JAKARTA: Rahima, 32, has been a teacher for nine years in Alor, an island in Indonesia’s East Nusa Tenggara province.
She has a bachelor’s degree in education but earns only about 300,000 rupiah (US$18.50) per month from working five days a week as an honorary teacher at a public elementary school.
Honorary teachers get an honorarium based on the amount of hours they work and are largely given the same responsibilities as full-time teachers.
Rahima’s pay is a fraction of the minimum provincial wage of about 2.3 million rupiah, and she supplements her income by selling candlenuts and coffee on her days off.
With President Prabowo Subianto’s wage hike for teachers taking effect from this month, Rahima could see a pay bump to 2 million rupiah a month.
Prabowo announced a 100 per cent basic salary increase for state teachers and an allowance of 2 million rupiah for part-time teachers in state schools on Nov 28 during a National Teachers’ Day event.
The salary adjustment, he said, would require an additional 16.7 trillion rupiah, bringing the total teachers’ welfare budget to 81.6 trillion rupiah (US$5.1 billion) in 2025, news outlet Jakarta Globe reported.
Teachers are not the only group of workers Prabowo wants bigger paychecks for.
A day after the Teachers’ Day event, Prabowo issued a statement announcing the average national minimum wage would be increased by 6.5 per cent in 2025. Previously, regions set their own minimum average salary.
Prabowo cited the “particular importance” of workers’ welfare and said minimum wage is “a very important social safety net for workers who have worked for less than 12 months, taking into account the need for a decent living”.
The higher minimum wage aims to “increase workers’ purchasing power, while still paying attention to our business competitiveness”, he added.
