Your first Vietnam hire may be ready before your Finance team has approved the model. The question is no longer only whether EOR is compliant. It is what the employer of record cost looks like per employee, per month, in EUR.
For Dutch and EU companies hiring their first or second employee in Vietnam, the cost case usually comes down to four lines: gross salary, mandatory employer contributions, EOR management fee, and extra provisions such as 13th month bonus or work permit support.
If you are still checking whether the model fits your hiring plan, start with Sunbytes’ employer of record in Vietnam guide before using this article for budget approval.
TL;DR
- EOR cost in Vietnam has four cost lines: gross salary, SHUI employer contributions, provider management fee, and extra provisions such as 13th month bonus or work permit support.
- The largest statutory employer cost is SHUI: employer contributions are 21.5% before contribution caps apply, covering social insurance, health insurance, and unemployment insurance. Vietnam Social Security lists the employer rates as 17.5%, 3%, and 1% respectively.
- Managed EOR fees: you need a quote; do not budget from generic global ranges. Ask whether the fee covers onboarding, payroll, PIT withholding, SHUI administration, contract management, and exit support.
What makes up the employer of record cost in Vietnam
Employer of record cost in Vietnam has four components:
The first is the employee’s gross salary. This is a pass-through employment cost, not the EOR provider’s fee.
The second is SHUI, which stands for social insurance, health insurance, and unemployment insurance. This is the largest fixed statutory employer cost and is paid on top of gross salary.
The third is the EOR management fee. This is the provider’s charge for handling employment administration, payroll, statutory filings, contracts, and ongoing support. For this article, management fee figures are not published because they depend on provider scope, team size, employee seniority, and the support level required. The brief also requires Sunbytes management fees to stay on the quote form, not in the article.
The fourth is additional cost provision. For a first or second Vietnam hire, this often means 13th month bonus provision, work permit support for foreign nationals, exit provisions, and unused annual leave payout on termination.
| Cost line | What it covers | Budget treatment |
|---|---|---|
| Gross salary | Employee salary agreed in the employment package | Monthly pass-through cost |
| SHUI employer contribution | Social insurance, health insurance, unemployment insurance | Monthly statutory cost, capped by legal ceilings |
| EOR management fee | Payroll, contracts, filings, employment administration, support | Monthly provider fee, quote required |
| Additional provisions | 13th month bonus, work permit, severance, unused leave payout | Depends on employee profile and contract terms |
SHUI is the largest fixed statutory cost line
SHUI is the mandatory contribution package for employees in Vietnam. It includes social insurance, health insurance, and unemployment insurance.
For your budget, SHUI matters because it is not a provider preference. It is set by Vietnamese law and administered through Vietnam Social Security. The EOR registers the employee, withholds the employee share, pays the employer share, and remits both sides to the relevant authority.
Vietnam Social Security lists the employer contribution structure as 17.5% for social insurance, 3% for health insurance, and 1% for unemployment insurance. The employee share is 8%, 1.5%, and 1% respectively.
| Fund | Employer rate | Employee rate | Contribution ceiling |
|---|---|---|---|
| Social Insurance, BHXH | 17.5% | 8% | 20× base salary |
| Health Insurance, BHYT | 3% | 1.5% | Linked to salary ceiling rules |
| Unemployment Insurance, BHTN | 1% | 1% | 20× regional minimum wage |
| Total | 21.5% | 10.5% | Capped depending on fund |
How the SHUI ceiling changes your monthly budget
SHUI is capped. This is the line many global EOR pricing pages miss.
For social insurance and health insurance, the salary base is capped by a multiple of the government base salary. The current base salary is VND 2,340,000 per month, and the Government has announced an increase to VND 2,530,000 per month from 1 July 2026 under Decree 161/2026/NĐ-CP.
For unemployment insurance, the ceiling is linked to the regional minimum wage. Decree 293/2025/NĐ-CP sets the regional minimum wage from 1 January 2026. For Region I, which includes major hiring locations such as Ho Chi Minh City urban districts, the monthly minimum wage is VND 5,310,000.
That means your SHUI budget does not always rise at the same pace as salary. For higher-paid workers, part of the employer contribution becomes capped. For lower-salary roles, SHUI may be calculated on the full gross salary.
