Workers’ income enough to cover expenses: survey

Hanoi (VNA) – Despite formidable challenges, most of the Vietnamese workers said that they are able to cover basic living expenses with average monthly income of 5.53 million VND (237.79 USD), according to a survey released on July 12 by the Vietnam General Confederation of Labour (VGCL).

The survey was conducted by the VGCL’s Institute of Workers and Trade Union in 25 cities and provinces with high concentration of workers, as well as in construction and railway sectors. More than 3,000 open questions were delivered to workers in 150 enterprises, said Director of the institute Vu Quang Tho.

It is revealed that 43.7 percent of the workers said their income was just enough to pay off their living costs, down 7.6 percent compared to 2017.

However, the number of spendthrifts rose 5.8 percent as 26.5 percent have to be thrifty on their spending. Up to 12.5 percent said that they need to work extra hours to cover living expenditures, increasing 0.5 percent compared to previous year.

Only 17.4 percent of the interviewees have savings, a slight increase of 1.3 percent.

Some 32.1 percent of the respondents claimed that their families earn enough money to deposit on average 1.5 million VND (64.5 USD) in saving accounts, which are set aside in case of illness, accidents, unemployment, holiday spending, and children’s education.

The survey found that money is still a main challenge for workers, with 25.7 percent not happy with their current salary and lack of opportunities to earn extra income.

Also, workers expressed their dissatisfaction over payment in excessive hours, salary not being commensurate with the labour, lack of transparency in wage policies, and failure to carry out higher pay.

No resettlement of the issues made the workers go on strikes. The confederation said that in the first half of 2018, there were 131 strikes, with 103 recorded in foreign direct investment (FDI) companies.-VNA