Minimum wage hike means little: Worker

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.