>> Vietnam raises minimum salary requirements for labourers

>> Minimum salary rises not a bother for foreign businesses

Prime Minister Nguyen Tan Dung has approved a plan to raise minimum wage for state employees to VND830,000 (USD39.67).

From May 1, minimum salary will be increased by 13.69%, from the current VND730,000 (USD34.89) a month.

The salary hike will benefit state officials, labourers of state-owned enterprises, together with those who work for state military and politic agencies.

Together with the increase in the minimum salary, allowances will also be recalculated in early May. The PM allowed raising allowances for social insurance buyers by 13.7% for an employee with six dependents. The same increase will be applied to pensions from May 1.

Part of funding for the salary hike will come from state budget while local budgets will contribute the rest.

In the past, salary increases, or even rumours of them, have resulted in the increase in prices of goods, diminishing the actual pay raise.

After the increase in petroleum prices on March 29, prices of a wide range of staples went up by between 5% and 15%, as of April 1.

Petroleum price hikes may raise Vietnam’s consumer price index (CPI) by 0.4% in April, said Nguyen Tien Thoa, Head of the Price Management Department under the Ministry of Finance.