Insights

EOR Pricing in Vietnam 2026: Fees, Caps and Full Costs

By Nguyễn Quốc Trung — Deputy General Director · Updated 2026-09-13

EOR pricing in Vietnam has two layers, and only one of them is the provider's price. The first layer is the provider's service fee. The second is the statutory cost of employing the person, which is fixed by Vietnamese law and identical whichever provider you choose. Most published EOR pricing comparisons quote only the first layer, which is why a quote of "USD 199 per employee per month" and a quote of "8% of gross" can look like different products when they are not.

Nhan Kiet's EOR pricing is 8% of gross salary per person per month, with a floor of VND 2,600,000 (about USD 99) and a cap of VND 5,200,000 (about USD 199). There is no deposit, no onboarding fee, no offboarding fee, no entity set-up or maintenance cost, and no currency conversion fee. On top of that sit the statutory employer contributions — 23.5% of the contribution base for a Vietnamese national, 22.5% for a foreign national — and 8% VAT on the whole invoice. This article takes every one of those lines apart, with worked figures at five salary levels, so you can build the number yourself instead of asking for a quote and hoping.

All figures are current as of September 2026 and apply to pay periods from 1 July 2026, when the contribution caps changed.

How is EOR pricing structured in Vietnam?

Three pricing models are used in this market, and the difference between them matters far more at some salary levels than others.

• Flat fee per employee per month. The provider charges the same amount whether the employee earns 10 million or 100 million VND. Common among global platforms, usually quoted in US dollars, typically somewhere between USD 199 and USD 699 depending on the provider and the scope bundled in. Predictable, and expensive for junior roles.
• Percentage of gross salary. The fee moves with the salary. Cheap for junior roles, and without a ceiling it becomes punishing for senior ones — a 10% fee on a 100 million VND salary is 10 million VND a month for administering one person, which is not ten times the work of administering someone on 10 million.
• Percentage with a floor and a cap. The fee is a percentage, but never falls below a stated minimum and never rises above a stated maximum. This is the model Nhan Kiet uses. The floor covers the fixed administrative cost that exists for every headcount regardless of pay; the cap stops the percentage running away on senior salaries.

When you compare EOR pricing across providers, the first question is not "how much" but "which of these three, and where do the boundaries sit". A flat USD 199 and an 8% fee with a VND 5,200,000 cap converge at the top of the salary range and diverge sharply at the bottom.

What exactly is Nhan Kiet's EOR pricing?

• Service fee: 8% of gross salary, per person, per month.
• Floor: VND 2,600,000 per person per month (about USD 99). Below this the fee does not go, however low the salary.
• Cap: VND 5,200,000 per person per month (about USD 199). Above this the fee does not go, however high the salary.
• No deposit. Some providers hold a deposit equal to one or two months of payroll. Nhan Kiet does not.
• No onboarding fee and no offboarding fee.
• No entity set-up or maintenance cost, because the entity already exists.
• No currency conversion fee.
• No separate software charge. Every client gets an account on Nhan Kiet's management platform at no extra cost.
• Prices are quoted in Vietnamese dong. The US dollar figures are an indicative conversion, rounded to whole dollars.
• Foreign nationals and work permits are quoted separately, for reasons set out further down.

The 8% is calculated on the whole gross salary, with no exclusion for the portion above the social insurance cap. This matters when you compare against providers who quote a percentage of a narrower base.

What are the lines on a Vietnam EOR invoice?

A monthly EOR invoice from Nhan Kiet has three lines, plus VAT:

• Gross salary, exactly as agreed between you and the employee. This is pass-through; the EOR does not mark it up.
• Employer-side statutory contributions. Compulsory social insurance, health insurance, occupational accident and disease insurance, unemployment insurance, and the trade-union levy. Also pass-through, at the rates the law sets.
• The service fee, as above.
• VAT at 8%, charged on the total of all three.

VAT charged on the whole invoice rather than on the service fee alone is the single most common misunderstanding in Vietnam EOR pricing.

