Vietnam Salary Guide 2025/2026

Overview

In a constantly changing economic and digital transformation landscape, salary is always the top concern of employees and employers. Comprehending salary levels and labor market trends helps employees find the most suitable job for their abilities and goals, while employers can optimize their benefits and salary offers to attract competent human resources for their businesses. Each industry, work level, and geographic location has different salary levels, which significantly affect career and job decisions for every individual, from new entrants to professionals.

This Vietnam Salary Guide 2025 will provide a comprehensive view of salary levels of different careers, what influences how much you earn, and suggest useful tips for choosing a career with the desired salary.

Vietnam salary in 2025

Base salary

Base salary is the foundation used to calculate the employee's salary in the payroll. In 2025, the base salary for employees in state-owned organizations and enterprises, or the common minimum wage, is VND 2,340,000/month. Meanwhile, the regional minimum wage for employees in non-state organizations and enterprises ranges from VND 3,450,000 to 4,960,000/month, categorized in 4 regions.

Base salary does not include employee benefits such as bonuses or allowances. The actual average salary varies based on the employee's position, experience, work areas, and ranges from VND 7 - 10 million/month.

Salary by career

Salaries not only vary by career but also depend on different factors like job position, experience, business size, etc. Below are estimated high median salaries by career and experience based on statistics from the big recruitment platform TopCV in Vietnam.

Estimated High Median Salary by Career in 2025 – million VND

Estimated high median salary by career in 2025 – million VND (Source: TopCV)

• IT: With the explosion of digital transformation, IT is always one of the hottest careers with the highest salaries in Vietnam, especially in the fields of AI (artificial intelligence), data science, cybersecurity, blockchain and software development. The salary for newbies is usually from VND 15 - 20 million while experts can reach VND 50 - 100 million/month.
• Banking & Finance: Demand for financial services and digital banking is constantly increasing, leading to a high demand for labor and higher salaries. Salaries for credit specialists and accountants range between VND 10 - 20 million/month, while financial analysts, risk managers, and financial directors can earn up to VND 80 million/month.
• Construction: Salary for the construction industry is relatively stable. Salary for a project manager is VND 23.9 million, up to VND 47 million/month.
• Tourism & Hospitality: Thanks to rapid recovery after the pandemic, the tourism and hospitality sector has seen impressive growth in the number of international and domestic visitors, creating many job opportunities for Vietnamese workers. Newcomers can earn a salary of VND 5 - 8 million, while managers can earn an average of VND 28.6 million/month. Restaurant or hotel managers can earn up to VND 80 million/month.
• Education: Although not as high as others, salaries in the education sector are quite stable. Salaries for teachers in public schools are calculated by multiplying the basic salary by a coefficient, ranging from VND 5 - 15 million for preschool and VND 5.5 - 16 million/month for primary school and above (excluding allowances). Teachers in private or international schools will have higher salaries than those in public schools, which can reach VND 30 million/month.
• Marketing: Marketing offers a relatively competitive salary thanks to the growth of e-commerce and advertising. Roles in digital marketing, SEO, and brand management are always in high demand. Salaries can be up to VND 50 million/month for management positions and about VND 10 - 30 million for staff levels.
• Medical & Healthcare: As an essential industry that always needs qualified labor, especially specialist doctors and senior pharmacists, the medical and healthcare sector requires a long study but offers a high salary. If juniors can receive a salary of VND 10 - 20 million, seniors can receive up to VND 50 million, and specialists can receive up to VND 80 million/month.
• Manufacturing & Logistics: With the rapid development of e-commerce and foreign investment, manufacturing & logistics are expected to continue to grow in 2025. The salary is quite stable for all levels. New entrants have a salary of VND 8 - 9 million, while the managers can earn VND 26 million on average, up to VND 40 - 50 million/month.
• Sales: Always in high demand for recruitment, sales offer a competitive salary and attractive commissions, increasing the total compensation. Depending on products, sales salary ranges from VND 10 to 30 million/month. Managers/directors can have a salary of VND 100 - 150 million/month.

What factors influence salary?

