Employment
Sector minimum wage, 44-hour week and mandatory workplace coordination committees
The Minimum Wage Law sets a national daily floor, set at 4,800 kyat with allowances added in 2023 and widely eroded by inflation. Factories operate a 44-hour week, and workplaces above 30 employees must form a coordination committee.
Key rules
- Jurisdiction — The Ministry of Labour supervises; disputes escalate from workplace coordination committees to township conciliation bodies and then arbitration.
Governing law
- Minimum Wage Law2013
- Employment and Skill Development Law2013
- Settlement of Labour Dispute Law2012, amended 2019
In practice
Written employment contracts on the template approved by the Ministry are mandatory within thirty days of hiring, and the template constrains what parties can agree. Employees accrue ten days of earned leave after twelve months, thirty days of medical leave and six days of casual leave, with public holidays on top. Severance scales with service from half a month at one year to thirteen months' pay above twenty-five years, which is substantial. Independent union activity is lawful under the 2011 Labour Organization Law but has been heavily suppressed since 2021, with several unions declared unlawful, so the statutory dispute machinery cannot be assumed to be available in practice.