Wage differential reaches record disparity

The wage gap is widening as company bosses pocket pay sometimes hundreds of times higher than their staff, a recent report revealed.
 

The wage gap is widening as company bosses pocket pay sometimes hundreds of times higher than their staff, a recent report revealed.

According to the Ministry of Labour, Invalid and Social Affairs’ (MoLISA) report on pay rates at manufacturing and trade companies, the incomes of a majority of workers have barely increased, or even in some cases fallen, while firms continue to increase executive salaries and the foreign employee rates.

Business leaders in several companies and joint venture commercial banks have reached as high as VND300 million (USD14,278) per month.

A foreign managing director at a five-star hotel is paid from USD7,000-USD10,000 per month. Salaries of an airline captain and a foreign oil and gas expert are around USD15,000 per month.

In the meanwhile, salaries of staff in these sectors average between VND5 million and VND7 million (USD237.9-USD333.1) a month. Manual workers at these institutions are paid from VND2 million-VND3 million (USD95.1-USD142.7) per month.

The report indicated that payment policies for state-owned enterprises have yet to meet market demand. The regulations that define payment based on the company’s tax payments, profits and productivity foster firms with better business relations to drive up their average pay by two to three times higher than the general average, widening the wage gap.

The ministry’s recent survey on 37 economic groups and corporations showed that in 2010 companies offered an average salary of VND8.14 million (USD387.4) per month, 3.35 times higher than other firms.

Salaries of staff at banks and financial institutions reached an average VND10.5 million (USD499.7) per month, 4.32 times higher than other businesses.

An anonymous official from the ministry’s Wage and Salary Department said that the huge disparity in payments at many enterprises have distorted wage and salary relationships in the labour market.