Workers’ minimum salaries, which have been applied since Jan this year, meet only around 50% of their minimum living levels, according to a survey by the Vietnam Labor Federation reported at an Apr 12 workshop.

These subsistence minimal salaries, along with some meager extra pays, have left most workers in big cities destitute and physically wasted away.

With their minimum pay fluctuating from two million dong (US$97) to less than five million dong, the workers are always on a shoestring and work up to 12 hours a day to earn some more. They rent cheap, shabby rooms and cut daily expenses to the minium.

The workers, most of whom are migrants, suffer serious malnutrition and other health risks. According to a 2010 survey on 402 workers in HCMC, 19.2 % of them suffer serious anemia and up to 70 % have iod deficiency.

Workers’ minimum salaries: a thorny problem

Le Xuan Thanh, from the Ministry of Labor, War Veterans and Social Affairs, admitted the fact that when the ministry launched its salary reform in 2003 with the minimum salary being VND290,000, the minimum living level then was over VND500,000.

“The goal that minimum salaries can suffice workers’ living demands by 2015 remains far-fetched,” said Thanh.

According to a survey launched by the ministry, up to 94% of workers now work overtime to provide for themselves and their family.

“Since 1993, minimum salaries have been raised several times, but living levels have yet to be improved due to high inflation rates. The minimum salaries Vietnam applied in the first place are far too low, so no matter how hard we try, our minimum salaries is beyond comparison with price slides,” said Van Thu Ha, from Oxfam in Vietnam.

Thanh also admitted that the salary adjustment policies adopted so far aren’t based on any standards. While the reform applied within the state-owned businesses are based on budgets, those outside the state-owned sector have their salaries reform tailored to price increases.

Though acknowledging the fact that the government has been grappling to cope with the situation over the past 20 years, Thanh pointed out that minimum salaries have risen by 15% compared to the low economic growth and the mere 5% increase in labor efficiency in recent years.

Dang Quang Dieu, head of the ministry’s Institute of Workers and Labor Union, pointed out that if workers can’t subsist on their salaries, they will ultimately resort to strike actions to ask for pay raises.

Dieu also urged that the government put harness on inflation rates at all costs and keep our currency from dropping in value.

However, he also stressed that workers’ topmost concern is having a job, and the pay comes second.

Considering the country’s economic malaise over the past few years, which is expected to continue in some years, pay raises for some, in stark comparison with low profits, mean that a number of other workers will lose their jobs.