Average Salary In Vietnam 2025: Monthly & By Sector
Jun 12, 2025
Last updated on Nov 28, 2025
As of early 2025, the average monthly salary in Vietnam is 8.3 million VND (about $321 USD). However, this national figure is heavily skewed by lower-paying agricultural roles and rural regions, making it a misleading benchmark for businesses hiring skilled professionals in key urban centers. Vietnamese actual talent costs will vary significantly based on location, industry sector, and the level of expertise you require.
Key takeaways
- Vietnam’s average salary in Vietnam of $321 hides big differences that affect your hiring costs and ability to compete for talent.
- Urban centers like Ho Chi Minh City and Hanoi pay 39% more than rural areas, while senior executives earn 3-4 times more than entry-level workers.
- Salaries are growing fast at 9.5% per year, creating a more competitive talent market that needs smart pay planning.
Vietnam’s reputation for abundant, relatively low-cost labor has been instrumental in its rise as a key global manufacturing hub. This cost-effectiveness continues to make it a prime destination for businesses, but the country’s appeal is now much broader, with a rapidly growing and skilled talent pool across the technology, finance, and service sectors. Employers can no longer rely on simple national averages to build a competitive compensation strategy. This article discusses the average salary in Vietnam and provides a detailed breakdown of what firms can realistically expect to pay, exploring the critical variations by sector, location, and role.
The following analysis draws from comprehensive data including the Survey Vietnam & SEA Salary Trends 2025 by CGP Group and contextualized with official data from Vietnam’s General Statistics Office and The 2025 Total Remuneration Report of Vietnam’s Labor Market with Talentnet-Mercer Data
What is the average salary in Vietnam?
The national average masks significant variations that directly impact your operational costs and talent acquisition strategy across different regions and career levels.
The national average salary
As of the first quarter of 2025, Vietnamese workers earn an average monthly salary in Vietnam of 8.3 million VND (about $321 USD). This is a strong 9.5% increase from last year. This big growth shows Vietnam’s expanding economy and growing global connections, but it also means rising wage pressures that businesses must plan for.
Based on the average monthly income of 8.3 million VND and a standard 208-hour workweek (26 days, 8 hours per day), the average hourly wage for Vietnamese workers in 2025 reaches approximately 40,000 VND. However, this is merely a general average that varies significantly by region and industry.
On an annual basis, the average income of Vietnamese workers in 2025 is estimated at approximately 99.6 million VND (calculated from 8.3 million VND/month), equivalent to roughly 4,000-4,100 USD. But this number includes many lower-paying farm and rural jobs, which can mislead business leaders planning city operations or looking for skilled workers.
Vietnam maintains a steady trend of average wage growth. In 2007, the average worker’s salary reached only about 1.4 million VND per month. By 2020, this figure had increased to nearly 5.5-6.6 million VND per month, demonstrating significant improvement in worker income and marking a clear transition from the low-income to the lower-middle-income category in the labor market. By 2025, the average monthly salary of Vietnamese workers reached approximately 8.3 million VND, continuing to demonstrate steady and sustainable growth momentum in the national labor market.
The sustainable growth of average wages signals improvements in living standards and demand for quality workforce, while simultaneously presenting challenges that require each business in Vietnam to proactively adapt their financial planning, recruitment, and human resource development strategies.
Key regional differences
Geographic location fundamentally determines your talent acquisition costs in Vietnam. Average salaries in major economic regions are typically much higher than the national average:
- The Red River Delta region, anchored by Hanoi, reports average monthly incomes of 9.8 million VND—18% above the national average.
- The southeastern region, which includes Ho Chi Minh City, averages 9.3 million VND monthly, with HCMC itself reaching 9.7 million VND.
- The income gap between urban and rural areas is pronounced: workers in major cities earn an average of 10.1 million VND per month, approximately 39% higher than rural workers—this directly affects recruitment costs, employee retention capacity, and employer branding for each business, especially when selecting operating locations.
- Regional wage growth rates also vary significantly. The north central and central coastal regions experienced 11.7% year-over-year growth, while established economic centers like the Red River Delta saw more moderate 9.5% increases, suggesting potential arbitrage opportunities for strategic location planning.
Entry-level expectations as a baseline
Entry-level positions set the practical minimum for attracting educated, early-career talent across competitive sectors. Monthly salaries typically range from 6 million to 10 million VND. This equals annual pay between 72 million and 120 million VND ($3,000-$5,000 USD).
According to the Talentnet-Mercer 2025 survey, only about 58% of companies plan to increase salaries this year—the lowest rate in many years. The average salary increase recorded stands at just 5.5-6.3% depending on the industry, primarily focused on technical, management, and high-skilled positions. This creates additional pressure on base salary levels, forcing businesses to build flexible compensation strategies, combining various forms of bonuses and benefits to maintain competitive advantage in the modern talent market.
The entry-level market stays highly competitive. 82% of Vietnamese companies are planning salary increases in 2025, creating upward pressure on these baseline numbers and requiring flexible pay strategies.
Average salary in Vietnam by sector and role
Sector performance reveals where Vietnam’s economic transformation creates the highest value—and where talent competition intensifies most rapidly.
Broad economic sector breakdown
The service sector leads pay levels at 9.9 million VND monthly. This reflects Vietnam’s shift toward a knowledge-based economy and the premium placed on customer-facing and professional services skills. Industry and construction follows at 9.1 million VND monthly, supported by Vietnam’s manufacturing boom and infrastructure development.
The agro-forestry-fishery sector, while employing many workers, averages only 4.9 million VND monthly despite having the highest growth rate at 9.8% year-over-year. This gap shows the ongoing economic change as workers move from traditional sectors to higher-value activities.
