How much does an EOR in Vietnam cost?

Estimate your EOR Vietnam cost

Enter a gross monthly salary to see the employer on-costs, the employer's total monthly cost and the employee's net take-home, with 2026 rates and caps applied. The estimate is illustrative and uses resident personal income tax; it is not a quote. Figures update as you type.

How to read it: the top block is what you pay as the employer each month; the lower block is what the employee receives after their own 10.5% insurance and personal income tax. The EOR service fee is pre-filled at our flat US$149 per employee per month and converted to dong at the reference rate for the all-in employer total; clear the rate to see the dong total without the fee. Switch the worker to a foreign national to drop unemployment insurance (foreign hires are quoted separately, so the US$149 fee is not applied), and raise the dependant count to lower the employee's tax.

Worked examples (Region I, 2026)

These four examples show the full monthly cost for common salaries in Region I, using the 2026 rates and caps. Examples A to C are Vietnamese employees; D is a foreign employee (no unemployment insurance), assumed tax-resident. At ₫80m, the social- and health-insurance salary cap of ₫50,600,000 reduces the on-cost, so it is below a flat 23.5%. Over a year, multiply the employer total by 12; most employers also budget a customary 13th-month (Tet) bonus of about one month of salary, which is not required by law and is excluded from the figures above.

At an indicative reference rate of ₫26,000 per US$ — a convenience conversion that moves with the exchange rate — the employer totals above (before the EOR fee) are about US$950 (A), US$1,900 (B), US$3,546 (C) and US$3,515 (D).

Add our flat EOR service fee of US$149 per employee per month — about ₫3,874,000 at the indicative ₫26,000/US$, and the same figure whatever the salary — and the all-in employer total becomes about ₫28,574,000 (A), ₫53,274,000 (B) and ₫96,059,000 (C). Foreign hires (D) are quoted separately, so no US$149 fee is shown; the ₫91,385,000 is the statutory employer total before any quoted fee.

The employee lines use the deductible insurance, the ₫15,500,000 personal deduction and the 2026 five-band resident tax schedule.56 For a non-resident on the same ₫80m gross, personal income tax is a flat 20% of Vietnam-sourced taxable income — roughly ₫16,000,000 if the whole salary is taxable — with no personal or dependant deductions, so the net is markedly lower.5 Always state residency before relying on a figure. These are illustrative; your own numbers depend on dependants, allowances and residency.

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Prefer email? Write to info@eorvietnam.vn with the role, city, gross salary, nationality and start date.

What the employer on-cost actually is: 23.5% or 22.5%?

The employer on-cost in Vietnam is about 23.5% of gross for a Vietnamese employee and about 22.5% for a foreign employee. The difference is unemployment insurance, which foreign nationals do not pay. The market's "21.5% versus 23.5%" confusion is simply whether the 2% trade-union fee is counted.14

The percentages do not run all the way up. Social and health insurance are charged only on salary up to a cap, and the trade-union fee follows the same capped base, so above the cap the effective on-cost falls. Unemployment insurance has a separate, higher cap.

This is exactly why Example C above sits below 23.5%: at an ₫80m salary the social-, health- and union-fee base is pinned at ₫50,600,000, while unemployment insurance is charged on the full ₫80m (still under its own ₫106.2m cap). A buyer who assumes a flat 23.5% on a high salary will over-estimate the cost. For the full statutory detail, see Vietnam payroll and employer costs and personal income tax in 2026, and the wider employment rules across our Vietnam employer guides.

On the employee's side, the 10.5% insurance (8% social, 1.5% health, 1% unemployment) is deducted first, then the ₫15,500,000 personal deduction and ₫6,200,000 per dependant, before the five-band tax applies.16 That is why two employees on the same gross salary can take home different amounts: more dependants mean a smaller tax base. A foreign resident follows the same tax schedule but pays 9.5% insurance, with no unemployment element.

How much do EOR providers in Vietnam charge?

EOR providers in Vietnam charge in one of two ways: a flat fee per employee per month, or a percentage of payroll. Among the other providers listed in our guide to choosing an EOR in Vietnam, published flat per-employee fees run from about US$199 to US$699 per employee per month as of 3 October 2026, while some charge a percentage of payroll instead; all sit on top of the gross salary and the statutory on-costs. These are market observations, not our price.8

Comparing a PEO quote instead? Because Vietnam has no co-employment statute, a Vietnam "PEO" is in practice an EOR or payroll outsourcing, so PEO cost stacks in the same three layers — salary, statutory on-costs and a service fee — and our flat US$149 sits below the quoted PEO range. See how the ranges line up in PEO cost in Vietnam.

