Vietnam’s regional minimum wages proposed to rise by 15% next year

Regional minimum wages in Vietnam next year may rise by 15 percent on average from the current rates, according to a labor ministry plan.

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The Ministry of Labor, War Invalids and Social Affairs has submitted to the Government a plan to increase the current regional minimum wages in 2015.

Accordingly, the minimum wages for the country’s four zones are proposed to be raised by VND300,000-400,000 (US$14.1-18.9) per month from the current rates.

If approved, the minimum wages of Zones 1, 2, 3 and 4 in 2015 will be VND3.1 million ($146.4), VND2.75 million, VND2.42 million and VND2.2 million per month, respectively.

Currently, the minimum monthly wage for Zones 1, 2, 3 and 4 is VND1.9 million ($89.5), VND2.1 million ($98.9), VND2.4 million ($113), and VND2.7 million ($127.2), respectively.

Even if the new minimum wages are approved, they will still be much lower than the minimum living costs in all the four zones, according to a recent survey by the Institute for Workers and Trade Unions, under the Vietnam General Confederation of Labor (VGCL).

According to the survey, the minimum monthly living costs in Zones 1, 2, 3 and 4 are VND3,996,000 (US$188.3), VND3,423,000 ($161.3), VND3,050,000 ($143.7), and VND2,695,000 (127.5), respectively.

“Based on the survey’s results, if we want to bridge the gap between the wages and the costs, the minimal salary must be hiked by as much as 30-33 percent in 2015, which is impossible to do,” the chairman of VGCL, Dang Ngoc Tung, told Tuoi Tre (Youth) newspaper.

When amending the Code of Labor in 2012, lawmakers and policymakers set a target that workers would have their minimum living cost match the minimum wage next year, he said.

But the target cannot be achieved given the current situation, Tung added.

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