New salary rates and bonus structure for state employees will be discussed at the session. The current region-based minimum wage of state employees only meets 40% of their needs. The wage gap between state employees is wide and wage management is not transparent.

Under the salary reform project, a new salary system will be applied that’s based a higher minimum wage.

Instead of the 7 current salary levels, the new system will have only 5 levels: 2 for state employees and 3 for the armed forces. Nguyen Quang Dung is Director of the Salary Department of the Ministry of Home Affairs: “Under the new project, salaries of state employees will increase dramatically. But there will be initiatives to encourage the development of prioritized sectors.”

Mr. Tran Quoc Toan, member of the Central Theoretical Council, said the new policy should clarify the purposes of restructuring salary and allowance system and ensure that the salary is paid in accordance with the performance of state employees: “Based on the classification of state employees, we will design appropriate salary levels and allowances.”

Ensuring efficiency

Bui Sy Loi, Deputy Head of the National Assembly’s Committee for Social Affairs, said salary reform should be supported by capacity building and greater efficiency of state agencies: “We should encourage the private sector’s greater involvement in public services such as education and health care to reduce the state payroll. We need to streamline state apparatuses, improve their efficiency and assign the right people to jobs.”