A dilemma

Local newspapers recently reported the minimum regional wage would be raised by 15 percent. Many entrepreneurs protested because they argued it was already good enough if they could pay the wages of their workers.

During the monetary crisis, when US$1 is worth about four times the precrisis rate of 2,500 to the rupiah, payments for imported raw materials are also four times higher. So the employers and entrepreneurs may consider themselves lucky if they can keep their heads above water or make ends meet, but deal with additional expenses of higher minimum wage rates? No way, they exclaimed.

Employees should keep the above-mentioned difficulty in mind, the employers reasoned.

There remains the question, a difficult question indeed, for the employers to answer. With the price of their finished product now four times higher, will they be able to sell their product at four times the former selling price?

On the other hand, the employee, the little man, with a monthly salary of Rp 300,000 to Rp 400,000, is also having a hard time making ends meet, with prices of daily necessities also rising 100 percent to 200 percent. No wonder local newspapers state that the poor already constitute 50 percent of the population.

In this case, both the employer and the employee face a dilemma. Perhaps the wise King Solomon from ancient times could have answered the questions.

I am told that many women wholesalers from Africa flock to Indonesia to buy textile products, such as house dresses for women. For them, prices in Indonesia are very low, if $1 is calculated from Rp 9000 to Rp 10,000.

Indonesian export products are dirt-cheap! And Indonesian motorbikes are in great demand (perhaps motorcars are too expensive) in African countries!

A. DJUANA

Jakarta