Part 1 | A Quiet Shift Beneath Vietnam’s Salary Market

Where is Vietnam’s salary market heading today?
And how should companies interpret these changes?

Based on the findings of our newly released “Vietnam Salary Survey Report 2025 – Full Edition”, ICONIC will be sharing a special three-part newsletter series over the next three Thursdays, exploring “The Current Salary Landscape” and “How to Read Market Data Effectively.”

In this first issue, we take a closer look at what our latest report reveals — the quiet but significant shifts taking place within Vietnam’s salary market.
This year, we’ve observed a wide variety of movements across industries, functions, and job levels. Here, we’ll highlight several of the most notable trends from the 2025 survey.

Salary Growth Among GM and Director Levels Observed Across All Industries

Our 2025 survey identified a common upward trend in salaries for General Manager and Director positions across all sectors.
Particularly among Vietnamese Director-level roles, salary increases were evident across both Japanese and other foreign-invested companies, reflecting the continued localization of corporate management and the rising market value of executives capable of driving business strategy.

As a result, the pay gap between GM-level and lower job tiers has widened.
This growing disparity may not only require routine adjustments to salary tables, but could also prompt companies to redesign their internal pay curves from a more strategic perspective.

Manufacturing Sector: Diverging Pressures Between North and South

Below the GM level, regional differences became more pronounced.
In manufacturing, northern Vietnam saw strong upward pressure on worker salaries, driven by factory expansions and new investments — particularly from Asian foreign manufacturers — resulting in ongoing challenges in workforce recruitment and retention.

In contrast, southern Vietnam showed moderate wage growth for workers, but a clear rise in salaries for team leaders, supervisors, and mid-level managers closer to frontline operations, where demand has intensified.

Non-Manufacturing Sectors: Key Industry Trends

In non-manufacturing sectors, structural changes within each industry were directly reflected in salary movements.

Trading companies experienced strong upward pressure on pay for both staff–senior staff and GM levels.
In recent years, more firms have been expanding or newly establishing their local sales and distribution functions in Vietnam, leading to higher demand for operational roles in sales and sales engineer, as well as intensified competition for strategic GM-level talent.

In the construction industry, growing demand from Japan for CAD/BIM outsourcing — fueled by labor shortages and continued domestic construction needs — led to notable salary increases for CAD/BIM operator roles.
Similarly, in CAD centers, team leader and manager positions overseeing design teams also experienced upward pressure, reflecting the rising value of “hands-on leaders” who combine technical expertise with management capability.

Meanwhile, the IT sector showed signs of stabilization.
With the rapid spread of generative AI, more companies began restructuring their development organizations and selectively curbing new engineer hiring.
This led to a slowdown in job postings and salary increases for engineering roles.
While competition for top talent remains, hiring practices have become more selective, resulting in a relatively calm overall market trend.

In contrast, the logistics sector showed salary increases across nearly all job levels.
Driven by the reconfiguration of global supply chains, pay levels rose widely — from warehouse and shipping roles to trade operations and management positions.

The Growing Importance of “Reading the Market”

Even within a single country, Vietnam’s salary market behaves differently depending on the region, industry, function, and job level you focus on.

What employers and HR leaders in Vietnam now need is not just to follow broad market averages, but to compare their own pay positioning against the “relevant market”—and interpret those results through the lens of their company’s compensation strategy.

Building and maintaining a clear internal pay philosophy while developing the ability to “read the market through your own lens” is becoming more crucial than ever.

To gain a more comprehensive and data-driven understanding of these shifts, refer to the “Vietnam Salary Survey Report 2025 – Full Edition,” which provides the latest industry-, function-, and job-level-specific data.