Every autumn Vietnam resets the floor under private-sector pay, and this year’s decree is out. Nghị định 399/2026/NĐ-CP, Quy định mức lương tối thiểu đối với người lao động làm việc theo hợp đồng lao động (minimum wages for employees working under labour contracts), was signed on 2 November 2026 by Deputy Prime Minister Phạm Thị Thanh Trà on behalf of the Government, on the proposal of the Minister of Home Affairs. The Government’s information office counter-signed the electronic copy on 3 November, which is why a few secondary sources give 3 November as the issue date; the decree itself is dated 2 November. It takes effect on 1 January 2027 and from that day replaces Nghị định 293/2025/NĐ-CP of 10 November 2025, the decree that set the 2026 rates.
The decree is short: five articles plus a ten-page appendix that assigns every commune and ward of the 34 provinces and centrally run cities to one of four wage regions. Its legal bases are the Law on Government Organisation 63/2025/QH15, the Law on Local Government Organisation 72/2025/QH15 and the Labour Code 45/2019/QH14.
The new rates
| Region | Monthly minimum, 2026 (NĐ 293/2025) | Monthly minimum from 1/1/2027 (NĐ 399/2026) | Increase | Hourly minimum, 2026 | Hourly minimum from 1/1/2027 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| I | 5,310,000 | 5,700,000 | +390,000 (≈7.3%) | 25,500 | 27,400 |
| II | 4,730,000 | 5,080,000 | +350,000 (≈7.4%) | 22,700 | 24,400 |
| III | 4,140,000 | 4,450,000 | +310,000 (≈7.5%) | 20,000 | 21,400 |
| IV | 3,700,000 | 4,040,000 | +340,000 (≈9.2%) | 17,800 | 19,400 |
All figures in Vietnamese đồng; percentages are our own arithmetic.
The pattern is worth noticing. In absolute terms Region I gets the biggest rise, but in percentage terms the poorest band, Region IV, gains the most (about 9.2% monthly and 9% hourly), against roughly 7.3–7.5% for the other three. Region IV covers most rural communes and mountainous provinces, so this narrows the gap between the top and bottom regions a little: Region IV’s minimum rises from about 70% to about 71% of Region I’s.
Which region am I in?
The appendix lists, province by province, which wards and communes belong to each region; anything not named falls into the lowest region listed for that province. Region I areas appear in six of the 34 provinces and cities: Hà Nội, Quảng Ninh, Hải Phòng, Đồng Nai, Hồ Chí Minh City and Tây Ninh. Northern mountain provinces such as Cao Bằng, Điện Biên, Lai Châu, Sơn La and Lạng Sơn have only Region III and IV areas. Because the list is written in post-merger commune names, employers who last checked their zone under the old district-based lists should look themselves up again.
Article 3(3) sets out how the region is decided. What counts is where the employer operates, not where the employee lives:
- an employer applies the rate of the area where it operates;
- a business with branches in several regions applies each branch’s local rate;
- an employer inside an industrial park, export-processing zone, high-tech park, concentrated digital technology park, special economic zone, free-trade zone or high-tech agricultural zone that straddles several regions applies the highest rate among them;
- if an area is renamed or split, the old area’s rate applies until the Government says otherwise; if an area is formed by merging areas with different rates, the highest rate applies.
The first item on the zone list is not new: under NĐ 293/2025 the highest-rate rule already covered industrial parks, export-processing zones, high-tech parks and concentrated digital technology parks. NĐ 399 adds special economic zones, free-trade zones and high-tech agricultural zones, which reflects the new kinds of zones created by recent legislation.
How the floor is applied
Article 4 repeats the familiar mechanics. The monthly minimum is the lowest salary for someone paid monthly who works full normal hours and meets the agreed workload. The hourly minimum is the floor for anyone paid by the hour. People paid weekly, daily, by piece or on a lump-sum basis must not end up below either floor once their pay is converted:
- monthly equivalent = weekly wage × 52 ÷ 12, or daily wage × normal working days in the month, or piece/lump-sum pay earned within normal hours in the month;
- hourly equivalent = weekly or daily wage ÷ normal hours in that week or day, or piece/lump-sum pay ÷ the normal hours spent earning it.
The normal working time used for the conversion is the one the employer has chosen under labour law.
What employers have to do before 1 January
Article 5(3) puts the burden on employers. They must review labour contracts, collective bargaining agreements and internal pay rules and amend them as needed. Two limits apply:
- They may not abolish or cut overtime pay, night-work pay, in-kind allowances or other entitlements under labour law to offset the higher minimum.
- Arrangements that are more favourable to employees stay in force unless the parties agree otherwise. The decree names examples: paying jobs that require vocational training at least 7% above the minimum, and paying heavy, hazardous or dangerous jobs at least 5% more (and especially heavy, hazardous or dangerous jobs at least 7% more) than comparable jobs in normal conditions.
The decree does not require an across-the-board raise. An employee already earning above the new floor for their region has no automatic right to an increase because of this decree. The obligation is to make sure nobody falls below it, and that contracts and pay scales which reference the old figures are updated. That said, many companies build their pay scales as multiples of or steps above the regional minimum, and those scales will need recalculating.
Who it affects
The decree applies to everyone working under a labour contract governed by the Labour Code, and to every kind of employer: enterprises, agencies, organisations, cooperatives, and households or individuals who hire workers. That includes small shops and family businesses with even one employee, which are the employers most likely to pay close to the floor. Civil servants and public employees paid on the state salary scale are outside its scope.
For businesses, the practical checklist before January is short:
- confirm the region of each workplace and branch against the new appendix;
- check that the lowest monthly and hourly pay for each region meets the 2027 figures, including for part-time, piece-rate and lump-sum staff after conversion;
- update contracts, pay scales and collective agreements that quote the old amounts;
- budget for the knock-on cost of any contributions and allowances your company calculates from the regional minimum.
Open questions
Some payroll and insurance thresholds elsewhere in the law are tied to the regional minimum, so the exact knock-on effects depend on the guidance agencies such as Vietnam Social Security issue for 2027; check those before running January payroll. The appendix will also need attention if further administrative boundary changes happen in 2027: the decree says renamed or split areas keep their old rate, and merged areas take the highest rate, only “until the Government issues new rules”.
Sources
- Nghị định 399/2026/NĐ-CP, signed text (Cổng Thông tin điện tử Chính phủ)
- Nghị định 399/2026/NĐ-CP, appendix of wage regions
- Government legal-document portal, list of new documents
- VietnamPlus: Lương tối thiểu chính thức tăng từ đầu năm 2027, mức thấp nhất là 4,04 triệu đồng
- Luật sư Việt Nam: Người lao động cần lưu ý địa bàn áp dụng mức lương tối thiểu mới tại 34 tỉnh, thành phố từ 2027
- LuatVietnam: Chính thức tăng lương tối thiểu vùng từ 01/01/2026 (Nghị định 293/2025/NĐ-CP)
This post is general information, not legal advice.