Workers and laborers 'live a miserable life' with minimum wage

The salary is not enough to cover the cost of living.

According to experts, in enterprises in Nghe An in particular and the whole country in general, workers are receiving a salary that is too low, not ensuring basic needs. The reason leading to this situation is that the issue of benefits between enterprises and workers has not been satisfactorily resolved.

Ms. Hoang Thi Thu Huong - President of the Southeast Economic Zone Trade Union shared: “Workers need an income to ensure food, living, health, and welfare for themselves and their families in daily life. At the same time, they also need enough income to prepare for unemployment, illness, old age, or other objective circumstances. However, with the risky income of the minimum wage, their families can only “live from hand to mouth”.

Most businesses have transformedsalaryThe minimum wage in the region is the average salary to pay, ranging from 3.5 to 5 million VND/month. This helps businesses cut down on salary costs, avoid paying social insurance, while workers and laborers enjoy low social security benefits.

The total income of workers will be the minimum wage plus allowances, subsidies, overtime, and overtime, falling around 5-10 million VND. With the current cost of living, that amount of money can only maintain basic life, it cannot be saved or used for risk prevention.

In many recent collective work stoppages, the main petitions of workers revolved around the issue of income, in which salary is the key to income. In the strike that took place 1 year ago at a company in Dien Chau, many workers were upset because the minimum wage they received was too low, unable to ensure their lives.

“When we petitioned about the salary, the business owner replied that the salary was higher than the regional minimum wage, and they affirmed that they did not violate the law. That is true, but even though we paid a little more than the regional minimum wage, our overall income was still very difficult, we had to make do with it. That is why, every time we were deducted points for diligence or fined for small reasons, we felt indignant,” said Ms. Tran Thi H., a worker during the collective work stoppage in October 2023.

Coming from Quy Hop district, coming to Vinh to work as a worker at VSIP Industrial Park, Ms. Le Thi Quynh Trang (Luxshare ICT Co., Ltd.) confided: “My average monthly income is nearly 6 million VND, my husband's is 10 million VND. Because we cook for ourselves and spend sparingly, we only spend about 5 million VND/month on food, groceries, electricity and water, and 1.5 million VND on housing. Visiting and gas also cost 2 million VND, each month we send 3 million VND to our parents in the countryside to raise our children. I try to save a little bit, but there are months when I have it, months when I don't... The dream of a peaceful home and a career is too far away.”

Ms. Trang's story is also the common situation of most workers working far from home. Work is stressful,salaryDue to the meager income and long-term frugal spending, the health of workers is not guaranteed. The living environment of workers is mainly in damp, run-down boarding houses, hot in the summer and cold in the winter.

Workers’ children are also disadvantaged when forced to choose between living with their grandparents in the countryside or with their parents in industrial zones. If they choose to live near their parents, they will lack the minimum living conditions in boarding houses, affecting their physical and mental development. If they live with their grandparents in the countryside, they will lack the care and affection of their parents.

“The current salary and income levels make the problem of ensuring housing needs for workers very far away. Meanwhile, the business community, in order to maximize profits, has to join together to pin the salary payment level at the legal floor level to maximize profits,” said Mr. Nguyen Chi Cong, Vice Chairman of the Nghe An Provincial Labor Federation.

Need for synchronous policies

To solve problems related to workers' lives, there needs to be synchronous solutions from the central to local levels.

“To improve workers’ lives, first of all, it is necessary to reform the minimum wage policy for workers, to correctly assess the current situation to adjust it to the minimum living needs. This is also a factor that directly affects labor relations. In addition, the authorities need to have a policy to train skilled workers, ensure quality and meet the needs of businesses, and minimize the situation of workers having to do manual, heavy labor and work without skills. In vocational training, especially at universities, avoid training according to “trends”, but need to train according to the needs of use. Workers when training in a profession need to combine foreign language training to be able to work with foreign business owners” - Ms. Hoang Thi Thu Huong said.

Regarding the lives of workers, in the two meetings with voters who are workers this year, the issue of workers' housing, places for sports and cultural activities, schools, and kindergartens for workers' children is one of the issues that received much attention and recommendations from workers. In addition, many female workers also recommended implementing reproductive health care programs for industrial park workers and building medical centers for industrial parks. At the same time, the State also needs to have policies to support preferential loans for workers in industrial parks, helping them have the necessary financial conditions to buy houses, rent social housing, settle down or stabilize their accommodation.

"The VND120,000 billion social housing loan program, aimed at social housing, housing for workers and low-income people, currently has an interest rate of 6.5%, which is too high, even higher than the interest rate of commercial banks. At the same time, we hope that the State will have a policy to support, exempt, and reduce tuition fees for children of workers working under labor contracts in industrial zones because the current tuition fees are high compared to the income of workers in general" - worker Tran Van Tai (Minh Anh Kim Lien Garment Joint Stock Company) said.

Also with the above content, at the workshop to contribute ideas to build the revised Trade Union Law, many delegates said that, to ensure the legitimate rights and interests of employees in enterprises, strengthening the role and functions of Trade Union organizations in legal regulations is necessary.

With a long-term vision, the State also needs to research and develop a social security reserve fund to support unemployed workers in coping with sudden difficulties and risks. Establishing a reserve fund will help reduce the burden on traditional social security funds such as social insurance funds, health insurance funds, etc., avoiding the risk of these traditional funds going bankrupt, thereby contributing to strengthening the safety and sustainability of the social security system in our country.