As of May 1, employees at state-owned companies and limited liability companies where the state holds 100 percent of the chartered capital will have a higher minimum wage.

According to Decree 28, issued by the Prime Minister on March 25, a new university graduate will be paid 1.7 million dong ($95) a month.

To have the financial resources for increasing the minimum salary, the National Assembly earmarked 22 trillion dong ($1.22 billion). Retirement pensions, social insurance allowances and monthly allowances for retired commune officials will increase by 12.3 percent.

The increase in the minimum wage comes from a plan to renovate salary and social insurance policies in 2008-2012. Under the plan, minimum salaries would be adjusted annually on January 1. During the economic crisis, the National Assembly in late 2008 decided to postpone salary increases to May 1 each year. As a result, this year the minimum salary will rise on May 1.

Non-state business staff have enjoyed increased minimum salary increases as of January 1 2010. The minimum salary for local firms is scaled into four groups: salaries of 980,000 dong are up by 180,000 dong, 880,000 dong goes up 140,000 dong, 810,000 dong increases 120,000 dong and 730,000 dong salaries climbed 80,000 dong.

The minimum salary for workers at foreign-invested firms is also divided similarly: 1.34 million dong (up 140,000 dong), 1.19 million (110,000 dong up), 1.4 million (90,000 dong up) and 1 million (80,000 dong up).

There are around 10 million people working at enterprises in Vietnam, including 1.5 million at foreign-invested firms. There are around 1.8 million retired people.

PV