By Ma Ma - Apr 22, 2024

The domestic minimum wage rate is not in line with the times, making it more difficult for workers to cover their expenses.

The statutory law stipulates that the minimum wage rate should be revised every (2) years to match the times, but since the coup d'état, it haven’t been revised yet.

“We can only eat for sustenance with current wages. Those who support their family can’t even afford 3 meals a day. The dormitory prices are also raising and it also costs at guest registration and some others that we don’t even know. Everything is raised except the salary. The employers are keeping silent. They never talk about salary wage knowing that good price is raising in the whole country,” said a garment worker. 

According to the domestic minimum wage law, workers get paid 4,800 kyats for (8) working hours day. According to this law, the minimum wage rate must be revised once every two years.

The current rate was approved in 2018.

The Ministry of Labor of the Junta announced that workers will be paid an additional allowance of 1,000 kyats for working 8 hours a day stating October 2023.

“The ministry only gives an additional allowance of 1,000 kyats per day but we want them to revise the minimum wage officially. I think it’s a circumvent,” said a former member of the basic union. 

Everyone is suffering the rise in commodity prices, and every basic class family is facing more difficulties tighter since the coup.

Therefore, local labor activists and trade union leaders want the minimum wage rate to be increased to 10,000 kyats in line with the time.

Photo – Minimum wages