According to the latest draft Law on Social Insurance, Article 73 stipulating the adjustment of salaries as the basis for compulsory social insurance contributions basically maintains current regulations.
Accordingly, for employees subject to the state-regulated salary regime, the salary used as a basis for social insurance contributions to calculate the average level is adjusted in two cases.
Employees who start participating in social insurance before January 1, 2016 are adjusted according to the reference level at the time of enjoying the retirement regime.
Meanwhile, people who start participating from January 1, 2016 onwards will be adjusted according to the consumer price index (CPI) as regulated for the salary-receiving sector decided by the employer.
For employees subject to the salary regime decided by the employer, the salary used as a basis for social insurance contributions is adjusted based on the consumer price index of each period according to the Government's regulations.
Contributing opinions on this regulation, the Ministry of Finance proposed to supplement regulations for non-specialized workers at the commune level.
Contributing opinions on Article 73, the Ministry of Finance proposed to add one point to Clause 1 to handle cases of non-specialized workers at the commune, village, and residential group levels under Point k, Clause 1, Article 2 of the Law.
According to the proposal, for those who started participating in social insurance before January 1, 2016 but have a salary as a basis for compulsory social insurance contributions higher than the reference level, it will be adjusted according to the provisions of Clause 2, Article 73, similar to the group receiving salary decided by the employer.
The Ministry of Finance said that according to Decree No. 158/2025/ND-CP, from July 1, 2025, the salary used as the basis for social insurance contributions of non-specialized workers at the commune, village, and residential group levels is the monthly allowance level.
In case the allowance level is lower than the minimum social insurance contribution level, the minimum contribution level according to the provisions of the Law on Social Insurance shall be applied.
At the same time, the social insurance contribution period of this group of subjects is calculated as the contribution period according to the salary regime prescribed by the State.
According to the Ministry of Finance, in fact, from July 1, 2025, the allowance level used as a basis for social insurance contributions for this subject may be equal to or higher than the reference level, for example reaching 5 million VND/month.
However, Article 73 of the draft Law on Social Insurance and Article 16 of Decree No. 158/2025/ND-CP currently do not have guidance on adjusting salaries for this case, leading to the risk of not calculating the average salary level correctly to enjoy social insurance benefits.
If not adjusted according to the mechanism applied to the business sector, inadequacies will arise compared to employees receiving salaries decided by employers.
In addition to the above content, the Ministry of Finance also proposed to amend Clause 1, Article 73 in the direction of clearly defining the time "starting to participate in social insurance according to the salary regime prescribed by the State", instead of only stipulating the time of starting to participate in social insurance.
According to this agency, the amendment will help unify the understanding in cases where employees have time to participate in social insurance under many different salary regimes.
In addition, the Ministry of Finance also proposed to supplement transitional regulations. Accordingly, salaries already paid for social insurance before the new Law takes effect will be adjusted according to the base salary at the time the law takes effect, and then continue to be adjusted according to the increase of the reference level over each period.
Regarding these recommendations of the Ministry of Finance, the Ministry of Home Affairs said it has not yet received them.
According to the drafting agency, these contents will be summarized and reported to competent authorities for consideration and decision in the process of completing the draft law.
