Several hundred workers in Myanmar stage protest to seek higher daily minimum

Garment factories threaten to shut down if wage is implemented

YANGON, Myanmar (AP)— Several hundred workers in Myanmar have staged a peaceful demonstration to demand that a new daily minimum wage be set higher than proposed.

The factory workers protesting Sunday in a northern suburb of Yangon, the country's largest city, want the daily minimum wage to be set at 4,000 kyat (US$3.54) rather than the 3,600 kyat (US$3.18) proposed by the National Minimum Wage Committee last month following negotiations between the government, employers and employees.

The current daily minimum wage is 3000 kyat (US$2.65).

Factory owners say a wage hike will affect their ability to operate, and some Chinese and Korean-owned garment factories have threatened to shut down if it is implemented.

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