According to a survey by the Vietnam General Confederation of Labor (VGCL) on around 2,000 workers, their salary is not enough to cover minimum monthly living expenses. These workers are from 60 State-owned enterprises and foreign-invested enterprises in 12 provinces and cities in northern, central and southern Vietnam, said Dang Quang Hop, a senior expert of the Institute for Workers – Trade Union under VGCL. As shown in the survey, the average basic income, which consists of the contractual salary and allowances, of workers in the surveyed State-owned enterprises was VND3 million (US$144), while it was only less than VND2.4 million in foreign-invested enterprises. The survey also focused on the living costs of the workers and found that such incomes were only enough to pay for 40-46 percent of their minimum expenses per month. Along with income, the Institute also surveyed the meal allowance paid by the employers to their employees. Of the 60 surveyed businesses, 75 percent pay VND13,900 per ration, or VND368,000 per month, on average; 25 percent only pay part or up to half of the expense; and 5 percent do not pay it. Meanwhile, 31 percent of the surveyed foreign-invested enterprises received complaints from their workers that the meals did not meet regulations on food safety and hygiene, while the figure for joint stock companies was 41 percent. Regarding quality, the meals at a number of industrial parks provide only 90 percent of the required calories, according to an assessment by the Vietnam National Nutrition Institute. In addition, they generally have a low nutritional value, containing up to 72 percent of starch, only 12 percent of protein, and about 16 percent of fat substances, the Institute said.