Vietnam / Minimum wage needs to be increased

For decades Vietnam has failed to set a minimum wage that provides enough for people to live on, officials said at a meeting Friday.

Vietnam’s minimum wage only meets between 50 and 70 percent of the cost of people’s basic needs, officials said at the conference held by the National Assembly’s Social Issues Committee to discuss ways to calculate a livable minimum wage.

The figures came from a survey conducted by the Vietnam Labor Union last year, which estimated that people need between VND750,000 and VND900,000 (US$36-43) per month to ensure they can provide themselves sufficient nutrition – about 2,300 calories a day.

Adding in other expenses including the raising of children, one needs around VND2.4-3.7 million a month just to survive.

“Our minimum wage and minimum living standards have never met. The wage might not be able to catch up for at least a couple years,” said Labor Union representative Dang Quang Dieu.

“Why do workers at footwear, garment and construction companies become skinny after three or four years?

“Because they work too hard without being able to afford meals that provide a minimal amount of nutrition,” Dieu was quoted as saying in a Tuoi Tre report.

Chosen excerpts by Job Market Monitor

via Vietnam latest news – Thanh Nien Daily | Vietnam’s minimum wage leaves its workers impoverished.