Wages rise, prices rise - Who benefits more?
(Baonghean)From July 1st, 2013, the minimum wage increased from VND 1,050,000 to VND 1,115,000. This was the result of numerous workshops, discussions, and calculations by policy-making agencies, and after much anticipation from tens of millions of wage earners and their families, especially retirees and families receiving social welfare benefits – the most disadvantaged and vulnerable groups in real life, where the "minimum wage" policy was outdated, and the almost unregulated pricing system coupled with inflation created devastating daily price surges!
What's going on after this "payday"? What are those who "received" a raise thinking, and what are those who didn't? And do policymakers know and seriously consider what's happening?
It has long been known that our "minimum wage" policy is outdated, and even worse, with the constant "price surge" of inflation. At the highest-level conferences discussing wages, it has been consistently stated that the minimum wage only guarantees about 40% of the minimum living standard, leaving no room for investment in culture, basic human needs, or the restoration of the workforce; not to mention "investment in the future"... Thus, the meager wage increase of a few hundred thousand dong per worker and their dependents is insignificant. This is assuming prices are stable and the real value of the currency remains stable...
But the problem is that as soon as the government announces a salary increase, dozens of economic sectors and administrative agencies immediately announce price increases, or are "about to" increase prices, for essential "items" such as gasoline, electricity, hospital fees, and tuition fees... On the streets, from motorbike taxi drivers and taxi drivers to vegetable vendors and parking attendants, everyone announces price increases. Particularly noteworthy are the price increases in the electricity sector, some schools, and hospitals. It's unclear when these public service sectors, carrying the seeds of "monopoly," began to allow themselves the theory that "price increases must cover costs" and compare domestic prices to the prices of the same goods abroad, claiming they are still very "modest." Why don't people consider that the salaries of our employees are too low compared to those of foreigners? Such comparisons are unacceptable!
Ideally, when workers' wages are insufficient to live on, and without even considering "global wage integration," macroeconomic social security policies should prioritize maintaining stable prices, ensuring the real value of wages for workers, and strictly managing price increases, especially for essential goods and sectors that have traditionally served the public interest, such as tuition fees, hospital fees, electricity prices, fuel prices, and transportation services. The rapid and drastic price increases of these items are creating difficulties and negatively impacting the livelihoods of every family.
Inadvertently, the indiscriminate increase in prices not only "contributes" to the neutralization of wage policy, rendering each wage increase meaningless and lacking the scientific basis of the government's initial intentions, but it also affects the entire macroeconomic policy on social security. For a long time now, the refrain "wages increase, prices increase too" has been repeated many times, repeatedly diminishing the significance of wage increases and wage policy. If wages increase without maintaining stable prices, it's merely a superficial solution; the lives of workers will never improve, and difficulties will only compound...
It's time that when discussing wage policies and raising wages, policymakers and social managers immediately implement measures to manage prices, establishing "laws" governing price increases, instead of allowing anyone to raise prices however they want, whenever they want...
Thach Anh (Hanoi)
