Most employees unaware of how much they are paid: survey

The study by recruitment firms Talentnet and Mercer found 80% of workers earning more than the average salary think they are paid less than or the same as market rates.

The poll of 483,000 employees across Vietnam also found that of those who are paid market rates, 64% think they are underpaid.

Since because of this misconception people are likely to look for other job opportunities, human resources need to communicate to workers how they are paid since transparency plays an important role in retaining talent, the authors of the study said.

The survey also found that incomes at Vietnamese companies are 22% lower than at multinationals.

It added that both multinational companies and local firms are expected to increase workers’ salary by 7.1% in 2023.

The top three sectors in terms of salary increase are forecast to be high-tech (up 8.88%), insurance (8.2%), and life sciences (7.6%).

"This clearly reflects the needs of Vietnam's economy, particularly in the post-pandemic era when consumers and businesses' concerns are oriented toward healthcare and technology applications."

Oil and mining (up 3.6%), manufacturing (up 6.1%) and retail (up 6.2%) will likely have the lowest pay growth.

Manufacturing and retail have a high employee turnover rate.