The Prime Minister has just issued Decision 282/QD-TTg on the Key State Administrative Reform Plan for the period 2026-2030, which emphasizes the requirement to build salary and bonus reforms and diversify preferential policies for cadres, civil servants, and public employees right in 2026. Previously, Official Dispatch 38/TTg-QHĐP also set the task of adjusting the base salary, pensions and various types of allowances as a focus that needs to be implemented soon.
Ms. Tran Thi Hai (the character requesting a change of name), a commune-level civil servant in Hanoi, has more than 10 years of working experience. In 2016, when she first started working, her total salary and allowances were only about 3 million VND/month with a coefficient of 2.34.
Through periodic promotions every 3 years, her salary coefficient increased to 2.67 (2018), 3.00 (2021) and 3.33 (2024). Currently, her main salary reaches 9.24 million VND; plus 3.86 million VND of additional income under the special mechanism from the beginning of 2025, total income is about more than 13 million VND.
However, according to Ms. Hai, this increase is still quite modest if placed in the context of rapidly increasing living costs in Hanoi.
Her family has two young children going to extra classes, each month tuition alone is about 2 million VND. Food costs if cooked yourself range from 2-3 million VND, and if eating out regularly, it can be up to 4-6 million VND.
Electricity and water costs about 800,000 VND to 1 million VND/month. Other expenses such as clothing and entertainment from 1-2 million VND.
Salaries have increased, but the rate of increase has not kept up with actual costs. Saving money is also very difficult," she said.
The Statistics Office (Ministry of Finance) calculated that in 2025, the average income of workers was 8.4 million VND/month, an increase of 8.9%, equivalent to an increase of 685 thousand VND compared to the previous year.
In which, the average income of male workers is 9.5 million VND/month, female workers is 7.2 million VND/month; the average income of workers in urban areas is 10.1 million VND/month, rural areas is 7.3 million VND/month.
The average spending per capita in urban areas is also the highest in the country. This makes many young civil servants think that current salaries are not commensurate with the price level.
Over the years, the public sector salary policy has undergone many adjustments. In 2019, the Central Government issued Resolution 27-NQ/TW on salary policy reform. However, due to the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, the reform roadmap was postponed.
By July 1, 2023, the base salary was increased from 1.49 million VND to 1.8 million VND/month. Following that, from July 1, 2024, the base salary increased to 2.34 million VND/month - the strongest increase in many years, contributing to improving income for millions of officials, civil servants, public employees and armed forces nationwide.
However, many experts believe that this increase only partially compensates for price slippage and has not created a breakthrough in income. In Hanoi - where rents on housing, education, healthcare and living services are all high, the positive impact of wage increases is still limited.
According to the content of Decision 282/QD-TTg, salary reform will be linked to job positions, titles and leadership positions instead of mainly depending on coefficients as at present.
At the same time, the Government requested to adjust some types of allowances, base salary levels, pensions and allowance regimes immediately in March in the spirit of Official Dispatch 38/TTg-QHĐP.
Mr. Tran Manh Cuong (33 years old) - a civil servant in a ward in Hanoi, said that the important thing is not only to increase the base salary but also to change the salary payment mechanism.
If we still calculate according to coefficients and egalitarianism, people who work a lot and do well will also find it difficult to have a clear difference in income. We hope this reform is truly based on work efficiency" - Mr. Cuong said.
