Government unveils minimum wage hike
Government unveils minimum wage hike
JAKARTA (JP): The government on Friday officially announced an
average hike of 33.5 percent in the monthly minimum wage in 24
provinces which is expected to become effective on Jan. 1.
The 24 provinces mentioned include the eight provinces of
Aceh, Riau, East Kalimantan, North Sumatra, Central Sulawesi,
East and West Nusa Tenggara and the Riau archipelago where
minimum wage increases were already announced last month.
The monthly minimum wages were determined by the provincial
tripartite wages committees in the provinces and have been
approved by the respective governors.
Director General for Industrial Relations and Labor Standards
at the Ministry of Manpower and Transmigration, Syaufii
Syamsuddin, said that with the implementation of regional
autonomy in 2001, the central government would no longer have the
exclusive authority to determine the minimum wage.
The monthly minimum wage in Jakarta was raised by 24 percent
to Rp 426,250 (US$45.8) from Rp 344,257 ($37) while in West Java
it was hiked by 7 percent to Rp 245,000 from Rp 230,000.
The minimum wage in the Batam industrial zone was raised by 14
percent to Rp 485,000 from Rp 425,000 while that in East Java was
hiked by 9 percent to Rp 220,000 from Rp 202,000.
North Sulawesi had the highest increase of 100 percent to Rp
372,000 from the present Rp 186,000, while the lowest percentage
increase was in West Java were it rose just 7 percent from Rp
230,000 to Rp 245,000.
According to Syaufii, the minimum wages in the newly
established provinces of Gorontalo, Banten, North Maluku and
Bangka-Belitung were similar to their mother provinces because
the new provincial administrations had yet to be established.
Lampung and Central Kalimantan have yet to decide on their
minimum wages because of deadlocked negotiations in the their
respective tripartite wages committees.
Syaufii also urged that in the future labor unions should
start focussing more on their bargaining power vis-a-vis
employers to help boost overall workers' welfare instead of
merely highlighting their efforts on the minimum wage.
"Labor unions should no longer focus their struggle on just
regional minimum wages but intensify bipartite negotiations with
employers to help improve workers' social welfare," he told The
Jakarta Post here on Friday.
The presence of labor unions in companies was essential for
representing workers in negotiating employment matters, including
wages and remuneration, allowances and other facilities, he said.
"The regional minimum wages are valid only for (new) job
seekers and workers with zero work experience while workers
employed in firms are already paid above the minimum wage level,"
he pointed out. (rms)