High-growth sectors showing exceptional salary increases:
- Water supply and waste management: 17.4% growth
- Mining: 12.5% growth
- Finance, banking, and insurance: 10.6% growth
These sectors represent where businesses face the steepest talent competition and fastest-rising costs, aligning with jobs with the fastest pay growth trends across the region.
Significant disparities within the same industry
What businesses need to recognize is that industry-average salaries conceal substantial internal stratification. While overall figures show that service and industrial sectors have high salaries, the reality is that the lowest-income workers are still concentrated in three specific segments:
- Agriculture, forestry, and fisheries with an average monthly salary of 4.9 million VND, though some remote rural areas reach only 2.6 million VND. This is the lowest-income group in the economy.
- General laborers and factory workers in the industrial sector earning 3-4.5 million VND per month, typically working at small manufacturing facilities or industrial parks in peripheral areas. This is why the average industrial sector salary reaches 9.1 million VND, but the majority of production workers actually receive much lower wages. To better understand actual wage trends for this labor group, analyzing manufacturing worker salaries provides specific insights into labor costs at Vietnamese factories.
- Retail services, domestic helpers, and low-skilled service jobs earning 4-6 million VND per month. While professional service positions (finance, consulting, technology) push the service sector average to 9.9 million VND, this basic service group falls into the low-income category.
The salary gap between the lowest-income group (2.6-4.5 million VND) and high-skilled positions within the same industry (20-30 million VND and above) reaches 7-12 times, revealing significant challenges in improving labor productivity and narrowing income gaps between social classes. Businesses need to reference specific salaries by position and skills rather than relying solely on industry averages to build competitive compensation strategies.
Salaries for key professional roles
Professional specializations command substantial premiums above sector averages, reflecting the premium placed on skilled expertise in Vietnam’s evolving economy. According to the Talentnet-Mercer Total Remuneration Survey 2025, the highest-paid job functions include:
- Project/Program Management
- Engineering & Science
- Data Analytics/Warehousing & Business Intelligence
- Real Estate Management and Corporate Communications
These are all fields requiring deep specialized skills, strong analytical thinking capabilities, and experience in managing complex projects.
At the Management level, these functions can receive salaries 30-50% higher than the lowest-paid functions such as administration, production, and quality management.
Based on general market levels, typical high-skilled professional roles have estimated salaries as follows:
- Marketing Manager: 300 million VND annually ($12,500 USD) – reflecting high demand for digital transformation and customer engagement skills.
- Software Developer: 240 million VND annually ($10,000 USD) – driven by Vietnam’s technology sector expansion and digital infrastructure needs.
- Financial Analyst: 216 million VND annually ($9,000 USD) – supported by growing financial services complexity and regulatory requirements.
- Civil Engineer: 192 million VND annually ($8,000 USD) – reflecting ongoing infrastructure development and manufacturing facility expansion.
These specialized roles represent Vietnam’s economic evolution toward higher-value services and advanced manufacturing, creating both talent challenges and opportunities for businesses willing to invest in developing local capabilities. Understanding how these figures compare regionally, southeast asia average salary data shows Vietnam’s competitive positioning within the broader market.
The critical impact of experience
Experience creates dramatic pay scaling that fundamentally affects talent strategy and budget planning across all sectors.
|
Experience Level |
Annual Salary Range (USD) |
|
Entry-Level (0-2 years) |
$3,000 – $5,000 |
|
Mid-Level (3-7 years) |
$6,000 – $10,000 |
|
Senior-Level (8+ years) |
$12,500 – $20,000 |
This steep experience curve reflects the scarcity of seasoned leadership talent and the premium Vietnamese businesses place on proven management skills. The experience premium also varies by sector. Technology and finance show the steepest scaling, while traditional manufacturing maintains more compressed salary ranges across experience levels.
According to the Talentnet-Mercer Total Remuneration Survey 2025, salary gaps between career levels are also clearly reflected in the differences between multinational companies and local enterprises:
- 21% at the Para-professional level
- 30% at the Professional level
- 37% at the Management level
- and up to 43% at the Executive level.
This demonstrates that at higher levels, the capability gap and value that experience brings are increasingly valued and compensated accordingly.
Effective pay structure design becomes crucial for managing these cost differentials while maintaining competitive positioning in attracting and retaining senior talent and other levels.
Why hiring in Vietnam is a strategic move
Vietnam offers a unique combination of factors that create lasting competitive advantages for businesses willing to invest in understanding and using local market dynamics.
Vietnam delivers cost-effective access to a large, young, and increasingly educated workforce known for strong work ethic and adaptability. The country’s strategic location provides unmatched access to major Asian markets, while government policies actively support foreign investment through business-friendly regulations and incentives.
The economic fundamentals remain compelling—consistent GDP growth, political stability, and increasing English proficiency among young professionals make cross-border collaboration easier. This requires businesses to build smarter human resource strategies, balancing cost advantages with increasing competitive pressures, while maintaining flexibility in compensation and bonus structures to optimize cash flow.
To make informed compensation decisions, accessing comprehensive salary survey data becomes essential for benchmarking against market standards and ensuring competitive positioning.
Average income in the Vietnam landscape demands strategic precision rather than broad generalizations. While the $321 monthly average suggests significant cost advantages, successful operations require location-specific, sector-focused pay planning that accounts for rapid wage growth and intensifying talent competition. The opportunity remains substantial, but victory belongs to leaders who use detailed market intelligence to build competitive, sustainable talent strategies. For comprehensive compensation benchmarking, consider implementing total remuneration survey insights to ensure your compensation strategy aligns with market realities and business objectives.
HR reports
Download presentations, useful documents and more in our library
Get them nowRelated insights
Solve your HR problems!
6th Floor, Star Building, 33 Mac Dinh Chi, Saigon Ward, Ho Chi Minh city, Vietnam