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New minimum wages upset labor, yet employers pursue lawsuit
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Minan, a brick maker from South Cikarang district in Bekasi, West Java, arranges bricks to be baked in a furnace on Oct. 23, 2020. (JP/P.J. Leo)
T
he minimum wage hikes recently declared in several major provinces are far from what labor unions had demanded, but it is business associations that are seeking legal recourse.
Several provinces announced their 2023 minimum wages on Monday, the last day of a deadline that had been pushed back by a week in a last-minute regulation issued earlier this month, namely Manpower Ministry Regulation No. 18/2022.
Jakarta saw a 5.6 percent increase to Rp 4,901,798 (US$311.79), marking the lowest percentage increase among all provinces on Java Island, while the administrations of Banten and West Java increased their minimum wages by 6.4 percent to Rp 2,661,280 and by 7.88 percent to Rp 1,986,670, respectively.
Both Banten and West Java are home to satellite cities and regencies of Greater Jakarta, such as Tangerang, Bogor, Bekasi and Depok.
East Java, meanwhile, saw a 7.86 percent increase to Rp 2,040,244, but the highest relative increase among Java provinces was in Central Java, where Governor Ganjar Pranowo raised the basic pay by 8.01 percent to Rp 1,812,935.
“We have already had talks with employers and workers to find a middle ground,” Ganjar told reporters on Monday. “They [workers] are actually willing to negotiate.”
Read also: Workers deserve higher pay
