The Government decided to increase minimum salary for state employees to VND1.05 million (USD 50.41) beginning May 1.

State cadres and employees will receive monthly minimum salary increase of VND 220,000 (USD10.56) beginning May 1.

State cadres and employees will receive monthly minimum salary increase of VND 220,000 (USD10.56). The current minimum wage is VND 830,000 (USD39.85).

This minimum rate will be used as the new standard to set salaries and allowances for staff of different ranks.

The increase was proposed at a National Assembly meeting in 2011, where differing opinions on the subject were discussed.

According to the National Assembly's Committee for Finance and Budget, the minimum salary level, along with other allowances, was still too low to meet State employees’ living cost.

It has been estimated that the minimum salary for 2011 should have been VND1.4 million (USD67.22), and not VND830,000 (USD39.85 ), in order to meet employees' cost of living.

There were also proposals of raising the monthly minimum salary to VND1.1 million (USD52.81) this time. However, Finance Minister Vuong Dinh Hue said that this raise would cost the State budget a big amount of more than VND11 trillion (USD528.14 million) a year.

Meanwhile, the Minister of Home Affairs, Nguyen Thai Binh, said that minimum salaries will be properly adjusted in the 2012-2014 period to meet State workers' needs .

Currently, Vietnam has some 270,000 people working at state-owned enterprises and agencies.