Notice what is not on the invoice: the employee's own contributions and personal income tax are withheld from the gross salary, not added to it. They change what the employee takes home, not what you pay.

How much are the statutory employer contributions?

For a Vietnamese national, the employer pays 21.5% of the contribution base in compulsory insurance, plus a 2% trade-union levy — 23.5% in total:

• Social insurance: 17%
• Occupational accident and disease insurance: 0.5%
• Health insurance: 3%
• Unemployment insurance: 1%
• Trade-union fund levy: 2%, compulsory under the Trade Union Law 2024 (No. 50/2024/QH15) even where no workplace union exists

For a foreign national, unemployment insurance does not apply, so the employer figure is 22.5%.

The employee's own side is 10.5% for a Vietnamese national (social 8%, health 1.5%, unemployment 1%) and 9.5% for a foreign national. Union membership dues of 0.5% apply only to actual union members and are capped at VND 253,000 a month under Decision 61/QD-TLD.

Which salary cap applies to which contribution?

This is where most EOR pricing estimates go wrong, including several of the online calculators.

• The social- and health-insurance cap is VND 50,600,000 per month from 1 July 2026 under Decree 161/2026/ND-CP — twenty times the reference level of VND 2,530,000. It was VND 46,800,000 before that date. The occupational-accident contribution and the 2% union levy share this same base, so they inherit the same cap.
• The unemployment-insurance cap is different, and it follows the regional minimum wage rather than the reference level: Region I VND 106,200,000, Region II VND 94,600,000, Region III VND 82,800,000, Region IV VND 74,000,000 per month.

Two different caps on two different bases. Any pricing model that multiplies the salary by a flat 21.5% overstates the real cost at senior salaries — by 89% at a gross of 100 million VND, where the true employer insurance cost is VND 11,373,000 rather than VND 21,500,000. If a provider's quote for a senior hire looks high, this is usually why.

The contractual salary must in any case be at least the regional minimum wage under Decree 293/2025/ND-CP, effective 1 January 2026: Region I VND 5,310,000, Region II VND 4,730,000, Region III VND 4,140,000, Region IV VND 3,700,000 per month.

What does an EOR actually cost, at five salary levels?

Figures below are for a Vietnamese national in Region I, on pay periods from 1 July 2026, with the 8% VAT included. Every line is arithmetic you can reproduce from the rates above.

At a gross salary of VND 100,000,000, the all-in monthly EOR invoice is VND 126,991,800 — 27.0% on top of gross, against 61.5% at a gross salary of VND 10,000,000. The breakdown of each row follows.

Gross salary VND 10,000,000

• Statutory employer contributions, 23.5%: VND 2,350,000
• Service fee: 8% would be VND 800,000, so the floor applies: VND 2,600,000
• Subtotal: VND 14,950,000
• VAT at 8%: VND 1,196,000
• Total monthly invoice: VND 16,146,000 — about 61.5% on top of gross

Gross salary VND 20,000,000

• Statutory employer contributions, 23.5%: VND 4,700,000
• Service fee: 8% would be VND 1,600,000, so the floor still applies: VND 2,600,000
• Subtotal: VND 27,300,000
• VAT at 8%: VND 2,184,000
• Total monthly invoice: VND 29,484,000 — about 47.4% on top of gross

Gross salary VND 30,000,000

• Statutory employer contributions, 23.5%: VND 7,050,000
• Service fee: 8% would be VND 2,400,000, so the floor applies: VND 2,600,000
• Subtotal: VND 39,650,000
• VAT at 8%: VND 3,172,000
• Total monthly invoice: VND 42,822,000 — about 42.7% on top of gross

Gross salary VND 50,000,000

• Statutory employer contributions, 23.5%: VND 11,750,000
• Service fee: 8% = VND 4,000,000, between the floor and the cap
• Subtotal: VND 65,750,000
• VAT at 8%: VND 5,260,000
• Total monthly invoice: VND 71,010,000 — about 42.0% on top of gross

