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Hiếu Mạnh wrote this article in Vietnamese, published in Luat Khoa Magazine on April 10, 2025. Đàm Vĩnh Hằng translated it into English for The Vietnamese Magazine.

As Việt Nam moves through its post-pandemic economic recovery, the disparity in earnings across different sectors remains a central concern for the nation’s workforce. Despite the economic shocks of the COVID-19 pandemic, wages in both the public and foreign-invested (FDI) sectors have remained relatively stable, thanks to state-set salary formulas and annually adjusted minimum wages.

Drawing from official data, the table below breaks down the average monthly wages in state-owned, private, and FDI enterprises from 2020 to 2024 for workers across the economy.

Year

All Enterprises

State-Owned

Private

FDI (Foreign)

2020

7.54

9.10

7.13

8.12

2021

7.80

9.13

7.50

8.26

2022

8.25

9.52

8.02

8.47

2023

8.50

9.94

8.00

9.27

2024

8.88

10.91

8.10

9.28

Table: Average monthly salaries by enterprise type, through the years 2020 , 2021 , 2022 , 2023 , 2024 . Unit: million VND.

The data in the table is sourced from the National Statistics Bureau and covers three main enterprise types: state-owned, non-state (private), and foreign-invested (FDI). The annual survey's sample size ranges from 4.5 to 5.7 million employees, accounting for about 16-18% of all salaried workers.

It is important to note that these figures only reflect the formal labor sector and do not include the large informal economy. The national average salary including self-employed workers is often lower. For example, it was approximately 7.1 million đồng in 2023.

Tết Bonuses Across Enterprise Types When it comes to employee bonuses, especially for Tết (Lunar New Year), clear differences emerge between enterprise types in Việt Nam. Bonuses in the private sector are largely dependent on business performance, while those in state-owned units are tied to prescribed budgets. Foreign-invested (FDI) enterprises often offer higher, performance-based bonuses, whereas state-owned enterprises tend to have lower but more stable and uniform payouts.

This trend was observed in 2021, when FDI firms led the country in Tết bonuses, averaging 6.99 million đồng per person. State-owned enterprises had the lowest average that year at 5.85 million đồng. The record-breaking bonus, however, came from a private company in Hồ Chí Minh City, which awarded a single bonus of 1.07 billion đồng.

By 2025, the overall average Tết bonus had risen to 7.72 million đồng, a 13% increase from the 2024 average. In this new landscape, FDI enterprises still led with an average bonus of 8.24 million đồng per person, followed by state-owned enterprises at 7.66 million đồng, and private enterprises at 6.76 million đồng. The highest bonus recorded in 2025 was over 1.9 billion đồng, paid by an FDI enterprise in Hồ Chí Minh City.

Vice President of the Hà Nội Labor Federation, Nguyen Huy Khanh, presents Lunar New Year 2025 gifts to employees of Son Tay Urban Environment and Construction Joint Stock Company. Source: Lao Dong Thu Do Newspaper. Wage Growth vs. Inflation While the average nominal salary for workers in the formal enterprise sector saw a 17.8% increase between 2020 and 2024 (rising from 7.54 million to 8.88 million đồng), this figure is misleading when not adjusted for inflation. According to the consumer price index (CPI), the real salary in 2024 is only about 5-6% higher than it was in 2020. In fact, compared to the pre-COVID benchmark of 2019, workers' real income actually decreased in 2021 before recovering slightly in 2022. Even as nominal salaries reached historic highs in 2023-2024, soaring inflation for essentials like housing, food, and utilities has meant that workers' living standards have improved only modestly. In other words, any increase in income is being immediately consumed by the rising cost of living.

Six categories used to calculate a living wage: low-cost food, basic housing, education through secondary school, health care, other needs and unexpected expenses. Photo: Anker Research Institute. Source: Tuoi Tre Newspaper. Minimum Wage by Region According to the 2019 Labor Code, the regional minimum wage is the legal floor employers in Việt Nam must pay for the simplest work under normal conditions, designed to prevent wages from being pushed too low. As of July 1, 2024, this regional minimum wage was increased by approximately 6%. A review of government decrees from 2017 , 2018 , 2019 , 2022 , 2024 shows the recent history of these adjustments. (See the photo below; unit: đồng)

Illustration: Hiểu Mạnh Year

Region I

Region II

Region III

Region IV

2017

3.75m

3.32m

2.90m

2.58m

2019

4.18m

3.71m

3.25m

2.92m

2022

4.68m

4.16m

3.64m

3.25m

2024

4.96m

4.42m

3.91m

3.43m

It is crucial to recognize that a minimum wage is not the same as a living wage. While the minimum wage covers the bare necessities for survival, a living wage allows workers and their families to live with comfort and dignity, including enough for savings and emergencies. Although the minimum wage is supposed to be determined using an official “minimum living standard” estimate, the government has never publicly disclosed this figure, despite repeated calls from state-affiliated labor unions. This lack of transparency has only been compounded by the recent dissolution of the Ministry of Planning and Investment (MPI), the agency formerly tasked with this calculation.

