After increasing the base salary by 8% from July 1, 2026, the Ministry of Home Affairs continues to develop a salary reform project, expected to be submitted to the Central Government in March 2027.
One of the core contents of salary reform is to shift from paying salaries mainly based on coefficients and seniority to paying salaries based on job positions, titles and leadership positions.
This directly relates to the process of building a list of job positions, job descriptions and competency frameworks for each position. Each position needs to be clearly defined in terms of tasks, responsibilities, complexity, professional requirements and output products to serve as a basis for arranging, using, evaluating and implementing the salary regime.
Talking to Lao Dong on September 18, National Assembly Deputy Trinh Thi Tu Anh (Lam Dong Delegation) said that in this reform, the core issue is not how much salary increase, but to design a system in which salaries relatively accurately reflect the value of work, the responsibility of the position and the capacity of the person in charge.
Salary reform must go hand in hand with streamlining the organization, redefining job positions and reallocating resources. If the apparatus is still cumbersome, the number of positions is not linked to actual needs but only increases the salary fund, it is very difficult to both increase income for employees effectively and ensure the sustainable payment capacity of the budget.
According to the delegate, salary is a very important lever, but salary should not be considered the only factor determining the quality of public service.
A capable person when choosing the public sector does not only look at the salary but also at the working environment, career development opportunities, professional autonomy, recognition ability and level of fairness in recruitment, evaluation, and appointment.
In particular, if you want to attract talent, you cannot just ask the question "pay how much money". It is necessary to answer the question "what will capable people get to do in the public sector and how far will they have the opportunity to develop their abilities?".
Therefore, the goal must be to create motivation for talented people to develop their abilities.
Delegates from the Lam Dong Delegation paid special attention to the efficiency assessment stage. "Paying salaries based on efficiency" should not be understood as applying a set of quantitative indicators to everyone.
The work of a doctor, teacher, scientist, policy expert or administrative procedure officer has completely different products and measurements. If the criteria are not appropriate, we can easily turn efficiency assessment into chasing targets, even creating achievement disease.
Therefore, the salary mechanism needs to combine the value of the position - the capacity of the performer - the work results, and at the same time must have a transparent, independent and verifiable evaluation mechanism.
At a working session with the Ministry of Home Affairs in early September, Secretary of the Party Central Committee, Deputy Prime Minister Pham Thi Thanh Tra requested to carefully prepare the project, study many options for salary reform, social insurance and independently consult expert groups before reporting to competent authorities.
