National Assembly Delegate Nguyen Thien Nhan talks about the shortcomings of "minimum wage"

(NLDO)- Delegate Nguyen Thien Nhan is concerned about maintaining the minimum birth rate, this is an issue he has mentioned in recent National Assembly sessions.

On the afternoon of February 15, continuing the program of the 9th extraordinary session, National Assembly deputies discussed in the hall about the Supplementary Project on socio-economic development in 2025 with a growth target of 8% or more.

At the discussion session, delegates highly appreciated the Government's determination in proposing to adjust the GDP growth target this year, aiming for double-digit growth in the 2026-2030 period.

Delegate Duong Khac Mai (Dak Nong delegation) said that with the above growth target, the entire political system and all people must make more than 100% effort. At the same time, it is necessary to soon complete institutions and laws, improve law enforcement because according to the Government's assessment, institutions are still "the bottleneck of bottlenecks". In addition, it is necessary to promote public investment and promote the private economy.

National Assembly Delegate Nguyen Thien Nhan speaks at the hall. Photo: Pham Thang

Discussing this content, delegate Nguyen Thien Nhan (HCMC delegation) emphasized that growth targets are very necessary, but it is also necessary to pay attention to the issue of sustainable human development, especially in the current context.

Mr. Nguyen Thien Nhan cited lessons from South Korea and Japan, after more than 30 years of double-digit growth, but in the following period, these two countries almost "stayed flat". According to the delegate, besides growth, these countries did not ensure the replacement fertility rate target, so the birth rate was not achieved despite a period of very strong economic growth.

From this lesson, delegate Nguyen Thien Nhan suggested that Vietnam should pay attention to maintaining the replacement birth rate when promoting economic development. This is also an issue that delegate Nguyen Thien Nhan raised at recent National Assembly sessions.

Accordingly, to maintain the replacement birth rate, Mr. Nguyen Thien Nhan raised the issue of wages and incomes that must be sufficient to ensure that people are brave enough to have children. "If a woman wants to have 2 children, the salary of 1 working person must be able to support herself and her child. In other words, the salary of 2 working people must be able to support 4 people" - Mr. Nhan said and said that the world calls this "living wage".

With the current minimum wage, delegate Nguyen Thien Nhan said, it is only enough to cover the salary earner’s expenses, and cannot support more children. This is also the reality of many countries in the world. From this reality, he said that the reason for the decrease in the replacement birth rate is that salary earners do not have enough money to support their children.

With the above analysis, the delegate of Ho Chi Minh City proposed a roadmap from now until 2030 to shift from "minimum wage" to "minimum living wage". Regarding the "minimum living wage" figure, delegate Nguyen Thien Nhan also provided analysis to propose a suitable figure.

According to Mr. Nhan, through a survey of couples in Ho Chi Minh City, it is known that they must have an income of 20 - 21 million VND/month to be able to cover expenses for 4 people, meaning that each person must have an average of 10.5 million VND/month.

"Currently, the minimum wage in region 1, including Ho Chi Minh City, is only 4.96 million/month. Thus, to increase the "minimum wage" to "minimum living wage", it must be doubled. If the wage is not increased, many couples will not have children, or have few children because they do not have enough money to raise children" - delegate Nguyen Thien Nhan stated.

Therefore, he recommended that there should be a roadmap from now until 2030 to gradually double the minimum wage, only then can we ensure enough expenses for people to live and have children, ensuring the maintenance of replacement fertility.

Source: https://nld.com.vn/dai-bieu-quoc-hoi-nguyen-thien-nhan-noi-ve-bat-cap-cua-luong-toi-thieu-196250215174430367.htm