition to the amendment, Ms. Nga said that it is also necessary to build job positions, describing each job position for all professions receiving salaries from the budget. “This is the most difficult and longest-term work and up to now we have not finished it. Although we have made great efforts in recent years, this is a job that requires a lot of time and effort,” said the delegate.

In addition, there are many other factors that make salary reform, if implemented immediately, still encounter many difficulties and obstacles. Therefore, the Government has decided not to implement all salary reform contents for the time being and only implement some contents, including increasing the basic salary.

“The 30% salary increase meets immediate needs. That is, workers receiving salaries from the State budget are looking forward to a salary that will basically meet their living needs. I think this is the best immediate solution,” delegate Nguyen Thi Viet Nga emphasized.

However, according to the female delegate, in addition to this immediate solution, the Government still needs to continue directing research and preparing necessary conditions to implement salary reform at an appropriate time in the future.

“I still emphasize that in order to have a truly solid resource for wage reform, the solutions proposed to increase labor productivity, streamline and streamline the apparatus and increase GDP are very important. Because only then will we have a truly solid resource to implement wage reform. If we do not apply other solutions synchronously, it will be very difficult to calculate resources for wage reform,” said the Russian delegate.

To make salary increase really meaningful

National Assembly Deputy Tran Dinh Gia (Ha Tinh delegation) assessed that this is the highest salary increase ever, and is information that makes officials, civil servants, and public employees in the State apparatus very excited.

Besides the excitement, there is also concern about how this salary increase policy will bring real value to people with income from salaries as well as people without salaries.

According to Mr. Gia, if the salary increases while keeping inflation stable, the prices of goods do not increase, that is a very good thing. However, if the salary increases while the prices also increase, it will not bring any benefits to those who earn income from salaries, but on the contrary, it will cause more difficulties for those who do not earn salaries.

“Therefore, in addition to increasing wages, the Government needs to implement effective measures to control inflation and ensure that prices of goods do not increase. That is the meaning of this wage increase,” said Mr. Gia.

National Assembly Delegate Tran Dinh Gia.

According to the delegate, this implementation of the basic salary increase has shown that the reform of the salary policy according to the Resolution of the Central Executive Committee has not been implemented yet. This is a task that the Government needs to continue to perform well.

"According to the roadmap for reforming the salary policy, this time we should reform the salary scale and the way of calculating salaries, not just simply increase salaries," Mr. Gia shared and said that reforming the salary policy is an extremely difficult issue and building a system of job positions, salary scales according to job positions, career incentives... is still a complicated issue.

Therefore, delegates believe that increasing wages is only a short-term solution, and in the long term, it is necessary to thoroughly implement the Resolution of the Party Central Committee on reforming wage policy.

According to delegate Gia, implementing salary increases based on coefficients as currently implemented will immediately solve the urgent problem of officials, civil servants, and workers whose income comes from salaries. The next issue is how to make salary increases meaningful.

"If we increase wages but prices increase, it will be very difficult for those who do not have income from wages, and for those who receive a salary increase but prices also increase, it is meaningless, meaning that prices have already increased before the salary increase has been implemented," said delegate Gia.

Therefore, the delegate believes that increasing wages while controlling prices is a very good thing, because those who receive a salary increase will also benefit, and low-income people without wages, freelance workers, and farmers will also have less hardship.

"If wages increase and prices also increase, the most disadvantaged group will be farmers, those who do not receive wages," the delegate stated.

National Assembly Delegate Nguyen Chu Hoi.

National Assembly Deputy Nguyen Chu Hoi (Hai Phong delegation) said that salary reform is a hope and if salary reform is certainly timely on July 1, the deputies will continue to hope.

“Because, with the salary level compared to the recent development of the economy as well as the development level of the region and the world, we still need to strive,” Mr. Hoi stated.

Delegates should note how to adjust wages to match prices. It is not just a matter of increasing and improving wages, but also thinking about adjusting the balance between wages and prices. This is an important issue that the National Assembly needs to discuss.

Mr. Hoi believes that salary reform must be fundamental, not just to catch up with July 1, but this is the foundation for long-term salary reform, following the right roadmap. “Salary is one of the tools to stimulate production, one of the methods to stabilize workers’ livelihoods. Therefore, this is a very important issue,” Mr. Hoi said .

Hoang Bich - Thu Huyen

Source: https://www.nguoiduatin.vn/tang-luong-co-so-30-len-234-trieu-dong-nua-mung-nua-lo-a669890.html