Social insurance in Vietnam (2026)

What is social insurance in Vietnam?

Social insurance in Vietnam (bảo hiểm xã hội, or BHXH) is a compulsory, state-run system of three schemes an employer registers and pays for every employee: social insurance itself, health insurance and unemployment insurance — together abbreviated SHUI. For a Vietnamese national the three come to about 21.5% of the contribution salary from the employer and 10.5% from the employee, charged only up to a monthly ceiling.23

"Social insurance" is used two ways: narrowly for the first scheme — the pension, sickness and maternity fund — and broadly for the whole compulsory package of all three. This page uses the broad sense. The three schemes are separate from the 2% trade-union fee covered on the trade-union fee page; together with that fee they make up the employer's full statutory on-cost, set out on the Vietnam payroll and employer-costs page.3

What is the social insurance rate in Vietnam in 2026?

The three compulsory insurance funds take 21.5% of the contribution salary from the employer and 10.5% from the employee, split between the schemes as the table below shows.3

A fourth line, the 2% trade-union fee, is paid by the employer alone on the social-insurance salary base. It is not an insurance scheme, but adding this statutory on-cost takes the employer's full burden to about 23.5%: figures quoting 21.5% count the three insurances alone, and 23.5% adds the union fee.35

What does social insurance pay for?

The contributions are not a tax; they fund defined benefits. The social-insurance fund (the 17.5% / 8% scheme) pays retirement and survivor pensions plus the short-term benefits that matter most day to day — sickness, maternity and paternity, and occupational-accident cover — all paid by the fund, not the employer, once the contribution record qualifies.2

Statutory sick pay is paid by the fund at 75% of the contribution salary (30 to 60 days a year by length of contribution),2 and maternity leave at 100% of the average social-insurance salary for six months.2 For how those work in practice, see sick leave in Vietnam and maternity and paternity leave in Vietnam.

Inside the employer's 17.5% social-insurance rate sit three parts: 14% for retirement and survivorship, 3% for sickness and maternity, and 0.5% for occupational accidents and disease. That last 0.5% element can fall to 0.3% for an employer that meets occupational-safety standards and has a clean recent accident record — typically for a 36-month period on approval, under Decree 58/2020/ND-CP.3

How are social insurance contributions capped?

Vietnam caps the salary on which contributions are charged, so cost does not rise without limit on high earners. Social and health insurance are charged on salary up to ₫50,600,000 a month — 20 times the ₫2,530,000 statutory base salary. Unemployment insurance uses a higher, region-based ceiling, and salary above either cap is not charged for that fund.1

Unemployment insurance is capped at 20 times the regional minimum wage — ₫106,200,000 a month in Region I for 2026 (20 × ₫5,310,000 under Decree 293/2025/ND-CP). Contributions must also be based on at least the regional minimum wage where the employer operates, not where the employee lives. Vietnam no longer mandates the old 7% premium above the minimum wage for trained workers; any such premium is now purely contractual.4 See the regional minimum wage for 2026 for which region a city sits in.

What is the base salary and reference level?

The statutory base salary (lương cơ sở) is the figure the social- and health-insurance ceiling is pegged to. It rose to ₫2,530,000 a month on 1 July 2026 under Decree 161/2026/ND-CP; because the ceiling is 20 times it, the SI/HI cap moved to ₫50,600,000 the same day.1

Under the 2024 Social Insurance Law the system also refers to a "reference level" (mức tham chiếu). Until the base salary is formally abolished the reference level equals it — ₫2,530,000 as of October 2026 — so the two are the same figure today and the ceiling is unaffected.2

When is social insurance paid and filed in Vietnam?

Social, health and unemployment insurance are declared and remitted together, monthly, to the provincial social-security office that covers the employer — generally by month-end. The employer withholds the employee's 10.5%, adds its own 21.5%, and reports any change in headcount or salary, including new joiners and leavers, in the same monthly filing.2

Social-insurance filing is one of several recurring payroll obligations, each on its own clock — personal income tax, for example, moved to quarterly declaration from 1 July 2026. For the full set of deadlines, see the Vietnam HR compliance calendar.

Do foreign employees pay social insurance in Vietnam?

Foreign employees with a work permit and a Vietnamese labour contract of 12 months or more join compulsory social and health insurance, but are exempt from unemployment insurance (which covers Vietnamese nationals only). That makes the employee's share about 9.5% (8% + 1.5%) and the employer's insurance about 20.5% (17.5% + 3%) — roughly 30% between them, before the 2% union fee.26

One 2025 change matters here. Decree 219/2025/ND-CP, in force since 7 August 2025, narrowed the social-insurance exemption for intra-corporate transferees, so fewer seconded expatriates keep the exempt status — particularly where the Vietnamese entity bears part of the pay. Do not assume an expatriate is exempt without checking against that decree; employees at or above retirement age, and those covered by a bilateral social-security agreement, can also be exempt.6

The narrowed exemption, the one-time lump-sum claim on leaving Vietnam and the bilateral agreements (such as Korea's) are set out in full on social insurance for foreign employees in Vietnam.

How EOR Vietnam registers and pays your social insurance

When you hire through EOR Vietnam's employer-of-record service, a licensed Vietnamese entity is the legal employer, so we carry the whole social-insurance obligation for you. We register each employee with the provincial social-security office, withhold the employee's 10.5%, pay the employer's 21.5% plus the 2% trade-union fee, file the monthly declarations and keep the contribution record clean so sickness, maternity and pension claims are honoured.25

For a Vietnamese national our service fee for this is a flat US$149 per employee per month — the same whatever the salary, role or headcount — with no setup, onboarding, offboarding, contract or payslip fees and no hidden fees (as of October 2026). The salary, the statutory contributions above and any agreed employment payments are passed through at cost; a foreign national who needs a Vietnamese work permit is quoted separately. A refundable security deposit equal to two months of the employee's employment cost is held for the engagement and returned at the end, less any unpaid amounts. To put real numbers on your own hire, use the EOR Vietnam cost breakdown.