Minimum wage hike means little: Worker
Tantri Yuliandini, The Jakarta Post/Jakarta
The city administration has raised the minimum wage for workers here from the current Rp 711,843 (about US$71) to Rp 819,100, effective next year, but the extra Rp 107,257 will hardly make a difference to worker and single mother of two adults, Asmawati.
"What with the increase of fuel prices followed by transportation fares and other goods, it's nothing more than an adjustment, hardly an increase," she told The Jakarta Post at her home in Sungai Bambu subdistrict, Tanjung Priok, North Jakarta, on Monday.
The 45-year-old may have a point. The city administration may have granted a 15-percent increase of Jakarta's minimum wage for next year, but prices have also increased by an average of 8.7 percent since September.
According to recent data from the Central Statistics Agency (BPS), the cost of transportation, communication, and monetary services had increased by a whopping 28.57 percent in October compared to the previous month.
This was followed by housing, water, electricity, gas and fuel by 7.4 percent; food commodities prices in October increased by 7.24 percent; ready-made food, beverages, cigarettes and tobacco increased by 3.21 percent; clothing by 1.84 percent; education, recreation and sports by 1.4 percent; and health care by 0.95 percent.
Sitting on the tiled floor of her unfurnished living room, Asmawati said it was fortunate that she did not have to rent the house that she and her two children live in.
"For my other friends, that extra Rp 100,000 would only go to the landlord who has increased their rent since the fuel price hike," she said, explaining that the simple house was given to her by her parents.
Even after five years working in the same garment manufacturing firm in Cakung, East Jakarta, Asmawati still receives the minimum wage of Rp 711,843 a month.
And for seven hours a day, five and a half days a week, the company she works for pays just Rp 4,000 an hour for overtime, Rp 30,000 for payment of unused sick leave and a transportation allowance of Rp 1,000 a day.
"But since the cost of transportation is actually much higher now, I have to pay the difference from my basic salary," Asmawati said, explaining that to travel to and from work on privately run transportation now cost Rp 6,000 from Rp 4,000 before the fuel price increases, while public transportation would cost her Rp 10,000.
Besides spending a large chunk of her monthly salary on transportation, Asmawati also spends most of her hard-earned money on food.
Her two adult children help with the household costs from their jobs, particularly in paying for electricity and tap water.
"My own salary isn't even enough to buy clothes let alone pay for utilities," she said.
Since the company does not provide health insurance, workers like Asmawati must pay for the health care of their families themselves.
Asmawati used to supplement her income by teaching aerobics to private groups, but stopped since becoming active in her company's labor union in 2002.
"I saw it as a challenge, to help improve the lives of fellow workers, particularly because I know for myself how they suffer," the advocate at both her company's labor union and the National Labor Front for Labor Struggle (FNPBI), said.
Asmawati began by fighting for the right for overtime payment, followed by changing the company's policy on fresh water use.
But somehow an increased transportation allowance and health insurance for workers have proved to be loftier goals.
"It's still a long and hard fight," she sighed.