Vietnam Employment Cost Calculator

The gross salary on a Vietnam payroll payslip is the sum of every component before deductions:

Gross salary = Base salary + Bonuses + Allowances + Employee PIT + Employee social insurance + Employee health insurance + Employee unemployment insurance + Other taxable benefits

In other words, gross is what the employer agrees to pay before the employer withholds insurance and PIT on the employee's behalf.

Net (take-home) salary in Vietnam payroll is gross minus every mandatory deduction:

Net salary = Total income − (Personal income tax + Social insurance + Health insurance + Unemployment insurance + Other contractual deductions)

Employee insurance contributions total 10.5% of the insurance salary base. PIT is calculated after the personal deduction (15.5 million VND/month from 2026) and dependent deductions (6.2 million VND/month per dependent from 2026) are applied.

The true cost of hiring in Vietnam is the employee's gross salary plus the employer's compulsory contributions — roughly 23.5% on top of gross:

• Social insurance — 17% (employer)
• Health insurance — 3% (employer)
• Unemployment insurance — 1% (employer)
• Occupational accident & disease insurance — 0.5% (employer)
• Trade union fee — 2% on the social-insurance salary base (employer)

Combined with the employee's 10.5%, total mandatory social insurance and union load on a Vietnam payroll is about 34% of gross. Bonuses, 13th-month pay and any contractual benefits sit on top of this baseline.

Employees contribute 10.5% of the insurance salary base, deducted from gross before PIT is computed: 8% social insurance, 1.5% health insurance and 1% unemployment insurance. The insurance salary base is capped at 20× the regional minimum wage for social and health insurance, so contributions plateau at high salary levels.

From 1 January 2026 Vietnam payroll applies a 5-bracket progressive PIT schedule on monthly taxable income (after personal & dependent deductions):

Non-residents are taxed at a flat 20% on Vietnam-sourced income — the progressive table above does not apply to them.

Before PIT is applied, Vietnam payroll subtracts two standard family-circumstance deductions from gross taxable income:

• Personal deduction — a flat allowance for the taxpayer themselves (updated for 2026 by the General Department of Taxation).
• Dependent deduction — a per-dependent allowance for each qualifying family member (children under 18, full-time students, elderly or disabled relatives, etc.). Dependents must be registered with the tax authority using the prescribed form before the deduction applies on the payslip.

The Vietnam Employment Cost Calculator above lets you set the number of dependents and applies the latest 2026 deduction values automatically.

From 1 January 2026 the statutory regional minimum monthly wage in Vietnam is:

• Region I (HCMC, Hanoi urban districts, Hai Phong, Da Nang inner zones) — 5,310,000 VND/month
• Region II (other urban & industrial zones) — 4,730,000 VND/month
• Region III (provincial towns) — 4,140,000 VND/month
• Region IV (remaining areas) — 3,700,000 VND/month

The regional minimum wage is the floor for contractual salary and also caps the social/health insurance contribution base at 20× this figure.

The 13th-month salary (often paid before Tết / Lunar New Year) is not required by the Labour Code, but it is universal market practice and a strong expectation in Vietnamese hiring. Once written into the labour contract, internal regulations or company policy, it becomes contractually binding and must be paid. Most foreign companies running Vietnam payroll budget for it as a fixed line, equivalent to one month of gross.

Probation under the Vietnam Labour Code ranges from 1 to 60 days depending on the role and contract type — typically up to 60 days for positions requiring a college degree or higher, 30 days for skilled roles, and 6 working days for unskilled labour. Probation salary must be at least 85% of the official salary for the same job. Only one probation period is allowed per role.

Overtime in Vietnam payroll is strictly capped: it cannot exceed 50% of normal working hours in a single day, 12 hours per week, or 40 hours per month (200 hours/year, extendable to 300 in specific industries with notification). Statutory minimum pay multipliers are:

• Weekdays — 150% of normal hourly wage
• Weekly rest days — 200%
• Public holidays & paid leave days — 300% (plus the holiday pay itself)
• Night shifts (10pm – 6am) — additional +30% premium

Statutory severance pay applies once an employee has worked under a labour contract for at least 12 months, calculated at ½ month's salary per year of service. Job-loss allowance (different from severance) is paid at 1 month per year of service for redundancy or restructuring terminations, minimum 2 months.

Required notice periods on Vietnam payroll are 45 days for indefinite contracts, 30 days for definite-term contracts, and 3 working days for contracts under 12 months or probation.

Yes — by default, foreign employees working in Vietnam on a work permit must participate in the compulsory social insurance scheme on the same rates as Vietnamese nationals. Exemptions apply where the foreign worker (a) holds a confirmed work-permit-exempt status (e.g. intra-company transfer in 11 service sectors, expert assignments under 30 days, etc.) or (b) is already covered by a bilateral social-security agreement with their home country. These exemption cases are narrow and assessed on a case-by-case basis.

Tax residency is the trigger, not nationality. A foreigner becomes a Vietnam tax resident if they (a) stay in Vietnam 183 days or more in a 12-month period or in the calendar year, or (b) hold a permanent / temporary residence card and cannot prove tax residency elsewhere.

• Tax residents — taxed on worldwide income at the progressive 5%–35% PIT brackets, same as Vietnamese nationals.
• Non-residents — taxed at a flat 20% on Vietnam-sourced income only, with no personal or dependent deductions.

Yes. Foreign workers who terminate their labour contract and leave Vietnam may apply for a one-time lump-sum withdrawal of their accumulated social insurance balance from Vietnam Social Security (VSS), subject to documentation and the prescribed procedure. The application is filed at the local social insurance office where the employee was last registered; payout is typically based on years of contribution and the average insurance salary base.

In most cases the employer performs PIT finalization on the employee's behalf — provided the employee earned income from only one Vietnam payroll source for the full year and signs an authorisation. The employer reconciles total annual income, applies deductions, recalculates PIT owed against PIT already withheld monthly, and refunds or collects the difference. Employees with multiple income sources (multiple employers, freelance or foreign income) must self-file their annual PIT return by 30 April of the following year.

An Employer of Record (EOR) is the fastest, lowest-risk way to run Vietnam payroll without a local entity. The EOR becomes the legal employer on paper, handles all compulsory insurance, PIT withholding, monthly payslips and labour-law compliance, while you keep day-to-day management of the team. It is the right choice when you (a) need to onboard in 1–2 weeks rather than 2–4 months for entity setup, (b) plan to hire a small team (fewer than ~20 people) and want to skip ongoing accounting, tax filing and HR compliance overhead, or (c) want to test the Vietnam market before committing to an FDI entity. For larger headcount or product/sales operations that need to invoice locally, a wholly-owned entity becomes more cost-efficient.

Yes — Aniday's Vietnam Employment Cost Calculator is completely free, requires no sign-up, and applies the latest 2026 regional minimum wage, social-insurance rates, personal & dependent deductions and progressive PIT schedule. Use it to budget headcount, quote candidates a gross figure that hits their target net, or estimate the all-in cost of a Vietnam payroll engagement.