Gross salary VND 100,000,000

• Statutory employer contributions: VND 12,385,000, not VND 23,500,000, because both caps now bite. Social, occupational-accident and health run on the capped base of VND 50,600,000 (20.5% = VND 10,373,000); unemployment insurance runs on the full VND 100,000,000 at 1% (VND 1,000,000), since Region I's separate cap of VND 106,200,000 has not been reached; the union levy runs on the capped base (2% = VND 1,012,000).
• Service fee: 8% would be VND 8,000,000, so the cap applies: VND 5,200,000
• Subtotal: VND 117,585,000
• VAT at 8%: VND 9,406,800
• Total monthly invoice: VND 126,991,800 — about 27.0% on top of gross

Why does the all-in rate fall as salary rises?

Because both the statutory contributions and the service fee stop growing, while the salary keeps growing.

The all-in uplift over gross salary falls across the five salary levels above — 61.5%, 47.4%, 42.7%, 42.0% and 27.0% as gross rises from 10 to 100 million VND. A senior hire in Vietnam is cheaper per dollar of salary than a junior one, which is the opposite of the intuition most finance teams bring from other markets.

Two separate mechanisms produce that curve, and they bite at different points. The service-fee floor is what makes junior roles proportionally expensive; it is a fixed administrative cost spread over a small salary. The statutory caps are what makes senior roles proportionally cheap; they stop the 23.5% at a base of VND 50,600,000. In the middle of the range — roughly the band where a percentage fee has overtaken the floor but the caps have not yet arrived — the all-in rate is close to flat.

If you are budgeting a team rather than a person, model each salary band separately. A blended average across a team of five juniors and one senior will mislead you in both directions.

Is an EOR cheaper than setting up your own entity in Vietnam?

For a small team or an uncertain timeline, an EOR usually costs less than a legal entity, because the entity carries fixed costs that exist whether you employ one person or fifty. Setting one up typically takes 2 to 6 months: an investment registration certificate, enterprise registration, a company seal, a bank account, tax registration and social insurance registration, and then a registered business location, bookkeeping, tax filings and payroll administration for as long as it exists, plus closing costs if you leave.

An EOR carries none of those fixed costs. The service fee is charged per person, so it grows with headcount, while an entity spreads its fixed costs across more people as the team grows. The balance therefore shifts as headcount rises, and where it tips depends on what your own entity would cost. To find that point for your case, build both totals with the same method set out in the comparison section above: the statutory employer contributions are identical either way, so the real difference is the service fee against the entity's fixed running costs.
## How is VAT applied to EOR pricing in Vietnam?

VAT of 8% applies to the whole invoice — gross salary, statutory contributions and service fee together — not to the service fee alone.

The reason is structural, not a billing choice. Under a labour sub-leasing arrangement, Nhan Kiet is the legal employer of the worker. The salary is therefore Nhan Kiet's own wage cost, and the entire contract value is service revenue. There is no "payment on behalf of the client" to carve out.

This is worth a moment's attention, because it is where EOR pricing and payroll-outsourcing pricing genuinely differ. Under payroll outsourcing, your own entity remains the employer, the salary is paid on your behalf, and VAT applies only to the service fee. Under EOR it cannot work that way, because there is no entity of yours for the salary to belong to.

The practical consequence: at a gross of 20 million VND, VAT on the service fee alone would be VND 208,000. VAT on the whole invoice is VND 2,184,000. A provider who quotes you the first number and invoices the second has not given you a usable budget.

The 8% rate itself is a reduced rate under Resolution 204/2025/QH15, implemented by Decree 174/2025/ND-CP, in force until 31 December 2026. Unless it is extended again, the rate reverts to 10% from 1 January 2027 — worth building into any budget that runs past this year.

What is not included in EOR pricing?

