Minimum wage negotiations start in 2024, looking back at increases over the years

According to the report on the assessment of minimum wages in countries in the Asia-Pacific region and Southeast Asia (ASEAN) region for the period 2015-2022 by the International Labor Organization (ILO), in the ASEAN region, from 2015 to present, minimum wages in all countries have been adjusted to increase.

Specifically, Vietnam increased the minimum wage steadily and consistently, from 119 USD/month (2015) to 168 USD/month; Cambodia increased from 128 USD/month to 194 USD/month; while Malaysia increased sharply from 230 USD/month to 341 USD/month (an increase of nearly 50%).

Meanwhile, Thailand's minimum wage increased from 228 USD/month to 252 USD/month; Philippines from 151 USD/month to 177 USD/month...

Khởi động đàm phán lương tối thiểu 2024, nhìn lại mức tăng qua các năm - 1 — Vietnam increases minimum wage steadily and consistently (Illustration photo: Nguyen Son).

According to the ILO, different minimum wage policies among countries in the region lead to diversity in minimum wage levels.

Some countries achieved minimum wage increases that increased real value, such as Malaysia increased by more than 29%, China increased by more than 5.6%, the Philippines increased by more than 4%, and Vietnam increased by 0.7%.

In the region, Cambodia and Vietnam have similar methods and timing of minimum wage increases.

Vietnam's minimum wage increase is in July 2022, in the period 2015-2022, the minimum wage in Vietnam increased by a total of 19.8%.

The monthly minimum wage is being applied in Vietnam from July 1, 2022 to December 30, 2023 according to 4 regions: Region 1 is 4.68 million VND/month; Region 2 is 4.16 million VND/month; Region 3 is 3.64 million VND/month and Region 4 is 3.25 million VND/month.

Regarding the minimum hourly wage, region 1 is 22,500 VND/hour, region 2 is 20,000 VND/hour, region 3 is 17,500 VND/hour, region 4 is 15,600 VND/hour.

The ILO recommends that minimum wages should be protected so that workers are not paid too low and fall into poverty. It is necessary to maintain a level of security for workers' lives, even when inflation is high.

According to the ILO, inflation is reducing the wages and incomes of about 186 million workers in the Asia-Pacific region. Therefore, it is necessary to adjust the minimum wage to keep up with inflation to maintain the real value of wages for workers.

The National Wage Council is expected to restart negotiations on increasing regional minimum wages for the second session on December 20.

Traditionally, each salary council meeting takes place in 2-3 sessions. The plan and timing of salary increase are usually finalized in the third session, and fastest in the second session when all parties find common ground.

At its first meeting in early August, the National Wage Council agreed to postpone negotiations on a minimum wage increase until the end of this year to discuss the timing and extent of the increase. The reason was the economic downturn that caused more than half a million workers to lose their jobs, reduce working hours, and increase CPI in the first 6 months of the year by 3.29% compared to the same period last year, with inflation increasing by 4.74%.

The Vietnam General Confederation of Labor proposed an increase of about 6%, while the Vietnam Confederation of Commerce and Industry (VCCI) said that finding orders and keeping jobs for workers is more urgent than increasing wages.

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