The highest bonus planned by a enterprise for an employee during the upcoming Lunar New Year holiday (Tet) is VND482 million (US$22,567), according to the Ministry of Labor, Invalids and Social Affairs.

The biggest amount of money is registered by a firm in the southern province of Binh Duong and much lower than VND709 million for last Tet, Tong Van Lai, deputy head of the Labor and Salary Department under the ministry, told a news briefing in Hanoi on January 22.

Lai added that the highest bonus for the New Year holiday was VND583 million given by a company in HCMC.

Data of the department indicated that the average bonus is VND1.5 million for the New Year holiday and one-month salary, or VND5 million, for Tet, which falls on February 19.

Last year, the average salary of local laborers was VND5.1 million per month and total income was VND5.3 million per month, rising 5-6% against 2013.

“The salary increased but it is not much higher than in the previous year,” Lai said.

The average monthly salary rose by 8% to VND6.7 million for employees of State enterprises, 2% to VND4.48 million for employees of private firms, and 8% to VND4.79 million at FDI companies.

Employees in the agro-aqua-forestry sector got a monthly wage of VND4.4 million last year, the same as in 2013, and workers in the construction industry and trading service sectors received VND5.2 million, up 8%, and VND5.3 million respectively.

However, Lai said figures of the department were just for reference as they were collected from only 13,000 out of 400,000 firms active in the country. A mere 0.4% of the total enterprises in HCMC have registered for Tet bonuses.

Deputy Minister of Labor, Invalids and Social Affairs Pham Minh Huan said the lowest Tet bonus is recorded at VND30,000 and around 20% of enterprises have not had plans to offer Tet bonuses for their employees.