A flat per-employee fee is predictable and does not rise automatically when you give a raise; a percentage-of-payroll fee grows with salary and can cost more for senior hires. Our flat US$149 per employee per month (about ₫3,874,000 at ₫26,000/US$) stays the same whether the salary is ₫20m or ₫60m, whereas a 10%-of-payroll fee would be ₫2,000,000 on a ₫20m hire but ₫6,000,000 on a ₫60m hire — so against a 10% model a flat fee is the lower cost for any salary above about ₫39m, while a percentage can look smaller below that. Model both against your actual salary band before you sign.

When you compare quotes, read what the fee covers. A complete EOR fee should include the labour contract, monthly payroll in Vietnamese dong, social, health and unemployment insurance, personal-income-tax withholding and filing, payslips, onboarding and offboarding, and work-permit support for foreign hires. Watch for extras charged separately: a foreign-exchange margin of around 0.5–1%, expense handling, or per-filing fees, and compare each provider's deposit terms rather than the headline fee alone.

Our own service fee is US$149 per employee per month — a flat fee, the same for every Vietnamese-national employee regardless of salary, seniority, role, location in Vietnam or headcount, not a percentage of payroll, as of October 2026. That is below every flat per-employee fee published by the providers listed in our guide to choosing an EOR in Vietnam as of 3 October 2026. Foreign nationals who need a Vietnamese work permit are quoted separately, because work-permit, visa and temporary-residence handling make each case different. There are no setup, onboarding, offboarding, contract or payslip fees, and no hidden fees; the only additional item is a refundable security deposit equal to two months of the employee's employment cost (gross salary plus statutory employer contributions), held for the engagement and returned at the end, less any unpaid amounts. Every written quote still names the Vietnam-registered entity that employs the worker and the legal structure used, and itemises the statutory on-costs separately. The two lawful routes an EOR can use explains who bears the liability.

The EOR deposit in Vietnam, explained

Most EOR arrangements in Vietnam carry a refundable security deposit, because the provider is the legal employer: it pays the salary, the statutory contributions and any statutory or agreed employment payments to the employee and the state each month before it invoices you, and the deposit covers that exposure. It is a held balance, not a charge — it comes back to you.

Our deposit is two months of the employee's employment cost — the gross salary plus the statutory employer contributions, the same base the calculator uses — held for the length of the engagement and returned at the end, less any unpaid amounts. For the ₫20,000,000 Region I employee above, whose employer cost before the fee is ₫24,700,000 a month, that is about ₫49,400,000; for a ₫40,000,000 employee it is about ₫98,800,000. It does not grow with the number of months you stay, and it is separate from the monthly service fee. These figures are illustrative and follow from the worked examples above.

Everything else is itemised and passed through at cost. There are no setup, onboarding, offboarding, contract or payslip fees, and no hidden fees; the salary, the statutory contributions and any statutory or agreed employment payments go to the employee and the authorities at cost, shown line by line on each invoice. The only recurring charge is the flat US$149 per employee per month for Vietnamese nationals; foreign nationals who need a Vietnamese work permit are quoted separately. As of October 2026.

Is an EOR cheaper than setting up your own entity in Vietnam?

At low headcount, an EOR is usually cheaper and far faster than incorporating: there is no setup project, no local accounting and tax function, and you can start and stop quickly. Your own entity wins past a break-even point — typically a stable, growing team — and when you need full local operations. The choice is about headcount, time horizon and control, not just monthly price.

Setting up a foreign-invested company in Vietnam takes two approvals — an Investment Registration Certificate, then an Enterprise Registration Certificate — under the Laws on Investment 61/2020 and Enterprises 59/2020, plus ongoing payroll, insurance, accounting and tax administration once it exists. A representative office is not a shortcut: it cannot earn revenue or employ staff doing the parent's money-earning work. As a rule of thumb, the more heads you plan to keep for the long term, the sooner your own entity repays its fixed setup and running cost; for a handful of hires, or a time-boxed market test, the EOR fee plus on-costs is almost always the lower total. Weigh the running cost of an entity against the EOR cost per head in EOR vs setting up your own entity in Vietnam. If you still need the definition first, start with what an EOR in Vietnam is.