Sick leave in Vietnam

How many paid sick days do employees get in Vietnam?

For an ordinary illness in normal working conditions, a Vietnamese employee can take up to 30 paid sick days a year after contributing to compulsory social insurance for under 15 years, 40 days at 15 to under 30 years, and 60 days at 30 years or more. Heavy, toxic or dangerous work — or work in especially tough conditions — raises each band to 40, 50 and 70 days respectively.1 The entitlement scales with contribution length rather than being a single fixed figure, and it is a statutory right the employer cannot reduce.

One 2026 change is worth flagging. The Social Insurance Law 41/2024 removed the former arrangement that let an employee with a long-term illness draw sickness benefit for up to 180 days; a prolonged illness is now covered within these same contribution-based day bands and at the same 75% rate, with narrower provision for diseases on the Health Ministry's list of conditions requiring prolonged treatment. If a hire has a serious long-term condition, confirm the current entitlement before relying on it (as of October 2026).1

How much is sick pay in Vietnam, and who pays it?

Statutory sick pay in Vietnam is 75% of the employee's social-insurance contribution salary, and it is paid by the state social-insurance fund, not by the employer, for each day the employee is certified unfit for work, up to the annual maximum above.1 This is the point most foreign employers get wrong: the employer does not pay the employee's wage for those days out of its own pocket.

What the employer funds instead is the contribution that resources the scheme. Sick pay is pre-funded through the employer's ordinary social-insurance contribution — the 17.5% employer social-insurance rate paid on the payroll — and the fund then pays the benefit when a claim is made.2 In other words, the cost already sits inside the ordinary Vietnam payroll contributions every employer makes, and is drawn from the fund when an employee falls ill.

One nuance matters for higher earners. The 75% is applied to the contribution salary — the salary on which social insurance is charged — which is capped at the statutory ceiling. So for a high earner whose pay sits above the cap, sick pay is 75% of the capped figure, not of full salary. The same ceiling that governs compulsory social insurance in Vietnam therefore also caps the sick-leave benefit.1

Is half-day sick leave allowed in Vietnam?

Yes — and this is new. Under the previous rules sick leave was counted in whole days only. The Social Insurance Law 41/2024, in force since 1 July 2025, now allows sick leave to be taken and counted in half-days, so an employee who needs only part of a day for a medical appointment or a short recovery no longer has to book a full day.1 For an overseas employer this is a small but practical change: it lets short, genuine absences be recorded accurately against the statutory entitlement rather than rounded up to whole days.

Can employees take paid leave to care for a sick child?

Yes. A parent paying social insurance can take paid leave to look after a sick child under seven, separate from their own sick-leave entitlement: up to 20 working days a year for a child under three, and up to 15 working days a year for a child aged three to under seven. Where both parents contribute, each can take the leave.1 Like ordinary sickness, it is paid by the social-insurance fund at 75% of the contribution salary — not by the employer — against a medical certificate for the child (as of October 2026).

How is sick leave documented and claimed in Vietnam?

Sick leave is claimed, not simply deducted from pay. The absence must be supported by a medical certificate from a licensed health facility confirming the employee was unfit for work and the period concerned; the employer then compiles that evidence and files the sickness-benefit claim with the provincial social-security office, which assesses it and pays the 75% benefit, generally routed through the employer.1

Two things follow for the employer. First, keeping the employee's social-insurance record registered and up to date is what makes a claim payable at all, so the administration cannot be left until someone falls ill. Second, the statutory filing windows are tight, so the medical documentation needs to be gathered promptly. An employer that handles payroll and social insurance well in the ordinary course has little extra to do when a claim arises; one that does not can leave an employee out of pocket on a benefit they are entitled to.

Sick leave, annual leave and parental leave are not the same thing

A recurring source of confusion is treating all paid time off as one pool. In Vietnam the three main entitlements are funded and paid differently, and budgeting a hire correctly means keeping them apart. Paid annual leave in Vietnam is an employer-paid entitlement of 12 days a year (more in some jobs) at full wage; statutory sick leave and maternity and paternity leave are social-insurance-funded and paid by the state fund once the contribution record qualifies.13

There is one further point employers should know. A prolonged illness can itself become a lawful ground for the employer to end the contract: the Labour Code allows unilateral termination where an employee has been treated for a sustained period set by law without recovering, on proper notice.3 That is a last resort, separate from the paid sick-leave entitlement above, and it is handled under the rules for terminating employees in Vietnam within the wider Vietnam labour-law framework.

How does EOR Vietnam administer SI-funded sick pay?

As the legal employer of record in Vietnam, EOR Vietnam carries the whole sick-leave obligation for your hire. We register and maintain the employee's social-insurance record so the entitlement is in place, collect the medical certificate when an employee is unfit for work, file the sickness-benefit claim with the provincial social-security office, and reconcile the 75% benefit paid by the fund — while holding the job open for the employee's return.1

Because the benefit is paid by the social-insurance fund rather than by you, sick leave does not add a salary cost on top of your employment bill — the ordinary social-insurance contributions already fund it.2 Our own fee does not move with any of this: it is a flat US$149 per employee per month for a Vietnamese national, the same regardless of salary, role, location or headcount, with no setup, onboarding, offboarding, contract or payslip fees (as of October 2026). Foreign nationals who need a Vietnamese work permit are quoted separately. A refundable security deposit equal to two months of the employee's employment cost — gross salary plus statutory employer contributions — is held for the engagement and returned at the end, less any unpaid amounts. To see where contributions sit in the total, use the EOR Vietnam cost breakdown, or read what an EOR in Vietnam is.