This information was highlighted in the "Salary and Labor Market Report" released by Navigos Group, a recruitment service provider that owns the VietnamWorks platform.
The report was conducted in 2025, surveying over 250 businesses and over 1,600 employees across various industries, levels, and types of domestic and foreign enterprises. The data was cross-referenced with national and international statistical sources such as the General Statistics Office, the International Labor Organization (ILO), and the World Bank.
According to Navigos Group, corporate welfare policies currently focus on three main categories: legally mandated benefits, non-salary financial benefits, and long-term development support policies.
Regarding mandatory benefits, over 91% of workers participate in social insurance, over 84% have health insurance, and around 79% participate in unemployment insurance. However, there is a significant disparity in how businesses contribute social insurance.
Specifically, over 43% of businesses only contribute social insurance based on a fixed salary, which is lower than the worker's actual income. Nearly 11% contribute only based on the regional minimum wage (Zone I, such as TP HCM and Hanoi, in 2025 was 4,96 million dong), and around 5% do not contribute social insurance at all.
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Nguoi lao dong nop ho so, lam thu tuc huong tro cap that nghiep tai Trung tam dich vu viec lam TP HCM, quan Binh Thanh, thang 6/2025. Anh: Quynh Tran
The report indicates that workers whose social insurance contributions are often lower than their actual income or only at the regional minimum are primarily employed by small businesses. These businesses face significant cost pressures and have limited legal compliance capabilities. Additionally, this situation is common among informal workers or those in repetitive, manual jobs within shrinking industries like garment manufacturing and retail.
Navigos Group attributes these reasons to many businesses "splitting" income into basic salary and various allowances or support payments to reduce insurance costs. Other cases stem from a lack of legal understanding or deliberate evasion of regulations to maintain competitiveness in a challenging economic environment.
Nguyen Quoc Thanh, Deputy Director of BHXH TP HCM, confirmed this has been a common practice for many years. Businesses often divide income into multiple components and use only the basic salary as the basis for social insurance contributions. This is partly due to how regulations regarding income components that are (or are not) subject to social insurance contributions are understood and applied.
Under current regulations, the salary used as the basis for social insurance contributions includes the salary according to the job or title, and stable allowances such as position, responsibility, hazardous work, seniority, and regional allowances. In contrast, bonuses, meal allowances, transportation support, phone allowances, housing allowances, and other welfare benefits are not included in social insurance contributions.
Contributing social insurance below actual income reduces workers' benefits for short-term schemes like sickness, maternity, work accidents, and unemployment allowances. In the long term, pensions are lowered, increasing social security risks when workers reach retirement age.
Beyond the group contributing below actual income, the report also noted that over 38% of workers contribute social insurance on their full monthly income, and only 0,12% contribute on their full actual earnings.
According to the General Statistics Office, by 2025, the average income of Vietnamese workers reached approximately 8,4 million dong per month, an 8,9% increase from the previous year. A gender income gap persists, with men's average income at around 9,5 million dong, about 1,3 times higher than women's (7,2 million dong). In 2025, nearly 62% of workers received salary adjustments, mostly below 10%.
In the medium term, businesses are expected to prioritize salary increases for personnel with technological capabilities and high adaptability. This reflects the trend of competition for high-quality human resources amid digital transformation and labor market restructuring.
Le Tuyet
