Manager salaries at Indonesia's Red and White Village Cooperatives (Kopdes/Kel Merah Putih) will be set at the level of the regional minimum wage (UMK), according to Bloomberg Technoz. The report raises the question of how allowances and other facilities for these managers will be handled, a detail that has not yet been spelled out.
The pay arrangement sits alongside a separate clarification about the managers' employment status. Agrinas has denied any link to Danantara and stressed that Kopdes managers hold the status of state-owned enterprise (BUMN) employees, Kompas.com reported.
The cooperative program is moving toward operation after its governing regulation was signed. A Presidential Regulation (Perpres) has been issued, and detikNews reported that Kopdes Merah Putih will begin operating soon. CNBC Indonesia also reported that the new rules for the cooperatives have been signed by President Prabowo.
Physical preparations are advancing as well. Roughly 23,000 Kopdes/Kel Merah Putih buildings have been completed, and a soft launch is scheduled to begin in October 2026, according to foto.bisnis.com.
What remains to be seen is how the allowance and facility structure for managers will be finalized, and whether the minimum-wage benchmark will apply uniformly across regions when the cooperatives start operating.