Independent research highlights the significant gap between the official minimum wage and the actual cost of living. In 2023, the Anker Research Institute estimated that workers in urban hubs like Hà Nội and Hồ Chí Minh City would need at least 8.6 million đồng per month for a decent standard of living. A 2024 report from the Global Living Wage Coalition placed that figure even higher, at over 8.9 million đồng per month for Hồ Chí Minh City. Both estimates are nearly double the current regional minimum wage for most of the country, illustrating that current wages still fall far short of meeting daily living costs in major urban centers.

For Civil Servants, Owning a Home Could Take a Century For Việt Nam’s civil servants—a group that includes government employees, public sector workers, and state-affiliated staff—salaries remain modest at best. In June 2024, the Communist Party’s Politburo approved a landmark decision to raise the national base salary by nearly 30% from 1.8 million to 2.24 million đồng per month, effective July 1. While this was the largest single pay raise in the country’s history, it comes after seven long years in which the base salary only inched up from 1.3 million đồng in 2017.

Actual take-home pay is determined by a coefficient system. For example, a recent university graduate entering the public sector with a starting coefficient of 2.34 would earn a monthly salary of 2.24 million đồng × 2.34 = 5.24 million đồng.

The government has acknowledged the limitations of this outdated formula—often derided by civil servants as the “three sticks of salary”—and is now moving toward a new pay structure based on job function and performance rather than seniority and degrees.

Base Salary

Decree

Period

1.30m

47/2017

1/7/2017 - 31/6/2018

1.39m

72/2018

1/7/2018 - 31/6/2019

1.49m

38/2019

1/7/2019 - 31/6/2023

1.80m

24/2023

1/7/2023 - 31/6/2024

2.24m

73/2024

1/7/2024 - Present

Chart: Base Salary History & CPI Comparison

A key factor influencing adjustments to both the minimum wage and the civil service base salary in Việt Nam is the Consumer Price Index (CPI)—a standard measure of inflation. As mentioned earlier, real wages are calculated by factoring in the CPI, which reflects changes in the cost of living.

The relationship between real wages, base salary, and CPI can be expressed with a basic formula:

Note: Journalists convert CPI from percentage to index by adding 1. For example, a CPI increase of 3.23% means prices rose to 103.23% of the base year level.

The logic is straightforward: when the CPI rises—meaning goods and services become more expensive while salaries remain unchanged—workers’ real income and purchasing power decline. Conversely, if salary increases keep pace with or exceed CPI , living standards can be maintained or improved.

However, in Việt Nam, base salary adjustments have not kept pace with inflation. The chart below illustrates this growing gap:

Illustration: Hiếu Mạnh Between 2018 and 2022, salary growth for Vietnamese workers remained erratic. In several years, wage increases were virtually nonexistent. The national base salary was frozen at 1.49 million đồng/month from 2020 to 2022, even as prices continued to climb, with inflation rising by 1.84% in 2021 alone amid the economic shocks of COVID-19.

Applying the earlier-mentioned formula, this meant that real wages declined as incomes failed to keep pace with rising living costs:

It was not until 2023 and 2024 that the government implemented significant salary hikes for civil servants: 20.8% and 24.4%, respectively. These raises far outpaced inflation during the same period. However, this long-overdue correction is seen by many as merely compensating for years of lost purchasing power, rather than delivering true financial relief. The sudden jump has also raised concerns about its long-term sustainability and the risks to public sector budgets.

For many public employees, the struggle remains very real. As National Assembly member Nguyễn Thị Việt Nga commented , persistently low wages are one of the root causes of corruption and inefficiency in Việt Nam’s public sector. This is reflected in the lives of individuals like Nguyễn Thanh Giang, a finance department official who told VTC News that his monthly income of just over 9 million đồng and 1 million đồng allowance barely covers his own expenses, making supporting his family impossible. With the ongoing administrative restructuring, he and his colleagues fear that being forced to relocate would compel them to quit, as they would be unable to absorb the added costs.

Officials and civil servants at the People's Committee of District 5, Hồ Chí Minh City during working hours/Source: Nguoi Lao Dong Newspaper. To address these regional disparities, major cities like Hà Nội and Hồ Chí Minh City have requested special authorization to pay additional local stipends, known as " extra income ," from their municipal budgets. While these policies have offered a rare boost in morale and financial security for some, the inability to afford a home remains.

The average price of apartments in Hồ Chí Minh City increases by 15-20% per year . In Hà Nội, property prices annually increase by about 40% , with a “record” spike in 2024 alone. The situation led National Assembly Delegate Nguyễn Công Long to make a stark calculation: with the current basic salary, “a civil servant who eats nothing will take hundreds of years to buy a house.”

Living on a Salary– Part 2: State Salaries vs. Private Sector Pay

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