The 2013 Law on Employment stipulates two ways to calculate the maximum unemployment benefit ceiling depending on the group of subjects: No more than 5 times the basic salary/month for employees receiving salaries under the State regime; No more than 5 times the regional minimum wage/month for employees receiving salaries decided by enterprises.
Because the basic salary is often significantly lower than the regional minimum wage, this has created a large difference in benefits between the two groups of workers.
The 2025 Law on Employment has eliminated this difference by unifying a general formula in Clause 1, Article 39. Accordingly, the maximum benefit for all employees will not exceed 5 times the regional minimum wage at the time of termination of the labor contract.
This regulation not only ensures the principle of fairness and equal treatment for all workers but also helps the system become more transparent and applicable. This is also a step in line with the salary reform roadmap, towards eliminating the concept of "basic salary" in social security policies.
From January 1, 2026, the 2025 Law on Employment will take effect, in which the monthly unemployment benefit for employees is regulated at 60% of the average monthly salary for unemployment insurance contributions of the 6 consecutive months before unemployment, but not exceeding 5 times the regional minimum monthly salary announced by the Government, applied in the last month of unemployment insurance contributions.
According to Decree No. 293/2025/ND-CP recently issued by the Government, from January 1, 2026, the regional minimum wage for workers in the regions will also be adjusted to increase.
Accordingly, region I is 5.31 million VND/month, region II is 4.73 million VND/month, region III is 4.14 million VND/month and region IV is 3.7 million VND/month.
Thus, the maximum unemployment benefits that workers in the regions can receive from 2026 are 26.55 million VND/month (zone I), 23.65 million VND/month (zone II), 20.7 million VND/month (zone III) and 18.5 million VND/month (zone IV).
Also according to the 2025 Employment Law, employees are entitled to a maximum of 12 months of unemployment benefits, equivalent to 144 months of contributions.
Therefore, if they enjoy the maximum period and the prescribed benefit level, workers in region I can receive the maximum unemployment allowance of 318.6 million VND; region II is 283.8 million VND; region III is 248.4 million VND; region IV is 222 million VND.
