Many benefits when increasing regional minimum wage

The Ministry of Labor, Invalids and Social Affairs is proposing to draft a Decree regulating regional minimum wages, with a 6% increase from July 1.

Accordingly, the increase in region I is 4,960,000 VND/month, region II is 4,410,000 VND/month, region III is 3,860,000 VND/month, region IV is 3,450,000 VND/month.

The minimum hourly wage was also issued for the first time, with the following levels: Region 1 is 22,500 VND/hour, Region 2 is 20,000 VND/hour, Region 3 is 17,500 VND/hour, Region 4 is 15,600 VND/hour.

The minimum wage adjustment will affect workers who are paid based on a set number of hours worked, regardless of their performance or output.

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Workers enjoy many benefits when the minimum wage increases. Illustration photo: Le Anh Dung

When the minimum wage is adjusted to increase, in addition to the monthly salary increase, employees will receive increased benefits such as: Increased salary for suspension of work; increased minimum wage when changing jobs; increased social insurance contribution; increased unemployment insurance contribution; increased maximum unemployment benefit.

Salary has not increased but worried about price increase

Low wages are the main reason why workers are forced to work overtime to increase their income; many workers have to limit their daily work to earn more income.

Therefore, when the regional minimum wage is adjusted to increase, if price increases cannot be controlled, low-income workers will have a very difficult time.

Mr. Nguyen Van Huong, a security guard at an apartment building in Nam Tu Liem district ( Hanoi ), shared that his current monthly salary is only about 4.7 million VND/month, and if he works overtime, he gets more than 6 million VND/month.

Because his main job's salary is only enough to cover rent and daily living expenses, Mr. Huong has to work as a Grab driver in the evening to earn extra money to send to his family in the countryside.

Mr. Huong said that through research, he learned that the regional minimum wage in Hanoi (region I) will be adjusted to nearly 5 million VND/month from July 1, so his security guard salary will also be adjusted to increase.

However, he believes that the government's increase in regional minimum wages must be accompanied by regulatory measures to prevent the prices of essential goods from rising, otherwise the wage increase will only make sense. Otherwise, it will only make life more difficult for manual workers like him.

“Our salary has increased by nearly 300,000 VND per month, but essential items such as a bowl of pho or a cup of tea have increased, so the lives of manual workers like us certainly will not improve,” said Mr. Huong.

A labor expert said that the regional minimum wage is essentially to protect vulnerable workers. This is the lowest wage to pay workers in normal working conditions to ensure a minimum standard of living.

Therefore, if wage increases do not control inflation, allowing prices to rise, increasing regional minimum wages will not have much meaning for disadvantaged workers.