Vietnam Minimum Wage 2026: Regional Rates, Compliance Rules, and What Employers Pay

Vietnam sets its minimum wage by region, not by industry or job type. From January 1, 2026, the floor ranges from VND 3,700,000 per month in rural Region IV to VND 5,310,000 in Region I cities like Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh City, a 7.2% increase under Decree 293/2025/ND-CP.

That floor is not the full picture. Employees who have completed certified vocational training must be paid at least 7% above whichever regional rate applies to them. Miss that uplift, and you are already non-compliant before payroll even runs.

The minimum wage also sets the base for calculating social, health, and unemployment insurance contributions. A wage increase is never just a wage increase in Vietnam — it moves your entire employer cost structure.

If you are hiring through an Employer of Record in Vietnam, your provider handles the regional rate, the trained-worker uplift, and the insurance cascade. If you are not, the compliance burden sits entirely with you.

How Vietnam’s Regional Minimum Wage Works

Vietnam’s minimum wage applies to all employees working under a labour contract, regardless of whether the employer is a domestic company, a foreign-invested enterprise, or an international organisation operating in the country.

The legal basis is Article 91 of the Labour Code 2019, which defines the minimum wage as the lowest pay rate for workers doing the simplest jobs under normal working conditions.

Rates are set across four regions, classified by the Ministry of Labour, Invalids and Social Affairs (MOLISA) based on local living costs and economic development. Region I covers the most developed urban centres. Region IV covers rural and mountainous localities. Every province and district in Vietnam falls into one of these four zones.

The minimum wage applies in two formats. The monthly rate covers employees on standard labour contracts. The hourly rate protects part-time, casual, and shift-based workers. Both floors carry equal legal weight under Decree 293.

One rule catches many foreign employers off guard. If your company has branches or offices in more than one region, each location must apply the rate for the region where it sits.

For operations inside an industrial park or export processing zone, the highest regional rate applies across the board, regardless of which zone the park is physically located in.

The hourly equivalents under Decree 293 are: Region I at VND 25,500, Region II at VND 22,700, Region III at VND 20,000, and Region IV at VND 17,800. These apply directly to any worker not on a fixed monthly contract, including part-time staff and those on weekly or daily pay arrangements.

Which Region Applies to Your Employees

The applicable region is determined by where the employee physically works, not where your company is registered or where your headquarters sits. A business registered in Hanoi but running operations in a Region III province must pay Region III rates to staff at that location and Region I rates to staff at the Hanoi office.

MOLISA publishes the full district-level classification list as an appendix to Decree 293/2025/ND-CP. Before applying any rate, confirm the specific district classification, not just the province. Decree 293 introduced a revised area list following Vietnam’s administrative restructuring in mid-2025, so some districts moved between regions compared to Decree 74.

Two rules matter for multi-location employers. First, each branch or subsidiary applies the rate for its own location. Second, any operation inside an industrial park or export processing zone applies the highest regional rate in the country, which is currently the Region I rate of VND 5,310,000 per month, regardless of where the park sits geographically.

Remote workers add a further complication. Vietnam’s labour law does not have a specific provision for fully remote arrangements, and MOLISA has not issued formal guidance on which regional rate applies to home-based employees.

Most compliance advisors default to the region where the employee’s registered residence sits, but this is an area where getting written legal advice specific to your situation is worth the cost.

The 7% Vocational Training Uplift

Vietnam’s minimum wage has a second floor that most international employers do not notice until a labour inspection finds it.

Employees who have completed certified vocational training must be paid at least 7% above the regional minimum wage that applies to their location. This is a statutory requirement under the Labour Code 2019, not an optional practice.

The uplift applies to a broad range of workers. Anyone holding a vocational certificate, college diploma, university degree, or equivalent qualification from a recognised institution qualifies. In practice, that covers most office-based hires, technical staff, and professional roles that foreign companies recruit for in Vietnam.

For a Region I employee, the 7% uplift moves the monthly floor from VND 5,310,000 to VND 5,681,700. The gap widens further once you factor in that social insurance contributions are calculated on the contractual salary, which must sit at or above this higher floor for qualifying employees.

Labour inspectors check this specifically. Paying the base regional rate to a trained worker is one of the most common violations MOLISA flags during audits of foreign-invested enterprises.

The fix is straightforward once you know about it, but back-pay liability plus interest accumulates quickly if the error runs across multiple employees over several months.

How Minimum Wage Affects Social Insurance Costs

The minimum wage is not just a salary floor. In Vietnam, it directly affects how much you pay into the mandatory SHUI system, Social Insurance, Health Insurance, and Unemployment Insurance. When the wage floor rises, your total employer cost rises with it.

Employer contributions sit at 17% for social insurance, 3% for health insurance, and 0.5% for unemployment insurance, totalling 20.5% on top of the employee’s salary. Unemployment insurance contributions are capped at 20 times the applicable regional minimum wage.

The Ministry of Home Affairs estimated the 7.2% wage hike will push average production costs up by 0.5% to 0.6%. For labour-intensive sectors like textiles and footwear, that figure rises to 1.1% to 1.2%.

Budget for the full cost, not just the salary line.

Penalties for Non-Compliance

Minimum Wage vs Market Salary

The regional minimum wage is the legal floor, not a hiring benchmark. Most professional roles in Vietnam pay well above it, and if you pitch offers at or near the minimum, you will not attract the candidates you need.

As of Q4 2025, the General Statistics Office of Vietnam reported an average monthly wage of approximately VND 8,700,000 (around USD 330). That is nearly 64% above the Region I minimum wage of VND 5,310,000.

The gap is wider in tech and finance. Software engineers in Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh City now command VND 130,000,000 to VND 138,000,000 per month at senior levels, roughly ten times the Region I floor.

The Global Living Wage Coalition estimated the living wage for Region I at VND 8,970,296 per month as of 2024. That figure sits around 69% above the current Region I minimum, which means the statutory floor does not cover a basic living standard in Vietnam’s major cities by most independent estimates.

For budget planning, treat the minimum wage as a compliance threshold, not a compensation guide.

What This Means if You Use an EOR in Vietnam

When you hire through an Employer of Record in Vietnam, the EOR is the legal employer on record. That means regional rate compliance, the trained-worker uplift, and the full SHUI contribution cascade are the EOR’s statutory responsibility, not yours.

This matters more in Vietnam than in many other markets. The four-region structure, the district-level classifications that shifted under Decree 293, and the 7% vocational uplift create multiple points where an inexperienced payroll setup fails quietly. An EOR with established Vietnam operations will have these baked into their payroll engine.

There are three specific things to confirm with any EOR provider before signing. First, that they apply the correct regional rate based on where your employee works, not a blanket national figure. Second, that their system flags trained workers and applies the 7% uplift automatically.

Third, that their SHUI calculations update when the minimum wage changes, without requiring you to raise a manual ticket each time.

Not every EOR handles Vietnam with the same depth. Some use in-country partners rather than owned entities, which adds a layer of distance between you and the compliance output. Check whether the provider has a direct legal presence in Vietnam before committing.

Frequently Asked Questions