Careers & Market Demand

The demand for recruitment and salary levels is affected by the growth rate of each industry. While automation is more and more popular, IT and e-commerce are growing rapidly and have a higher demand for human resources. Besides, a lack of qualified human resources can be seen in healthcare, sales, IT, or construction techniques, resulting in a more competitive salary. Meanwhile, the growth of technology and automation decreases the competitiveness of certain professions like data entry and processing, call center/chatbot customer service, traditional accounting, etc.

Qualifications & Degrees

Obviously, jobs that require advanced degrees or certifications, specialized or rare skills will offer higher salaries. Some international professional certifications are an advantage for employees to apply for a higher position with higher salary, such as PMP (Project Management Professional), CFA (Chartered Financial Analyst), AWS (Amazon Web Services) Certifications, Google (Google Career / Google Cloud) Certifications.

Work Experience

Actual work experience plays a vital role in deciding your salary. After experiencing multiple real projects, a senior employee can complete tasks more quickly and efficiently, handle problems independently, make more accurate decisions, minimize potential risks, and save training costs for the organization than a fresher can. The more experience you have, the higher salary offer you will receive.

Geographical Area

Most large enterprises and organizations will be placed in big cities to increase their growth chances. Due to the high cost of living and the recruitment demand, especially demand for high-quality human resources, salaries in big cities like Hanoi, Danang, or Ho Chi Minh City will be higher than in other provinces.

Other Factors

• Type & size of business: Multinational corporations and large domestic corporations not only have professional working environments and clear promotion opportunities, but also offer better salaries and benefits than small and medium-sized companies. Also, private and start-up companies can offer attractive salaries and quick promotion opportunities to recruit talented employees; they also face a higher risk of fluctuations than state-owned companies.
• Benefits policies: Beyond base salary, some benefits like performance-based bonuses or 13th-month salary, transportation or meal allowances, health insurance or annual health check, sick or maternity leave affect the real value of the "salary" you will receive. Small and start-up businesses and less competitive industries will offer basic benefits while large and multinational companies, along with “hot” industries will offer better benefits, possibly above the legal regulations, to attract talent.
• Hard and soft skills: Hard skills like technical and IT, foreign language, data analysis,... and soft skills like communication, problem solving, teamwork, adaptability, self-management,... will contribute to making the work more effective and efficient. Hence, those with better hard/soft skills can be offered a higher salary for better quality of work.
• Salary negotiation ability: A higher initial salary will help define future pay raises, so salary negotiation is a vital skill for candidates. Understanding the average salary for your position and confidently showcasing your value and potential to the company will help you achieve an initial salary that is as close to your desired salary as possible.

How to choose the best careers with a high salary?

Research Market Demand and Job Opportunities

Market research is the first and foremost step before choosing a career. Industries related to technology, finance, healthcare, marketing, and logistics always have a high recruitment demand. Industries that require specialized knowledge and in-depth skills will have high salaries but require long-term learning and creativity. Finding out the average salary of different careers or promotion opportunities will help you easily choose a career that suits your goals.

Make a Self-Assessment

A high salary comes with high work requirements and pressure. It can only be quickly achieved if the job best suits your strengths and interests. Dive into your outstanding hard and soft skills and what can maintain your work inspiration to have a smoother start and promotion path. Besides, other criteria to balance your work and personal life can be taken into account for a long-term attachment, such as time, job security, etc.

Acquire Necessary Skills

Investing in learning and improving skills is an important factor in achieving a good income. After verifying strengths and weaknesses along with goals, workers need to continuously learn to upgrade their strengths and develop related skills to be adaptable to the constant changes of the career and the labor market.

Conclusions

Although continuing to fluctuate, Vietnam's labor market in 2025 promises many opportunities to workers. A significant breakthrough can be seen in IT, sales, finance, banking, marketing, tourism, and hospitality sectors. For employees, improving knowledge and professional skills, especially in technology, soft skills, and foreign language skills, will create better career pathways and income. For employers, constantly updating career trends and crafting attractive salary and bonus policies will be essential to attract qualified and outstanding individuals, thereby enhancing organizational quality.