HCMC’s highest Tet bonus at $85,000

Nguyen Bao Cuong, head of the labor-wage-social insurance division under the HCMC Department of Labor, Invalids and Social Affairs, said at a Friday conference the numbers were tallied from 1,300 businesses, with over 288,000 workers, in the city.

The highest amount of Tet bonus this year belongs to an individual working at an FDI company. It is VND750 million, or 56%, higher than the highest Tet bonus last year.

The average Tet bonus this year in HCMC is at VND12.3 million, a slight decrease from last year’s VND12.88 million.

The highest Tet bonus in Hanoi was VND205 million, also belonging to an FDI company.

Businesses in the tech, food processing, software development and commerce have high amounts of bonuses, while businesses with small-scale production and businesses with manual labor will often have lower bonuses.

448 businesses, accounting for 35% of businesses surveyed, reported encountering difficulties when it comes to giving their workers their Tet bonuses.

The causes have been attributed to reduced number of orders, forcing businesses to reduce operations, as well as difficulties paying loan interests and collecting debts.

However, businesses still try to give their workers Tet bonuses per labor agreements and contracts.

Besides Tet bonuses, over 46% of surveyed businesses said they have other practical forms of support for their workers, including gifts, coupons or lucky money.

Some businesses have plans to throw parties and to pay visits to workers in circumstances, as well as throwing Tet celebrations for workers who could not return to their hometown this holiday.

HCMC currently has over 161,000 businesses with over 2.8 million workers.

Tet bonus is not required by the law but most companies pay it ahead of Vietnam’s biggest holiday to boost morale, and the amount often depends on their business results of the year.

Vietnam’s highest Tet bonus this year so far is VND5.7 billion, belonging to a general director at a Japanese-invested company in the Mekong Delta’s Long An Province, whose monthly salary is VND235 million. The top figure is 5.6 times higher than last year’s and higher than the highest bonus paid in recent years.

The lowest amount is VND20,000, to be paid to an employee in the delta’s Ca Mau Province.

The country’s average payment is VND6.85 million, around the same amount last year.