THE decision by President Prabowo Subianto to increase the average 2025 provincial minimum wage (UMP) by 6.5 percent is a populist policy. Instead of considering the state of the economy as the main factor, this new wage policy was simply issued to please the groups of workers and businesspeople who supported him during the last presidential election.

Prabowo took the middle road between pressure from workers to increase the UMP by 8 to 10 perce