PHNOM PENH (Khmer Times) – As debate continues over fair wages for garment factory workers, a Ministry of Labor official yesterday said the minimum wage was already too high.
According to a presentation by Heng Sour, spokesman for the Ministry of Labor, a worker in Phnom Penh needs to make just $120.54 a month to survive and support a family, less than the current minimum wage of $128 a month.
The number is based primarily on a National Institute of Statistics study from 2009 that calculated the minimum cost of living in Cambodia.
Adjusted for inflation, the study said workers needed to make just $120.54 a month to maintain a diet of 2,200 calorie a day, while paying other necessary expenses such as medical care and transport and helping to support a family of five – the average family size in the country.
But some independent international studies have found the average female factory worker in Cambodia is surviving on less than 1,600 – barely half the 3,000 she needs, leading to high rates of anemia and malnourishment.
Labor rights activists, meanwhile, say that $120.54 is far too little to ensure workers the “decent standard of living compatible with human dignity” guaranteed by the Labor Law.
“Those wages are just enough to make money equal to the poverty line,” said Ath Thorn, president of the Cambodian Labor Confederation. “If the worker is working 60 hours a week and making equal to poverty line, it is unfair for the worker. How can they survive? How can they have the energy to produce?”
Unhealthy Overtime
Mr. Thorn said the labor unions hope to increase the minimum wage to $167 a month. Their demands are based partly on a study last month that found the average worker has monthly expenses of roughly $207. Currently, workers work long overtime hours to make up the difference, a practice that Mr. Thorn says causes health problems.
“The salaries are low,” he said, “so some of the workers have to work overtime when it’s not healthy.”
Large numbers of workers have fainted at factories earlier this year, with 28 workers fainting at the same time in a single factory in Kandal Province this summer.
Mr. Heng Sour said that keeping the minimum wage low helps the Cambodian garment factories stay competitive with garment factories in Bangladesh and elsewhere. “The needs of workers and their families must be balanced with economic factors,” he said.
Officials from the Garment Manufacturers Association in Cambodia have already cautioned that they have been forced to cut hours because of the minimum wage hike last November.
Since the wage increases, a larger proportion of factory revenue goes to paying their workers. According to a Ministry of Commerce study, garment factories spent around 58.2 percent of value added on worker salaries in 2015, compared to 40.3 percent in 2012.
Mr. Ath Thorn was skeptical of the employers’ claim that they could not afford a higher minimum wage. “Employers speak like that because they don’t want to increase wages,” he said.
New Wage Soon
Meetings between the government, employers’ associations, and labor unions begin today, and will be held through the month of September, and the new minimum wage will be agreed on by the end of October. The new minimum wage is slated to go into effect on January 1.
Mr. Thorn said minimum wage should be enough to allow the workers to live a decent life, not merely survive.“If the owner is a millionaire why is this fair?” he asked.