The trade union fee in Vietnam

Who pays the trade union fee in Vietnam?

Every employer in Vietnam pays a 2% trade-union fee on the salary fund it uses as the basis for compulsory social insurance — whether or not the workplace has set up its own grassroots union. The charge is a statutory employer levy, not a deduction from wages, and it is owed from the moment an employer has staff.1

Two different payments are often confused under the word "union". The 2% is the employer fee — in Vietnamese kinh phí công đoàn — and it is compulsory for the business. Separately, an employee who chooses to join the union pays membership dues — đoàn phí — of about 0.5% of salary. Dues are voluntary, are never taken from a non-member's pay, and are a far smaller figure. The table below sets the two apart, and the sections after it take each in turn.1

The 2% employer fee (kinh phí công đoàn)

The employer fee is 2% of the salary fund on which the business pays compulsory social insurance, remitted to the trade-union system through the Vietnam General Confederation of Labour. It is owed by any employer with employees, regardless of whether a grassroots union exists in the enterprise, and it applies regardless of employee nationality. Because it is a cost of employment rather than a payroll deduction, it never reduces an employee's take-home pay.1

The rate and base are long-standing: the fee was detailed in Decree 191/2013/ND-CP and carried forward unchanged into Article 29 of the Trade Union Law 50/2024/QH15. The fee shares the base used for social insurance, which means it is capped the same way. Social-insurance salary is capped at ₫50,600,000 a month — 20 times the ₫2,530,000 statutory base salary set by Decree 161/2026/ND-CP from 1 July 2026 — so the 2% fee is charged on at most ₫50,600,000 per employee, giving a per-head ceiling of ₫1,012,000 a month (as of October 2026).13

A worked example makes the cap visible. The fee tracks gross salary up to the ceiling and then stops rising, so a higher-paid employee does not generate an uncapped fee.

Employee union dues (đoàn phí) — about 0.5%, members only

Union membership dues are a different payment entirely, and they are paid only by employees who choose to join the grassroots union. They are never deducted from a non-member's pay, and so they do not appear in a standard net-pay calculation. For enterprise-sector members — those in private businesses, foreign-invested enterprises and foreign organisations — the dues rate was cut from 1% to 0.5% of the social-insurance salary from 1 July 2025 under VGCL Decision 61/QĐ-TLĐ.12

Dues are also capped: at 10% of the statutory base salary, which works out to about ₫253,000 a month from 1 July 2026 (10% of the ₫2,530,000 base salary under Decree 161/2026/ND-CP). So even at the ceiling the dues a member pays stay modest, and they remain entirely voluntary. If you want the broader contribution picture an employee faces, see social insurance in Vietnam.23

Most of both pots stays close to the worker. Under current VGCL rules the grassroots union keeps 75% of the 2% employer fee (25% goes to higher-level unions) and 60% of members' dues (40% upward), spending its share on members — hardship and sickness support, Tết gifts, and cultural and sporting activities. The Trade Union Law 2024 (Article 31) leaves the exact split to the VGCL, so these administrative percentages can change.14

What the Trade Union Law 50/2024 changed

The Trade Union Law 50/2024/QH15 was passed on 27 November 2024 and took effect on 1 July 2025, replacing the 2012 Trade Union Law. It kept the 2% employer fee as it was, but it reshaped several duties and rights around the union. The headline changes matter even to employers that have never had an in-house union.16

First, the law restates that an employer must recognise, respect and facilitate — and must not obstruct — employees' lawful right to form, join and take part in a union, and must coordinate with the union and pay the statutory funding. These duties apply whether or not a grassroots union has been set up (Articles 25, 5 and 10). It also bars an employer from dismissing, disciplining, under-paying or otherwise penalising an employee for union activity, or interfering with the union to weaken it (Article 10).1

Second, where a union does exist, part-time union officers get paid release time: a grassroots-union chair or vice-chair is entitled to at least 24 paid working hours a month for union duties, and other executive-committee members and union-group heads to at least 12 hours — paid by the employer, with more by agreement (Article 27). Third, the law provides, at statute level, for the 2% fee to be exempted, reduced or suspended for employers in genuine difficulty — exemption in dissolution or bankruptcy, reduction for economic hardship, and suspension of up to 12 months for a business that halts operations, with catch-up payment afterwards (Article 30). The exact qualifying conditions are set by Government and VGCL rules, so confirm the current conditions before relying on any relief.1

Do foreign-owned companies and foreign employees pay it?

Yes — a foreign-owned company in Vietnam pays the 2% fee exactly as a domestic one does. The fee attaches to the employer because it has employees on a Vietnamese payroll, not to the ownership of the business, so foreign-invested enterprises and foreign organisations are squarely within it. The fee is also charged on the social-insurance salary of foreign employees, since it rests on the same salary fund that feeds compulsory social insurance.1

For foreign employees themselves, the 2024 law brought a genuinely new right. Since 1 July 2025, a foreign national on a Vietnamese labour contract of 12 months or more may join and take part in their workplace's grassroots union (Article 5) — the first time foreign workers have been allowed to do so. Foreign members cannot set up a union or hold a union leadership position; those roles remain for Vietnamese citizens. A foreign employee who joins pays the same voluntary member dues as anyone else, but the employer's 2% fee is owed on the foreign employee's salary either way. For the wider contribution rules that apply to expatriates, see social insurance for foreign employees.16

Where the 2% sits in your total employer cost

The trade-union fee is one of four statutory lines that make up an employer's on-cost in Vietnam. For a Vietnamese national the employer pays about 23.5% of gross salary in total: 17.5% social insurance, 3% health insurance, 1% unemployment insurance and the 2% union fee. The 2% is the line most often left out of the "21.5%" figure quoted elsewhere — add it back and you reach the true 23.5%. For a foreign employee there is no unemployment insurance, so the all-in on-cost is about 22.5%.51

How EOR Vietnam remits the union fee for you

When EOR Vietnam is the legal employer, the 2% trade-union fee is ours to calculate, declare and remit. We pay it to the provincial Labour Federation on the social-insurance salary fund for your team each month, on the same rhythm as the social-insurance contributions, so there is nothing for you to register or file. Where an employee chooses to join a union and pay dues, we handle that deduction too, and the employer fee is owed on their salary whether they join or not.1

The fee itself is a statutory cost passed through at cost — the actual 2% of the capped salary fund, no mark-up. Our service fee is separate and flat: US$149 per employee per month for a Vietnamese national, whatever the salary, with no setup, onboarding, offboarding, contract or payslip fees and no hidden fees. A foreign national who needs a work permit is quoted separately. We also hold a refundable security deposit equal to two months of the employee's employment cost — gross salary plus statutory employer contributions, the 2% fee among them — returned at the end of the engagement less any unpaid amounts (as of October 2026). You can see how the pieces add up in the EOR Vietnam cost breakdown, and the filing deadlines in the HR compliance calendar.