Pass-through items that are real costs to you, but are not the provider's fee and should not be presented as such:

• The employee's gross salary itself, obviously, but also anything contractual on top of it: allowances, bonuses, commission.
• The 13th-month salary. This is customary in Vietnam rather than statutory, and it is normally paid before Tết. It is not required by law, but if your offer follows local practice, budget for it — it is an extra month of gross plus the statutory contributions on it.
• Overtime premiums. Article 98 of the Labour Code 2019 sets 150% of the normal hourly rate for overtime on a working day, 200% on a weekly rest day and 300% on a public holiday or paid leave day, with a further 30% premium for night work.
• Work permits and visas for foreign nationals.
• Statutory settlement on termination, covered below.

Which hidden costs should you ask about?

A price is only comparable if the boundaries are comparable. These are the questions that change the number after you have signed:

• Is there a deposit? One or two months of payroll held as security is common. It is not a cost, but it is working capital you do not have.
• Is there an onboarding or offboarding fee per employee? Per-head fees on both ends can exceed the monthly fee for short engagements.
• Is there a currency conversion margin? An FX spread of 2% on a payroll invoice is frequently larger than the difference between two providers' headline fees.
• Is there a separate charge for the platform? Some providers bundle it, some bill it per seat.
• Does the percentage apply to gross salary or to a narrower base? A fee "on base salary" excluding allowances is a smaller fee than the same percentage on gross.
• Is there a minimum headcount or a minimum contract term?
• What happens when you terminate — is there a release fee, a buy-out fee, or a conversion fee if you hire the person into your own entity later?
• Is VAT quoted on the service fee or on the whole invoice? See the section above; this one can be several million dong a month per person.

How do you compare EOR pricing between providers?

Build the same total for each provider, in the same currency, at the same salary. Concretely:

• Take one real salary you expect to pay, not an average.
• Add the statutory employer contributions at the rates set out above. These are identical for every provider, because they are set by law. If two quotes differ here, one of them has the caps wrong.
• Add the provider's service fee as it applies at that salary — checking whether a floor or a cap changes it.
• Add VAT on the correct base.
• Add any deposit as a working-capital line, and any onboarding or offboarding fee amortised over the expected engagement length.
• Repeat at a second salary, far from the first. This is what exposes floors and caps.

A provider who cannot tell you which of the two contribution caps applies to which contribution is not doing the compliance work you are buying. That question is a better due-diligence test than the price itself. There is a fuller version of it in our due-diligence checklist for choosing an EOR in Vietnam.

What does it cost to end an employment through an EOR?

Nhan Kiet charges no offboarding fee and no termination fee. What remains are the statutory amounts owed to the employee, passed through at cost:

• Pay for untaken annual leave, under Article 113 of the Labour Code 2019.
• Full settlement of wages and outstanding amounts within 14 working days, under Article 48.
• Severance allowance where it applies, under Article 46.
• Closing the employee's social insurance book.

For a Vietnamese employee, severance allowance usually comes to nothing, because every year already covered by unemployment insurance — compulsory since 2009 — is deducted from the calculation. For a foreign national the opposite applies: foreign nationals are outside the unemployment insurance scheme, so there is nothing to deduct, and severance of half a month per year of service should be budgeted from the start.

Notice periods are set by contract type: at least 45 days for an indefinite-term contract, 30 days for a 12 to 36 month contract, and 3 working days for a contract under 12 months. Those days are paid, and they belong in any exit budget.

One more pricing consequence worth knowing: an unlawful termination is expensive. Article 41 of the Labour Code 2019 requires the employer to reinstate the employee, pay wages and contributions for the days they were not allowed to work, and pay at least a further two months' salary. A responsible EOR will refuse to run a termination without a valid ground and correct notice, precisely because it carries that liability as the named employer.

How is EOR priced for foreign nationals?

