(VOVWORLD) - Members of the National Wage Council agreed to a proposal increasing the regional minimum wage in 2024 at the council’s first meeting of 2023 on Wednesday.
 A worker at Gio Linh Textile Factory in Gio Linh, Quang Trị province (Photo: Thanh Thuy/VNA) |
Le Dinh Quang, Deputy Director General of the Policy and Law Department of the Vietnam General Confederation of Labor, and a member of the National Wage Council, said that it’s necessary to increase the regional minimum wages 5 to 6% to make up for spiraling prices.
“We only want to adjust the regional minimum wages in line with the consumer price index (CPI) so that the real wages of workers will not be reduced,” said Quang.
He took CPI as an example. Last year’s CPI was 3.15%. In the first 6 months of this year, it was 4.74% and forecast to be 4.5% for the whole year. It will probably be above 3% for next year. Therefore, the increase is to offset the spiraling index to hold the workers’ wages steady. A 5 to 6% increase is what the Vietnamese trade unions want.
The next meeting will be convened in the fourth quarter of this year to finalize the possibility of raising the regional minimum wage in 2024.