Income of workers meets just 45% of expenditure needs: survey
Most of the current income of workers does not meet their expenditure, and in some cases, it only meets 45% of demand, according to a survey by the Institute of Workers and Trade Unions under the Vietnam General Confederation of Labour.
The survey, which was conducted on 3,000 workers and 157 businesses in six provinces and cities before the first round of regional minimum wage negotiations in 2024, shows that 52.3% of employees work overtime with an average time of 1.75 hours per day, said Pham Thi Thu Lan, the institute’s vice director.
Most surveyed workers volunteered to work overtime to earn extra income and improve their lives, Lan said.
In 2024, the shortage of orders is forecast to continue, as 17.2% of surveyed enterprises said that the shortage of orders next year will increase compared to this year.
The basic salary, including full-time work, is more than VND6 million (US$258 ) per month, 8.4% higher than the March 2022 survey, and 37.5% to 51.9% higher than the regional minimum wage.
Meanwhile, the average expenditure in 2023 is VND12 million (US$504) per month, increasing by 19% against 2022, of which expenditure for food accounts for 70%.
The survey also shows that incomes of over 24% of labourers meet their basic expenditure while incomes of 75.5% of labourers do not meet expenditure.
According to the vice director, more than 53% of the labourers said that they had to reconsider getting married or having children because of their low incomes.
Regarding accommodation, more than 23% of the salary goes on rent at an average rate of VND1.8 million (US$75.6) per month, including electricity and water fees.
Most of the 157 surveyed enterprises develop salary scales as per the levels of regional minimum wage, while 23.4% of the enterprises cut off allowances for training and hazardous work.
Nguyen Thai Duong, vice president of Vietnam’s textile and garment trade union, said the union wanted the workers to have jobs and higher incomes, but the businesses have faced many difficulties.
In the first half of this year, the export turnover of the sector decreased by 20%, equivalent to US$4 billion, and the number of workers who lost their jobs reached more than 600,000 people.
Therefore, this situation will affect workers' wages and the minimum wage that is about to be negotiated, said Duong.
Increasing the regional minimum wage is meaningful.
However, for people with higher salaries, such as the average salary in the textile industry of VND8.8 million (US$370) per month, when increasing wages, their real income does not increase, he added.