Foreign nationals are quoted separately, and there are three reasons that is not a way of hiding a surcharge:

• The contribution rate is different. No unemployment insurance means 22.5% rather than 23.5% on the employer side.
• Severance behaves differently, as set out above — there is no unemployment-insurance period to deduct.
• The work permit is not an EOR deliverable in the way global platforms imply. Under Decree 219/2025/ND-CP, in force since 7 August 2025, a work permit is granted by the provincial People's Committee to a named employer with a head office, branch, representative office or business location in the province where the person will actually work (Article 4), and that same employer files the written justification of need (Article 18). Nhan Kiet runs the procedure end to end, but the permit is issued against the employer named on the contract. Any provider promising to "sponsor" a permit without being that named employer is describing something the decree does not allow.

Which currency is EOR priced in?

Prices are quoted and invoiced in Vietnamese dong. The US dollar equivalents on this page are indicative conversions, rounded.

Payment in foreign currency by bank transfer is available, and it is lawful here for a specific reason: EOR is supplied to a foreign company that is a non-resident, and Article 4(16)(b) of Circular 32/2013/TT-NHNN, as supplemented by Circular 03/2019/TT-NHNN, provides an exception to the general prohibition in Article 22 of the Ordinance on Foreign Exchange. That exception is about who the customer is, not about how the contract is labelled.

Quoting in dong and settling in dollars means the exchange-rate movement sits with whoever converts. Ask any provider quoting you a flat dollar figure how the dong amounts behind it are fixed, and when.

What happens to pricing when you set up your own entity later?

Nothing is charged for the move — no conversion fee, no buy-out fee, no release fee.

Mechanically, the employment contract with Nhan Kiet ends, normally by mutual agreement under Article 34(3) of the Labour Code 2019, and your new entity signs a fresh contract, with the social insurance transfer timed so nobody has a gap in cover. The only money involved is the statutory settlement any termination triggers, passed through at cost. For foreign nationals, budget for a new work permit in your entity's name as well: a permit does not carry over to a different employer.

From that point, the ongoing cost stops being an EOR fee and becomes the cost of running the back office yourself — or of outsourcing payroll while keeping the entity, which is a different and considerably smaller line.

Does the legal route affect the price?

The legal route affects what the price can lawfully cover, which matters more than the headline number.

Vietnam has no dedicated legal framework for EOR. The arrangement has to sit inside one of two existing routes, and they are not interchangeable:

• Labour sub-leasing, under Articles 52 to 57 of the Labour Code 2019 and Decree 145/2020/ND-CP. The client directs the work. It requires a licence and a VND 2 billion deposit from the provider, is limited to the 20 job categories in Appendix II, and is capped at 12 months per worker under Article 53.
• A service contract under the Commercial Law. The provider assigns, manages and supervises the staff; the client gives professional direction. No time limit, and no job-category list.

The client can be penalised directly if the structure is wrong — fines up to VND 100 million for organisations under Article 19(2) of Decree 283/2026/ND-CP, which replaced Decree 12/2022/ND-CP from 10 September 2026. A quote that does not establish which route applies before signing is quoting you a price for an arrangement nobody has checked. Nhan Kiet holds labour sub-leasing licence No. 15/2019/SHCM and employment services licence No. 22139/2023/45/SLĐTBXH-VLATLĐ, both issued in Ho Chi Minh City.

A short checklist before you sign

• You have a total, not a fee: gross plus statutory plus service fee plus VAT, at a real salary.
• You know whether a floor or a cap changes that fee at your salary levels.
• You know which VAT base the provider will invoice on.
• You know the deposit, if any, and the onboarding, offboarding and conversion fees, if any.
• You know which legal route the engagement sits in, and that the provider holds the licence that route requires.
• You have checked the provider against the two contribution caps — it is the fastest way to tell whether the compliance work is real.

Nhan Kiet has run payroll and employment in Vietnam since April 2009, employs more than 40,000 workers across 34 provinces for over 500 client companies, and publishes its EOR price rather than quoting on request. Staff can start within 5 to 7 working days, against the 2 to 6 months a legal entity normally takes.

You can model the employer-side figures yourself, at any salary, with our free Vietnam salary calculator — it applies both contribution caps correctly, which most online calculators do not. The full service description, including the legal routes and thirty questions answered, is on the EOR Vietnam page.

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