Vietnam Minimum Wage 2026: Regional Rates and What They Mean for Payroll

The Vietnam minimum wage 2026 rates have applied since 1 January 2026, and most foreign employers assume they do not matter because their staff earn far more. That is only half true. The regional minimum wage is also the floor for social insurance, the yardstick for daily and part-time pay, and the base for the unemployment insurance cap. If you run payroll through an entity or through an EOR Vietnam arrangement, it touches more lines of the payslip than you might expect.

The 2026 rates under Decree 293/2025/ND-CP

Decree 293/2025/ND-CP was issued on 10 November 2025, took effect on 1 January 2026 and replaced Decree 74/2024/ND-CP. Monthly rates rose by roughly 7%.

Region	Monthly 2025 (VND)	Monthly 2026 (VND)	Hourly 2026 (VND)
Region I	4,960,000	5,310,000	25,500
Region II	4,410,000	4,730,000	22,700
Region III	3,860,000	4,140,000	20,000
Region IV	3,450,000	3,700,000	17,800

The monthly rate is the lowest wage for an employee who works a full normal month and meets the agreed work norms. The hourly rate applies to employees paid by the hour.

Which region applies to your team

The rate follows the place where the employer (or its branch or unit) operates, not where the employee lives. Since the 2025 provincial mergers, Vietnam has 34 provinces and cities, and the decree's annex now lists regions by ward and commune.

• Most wards of Ho Chi Minh City and Hanoi are Region I, but some outer areas are Region II (for example Cần Giờ and parts of the former Bà Rịa–Vũng Tàu area in Ho Chi Minh City).
• Da Nang and Bắc Ninh have no Region I areas in 2026; their urban wards are Region II.
• In industrial parks, export processing zones and hi-tech parks that span several rates, the highest rate applies.
• Where a newly merged locality covers areas with different rates, the highest rate applies until new rules are issued.

One protection is worth knowing: if the reorganisation moved an area to a lower rate, employers must keep paying at least the rate in force on 31 December 2025 to employees hired on or before that date.

Daily, weekly and hourly pay: the conversion check

This is where mistakes happen. Pay that looks fine per day can fall below the monthly floor. Decree 293 sets the conversion:

• Weekly pay × 52 ÷ 12 = monthly equivalent
• Daily pay × normal working days in the month = monthly equivalent
• Weekly or daily pay ÷ normal working hours = hourly equivalent

Worked example (Region I, 26 working days):

Pay arrangement	Monthly equivalent	Region I floor	Result
VND 200,000 per day × 26 days	5,200,000	5,310,000	Below the minimum
VND 1,200,000 per week × 52 ÷ 12	5,200,000	5,310,000	Below the minimum
Part-timer, 80 hours × VND 25,500	2,040,000	hourly rate met	Compliant

A daily rate of VND 200,000 was fine in 2025 (5,200,000 was above the 2025 floor of 4,960,000). In 2026 it is not. If you set rates once and never reviewed them, this is the line to check.

How the minimum wage feeds into insurance

The regional minimum wage reaches beyond base pay:

• Social insurance floor. For the simplest job under normal conditions, the monthly salary used for compulsory social insurance must not be lower than the regional minimum wage at the time of contribution (Law on Social Insurance 2024, Article 31).
• SI and HI cap. The ceiling is 20 × the reference level: 20 × 2,340,000 = VND 46,800,000. This is not linked to the regional minimum wage.
• Unemployment insurance cap. The UI ceiling is 20 × the regional minimum wage, so it rose with Decree 293.

Region	UI salary cap 2026 (VND/month)	Employer cost at the minimum wage (salary + 23.5%)
Region I	106,200,000	6,557,850
Region II	94,600,000	5,841,550
Region III	82,800,000	5,112,900
Region IV	74,000,000	4,569,500

The 23.5% is the employer share: 17.5% social insurance, 3% health insurance, 1% unemployment insurance and 2% trade union fee. For senior staff, the higher UI cap matters more than the minimum wage itself: an engineer earning VND 80 million in Region I now pays UI on the full salary, because 80 million is below the 106.2 million cap.

What did not change, and what you must not do

• The old 7% premium for trained workers is gone. It was removed from 1 July 2022 by Decree 38/2022/ND-CP and has not returned. If your contracts, wage scale or collective agreement already promise it, Decree 293 says more favourable terms continue unless both sides agree otherwise.
• Do not cut other pay to absorb the increase. Employers must not abolish or reduce overtime pay, night-work pay or other wage regimes protected by the Labour Code when adjusting to the new minimum.
• Penalties. Paying below the minimum wage is an administrative violation. From 10 September 2026, labour and social insurance fines fall under Decree 283/2026/ND-CP, which replaced Decree 12/2022/ND-CP; organisations are fined at twice the individual level.

A short checklist for your next payroll review

1. Map each employee to the region of the unit they work for, using the ward-level annex.
2. Convert every daily, weekly and hourly rate to a monthly equivalent and compare.
3. Check that the social insurance salary is at least the regional minimum.
4. Update UI calculations for the new caps.
5. Keep any more favourable terms you already promised.

Key takeaways

• Vietnam minimum wage 2026: VND 5,310,000 / 4,730,000 / 4,140,000 / 3,700,000 per month for Regions I–IV, effective 1 January 2026 (Decree 293/2025/ND-CP).
• Hourly minimums: VND 25,500 / 22,700 / 20,000 / 17,800.
• The region follows the employer's place of operation; in parks with mixed rates, the highest rate applies.
• A daily rate of VND 200,000 for 26 days is now below the Region I floor.
• The UI cap is 20 × the regional minimum (VND 106.2 million in Region I); the SI/HI cap stays at VND 46.8 million.

Getting payroll right from month one

At HR4U we check region mapping, conversions and insurance caps every time a rule changes, and we tell clients when something in their setup needs to move. Our EOR service in Vietnam starts from USD 109 per employee per month, with statutory costs passed through at cost, no setup or offboarding fee, and monthly USD invoicing, so your EOR cost is clear from the start. If you are comparing providers, ask each one how they handle the conversion check above. View EOR in Vietnam or talk to us.

This article is for general information and reflects rules in effect as of October 2026. It is not legal or tax advice.