According to the Vietnam General Confederation of Labor, based on the synthesis of reports from provincial and municipal labor federations, central industry unions and equivalent, and general corporation unions under the Vietnam General Confederation of Labor on the implementation of Decree No. 74/2024/ND-CP, it shows that most enterprises have seriously implemented salary adjustments at enterprises with an average increase of 6%.
The results of the investigation and survey of the Vietnam General Confederation of Labor (March - April 2025) in 10 provinces and centrally run cities also showed: 93.25% of workers in enterprises participating in the survey said that their minimum wages have been adjusted according to regulations.
However, some enterprises only adjust for a part of workers with low salaries, just to pay insurance, so the actual salary of workers does not increase. This reflects the lack of seriousness in law enforcement, or it may be due to the company's lack of financial capacity, or deliberately "circumventing" the law.
According to the survey results conducted by the Vietnam General Confederation of Labor in March-April 2025 with nearly 3,000 workers answering questions in 10 provinces and cities, it shows that 54.9% of workers said that their salary and income are just enough to cover the basic expenses of their family; 26.3% have to be frugal, spend frugally; 7.9% are not enough to live on, have to do other jobs to earn more income to cover their living expenses.
In the context of income not meeting the spending needs of the family, leading to the situation where workers have to " though their belts" and save to ensure their lives; in many cases, workers have to borrow to pay for sudden and specific needs, the survey results show that 12.5% of workers regularly (monthly) have to borrow money to stabilize their lives; 29.9% of workers have to borrow money occasionally (3-4 months/time).
Only 55.5% of workers are eligible to eat meat and fish in all main meals (excluding shift meals at the enterprise).
Thus, a significant number of people do not have a stable and adequate nutritional level, thereby affecting their physical health, efficiency and labor productivity, while also reducing the quality of life for them and their families.
According to the Vietnam General Confederation of Labor, up to 72.6% of the total number of single people said that their salary is the main reason affecting their decision to start a family. Workers feel that their current income is not enough to ensure a stable life when starting a family, especially in the context of increasing living expenses and raising children. Salary not only affects the ability to spend daily but also affects the ability to buy a house, save for the future and ensure basic needs for a new family.
72.5% of married workers said that their current salary and income affect their decision to have additional children. A living income makes couples worry about their financial capacity to raise their children. While the cost of raising children, especially the cost of education and health care, is increasingly expensive, they are delaying childbirth to ensure the quality of life for themselves and their families.
More than 53.3% of workers said that their salaries only partially meet (over 50%) of their children's education needs. Thus, for the majority of workers, the cost of education is a financial burden and they have to depend on support sources such as loans, savings or from their families to cover enough. In particular, 6.9% of workers said their salaries did not meet the demand for children's education. This is an worrying number, which could lead to their children not having access to quality education, affecting the development ability and career opportunities of future generations.
Regarding medical examination and treatment costs, 44.1% of workers said their income only meets basic health care and medical examination and treatment needs; 38.0% only has enough money to buy some basic drugs; 5.6% is completely unable to buy drugs and medical examination and treatment. The majority of workers do not have the financial capacity to proactively take care of their health comprehensively, especially when they have serious health problems or need long-term treatment.
With the above situation, continuing to adjust the regional minimum wage early is important, urgent and extremely necessary for workers and their families - the Vietnam General Confederation of Labor stated.
