By Yoon Sat - May 23, 2024
Recently, some factories in Yangon's industrial zones have increased the minimum wage and hiring. However, according to the current commodity price, the rate is still lower than what they should be getting, even though they work with an increased amount, the workers say that they have to work 16 hours a day to make a living.
According to the Minimum Wage Law, the legally set domestic minimum wage is 4,800 kyats, and in the past year, it has been set to increase by one thousand kyats per day as a subsidy.
"This is not a rate that the workers should really get. Some factories are still paying 4,800 plus a thousand. The commodity price is much higher than before. The wages should be doubled than before. The current increase has not reached enough to pay," said a member of the trade union.
Since May 1 this month, factories in Yangon have been hiring workers for 6,800 – 7,200 -7,500 kyats per day, etc., and they started recruiting workers with the raised rate as well as raising the salary of current workers.
The 2018 wages of the workers have only been slightly increased only by 2024 but it is not enough according to the current rising commodity prices, so it is necessary to adjust the workers' daily wage to a rate that matches the commodity price.
A USD worths more than 4,000 kyats, and the price of gold has reached over 5,100,000 kyats, so the price of basic commodities is also rising steadily.
A pitha of Salt cost 9,000 kyats, a pyi of rice cost 5,000 kyats, a pitha of onion cost 3,000 kyats, a branch of bean cost 1,200 kyats and a egg cost 350 kyats therefore a worker should get paid from 10,000 to 12,000 kyats considering the years missed to revise the minimum wages law.
Due to these very low wages, local workers easily leave for foreign countries such as Thailand and China.
It is said that the labor shortage in factories will increase further.
At present, new factories and factories that will expand the production line have increased the demand for skilled workers, so there have been such types of daily wage increases.
A dollar worth from 1,200 to 1,300 kyats at 2018 and employers are still paying 4,800 kyats when a dollar worth more than 4,000 kyats after a year.
Photo – Old photo (Workers waiting for transportation in the pre coup ara)