The payroll mechanics behind registration, withholding, and monthly remittance can be understand more through how EOR handles payroll and SHUI
EOR management fee: what to expect and what to ask
The EOR management fee is the provider-specific part of your budget. It should not be mixed with salary or SHUI.
Most EOR pricing Vietnam discussions use one of two fee structures.
A flat monthly fee gives your Finance team a fixed cost per employee per month. This is easier to forecast for a small Vietnam team because the provider charge does not rise with salary.
A percentage-based fee applies a percentage to the employee’s gross salary. This can work for some teams, but it needs closer review when hiring senior engineers, managers, or specialists.
The fee should be reviewed by scope, not only by headline price. Before comparing EOR quotes, ask whether the monthly fee includes:
- SHUI registration and ongoing administration
- Monthly payroll processing
- PIT withholding and filing support
- Bilingual employment contract handling
- Employee onboarding
- HR document storage
- Exit and offboarding support
- Standard compliance queries
Work permits, background checks, urgent onboarding, complex contract changes, or legal advisory may be billed separately. This is where your first quote can look cheaper than your final monthly cost.
This article gives the cost model and the full EOR pricing breakdown for Vietnam will go deeper into quote.
Questions to ask before comparing EOR quotes
Use this checklist before sending a quote to your Finance Director:
| Question | Why it matters |
|---|---|
| Is SHUI registration included? | Avoids a later administration add-on |
| Is PIT withholding included? | Confirms payroll tax handling is part of the scope |
| Are bilingual contracts included? | Prevents contract setup being charged separately |
| Are work permits included or separate? | Foreign-national hires usually need extra support |
| Is onboarding time stated? | Your start date depends on this |
| Is offboarding included? | Exit cost needs to be visible before the contract starts |
| Are invoices issued in EUR? | Helps Dutch/EU finance teams avoid FX noise |
EOR vs entity setup cost in Vietnam
For most Dutch and EU companies hiring their first or second employee in Vietnam, the practical choice is not EOR vs direct employment. Direct employment only applies if you already have a Vietnamese legal entity.
The real budget decision is usually EOR vs entity setup.
Entity setup can make sense when Vietnam is no longer a test market and you are building a larger local operation. For a first hire, it usually creates a delay before the employment relationship can start. Your costs move from a monthly EOR model to legal setup, registration, accounting, HR administration, payroll operations, and local compliance ownership.
EOR works differently. The EOR becomes the legal employer in Vietnam. You direct the employee’s work. The EOR handles the employment infrastructure underneath it: contract setup, SHUI registration, payroll, PIT handling, and compliant employment administration.
For the broader structure decision, use EOR vs entity setup Vietnam alongside this cost model.
| Cost dimension | EOR | Entity setup | Direct employment through existing entity |
|---|---|---|---|
| One-time setup cost | Low to moderate EOR setup fee | Legal, registration, notary, and accounting setup costs | Low if the entity already exists |
| Setup timeline | Often 2 to 4 weeks | Often 3 to 6 months, depending on entity type and approvals | Immediate if local HR/payroll are ready |
| SHUI employer cost | 21.5% before contribution caps apply | 21.5% before contribution caps apply | 21.5% before contribution caps apply |
| Monthly provider fee | Yes, quote required | No EOR fee, but local HR/accounting cost remains | No EOR fee, but payroll support may still be needed |
| Minimum viable team size | 1 employee | Usually easier to justify at larger team size | No minimum if entity exists |
| Compliance ownership | EOR handles employment administration | Your entity owns compliance | Your entity owns compliance |
| Work permit sponsorship | EOR may support as legal employer | Entity sponsors directly | Entity sponsors directly |
| EUR predictability | Higher if billing is in EUR | Lower if costs are mostly in VND | Depends on local finance setup |
When entity setup starts to make sense
Entity setup becomes easier to justify when Vietnam is a long-term operating base, not a first-hire test.
A useful internal threshold is team scale and commitment period. If you plan to hire one or two people, EOR keeps the setup lighter and the first payroll faster. If you plan to build a larger Vietnam team for several years, entity setup may start to make more sense.
For Finance, the question is not “Which option is always cheaper?” The better question is: “Which model gives us enough control for the stage we are in?”
For a first or second hire, EOR usually gives you the cleaner budget case: fewer setup steps, clearer employment ownership, and a faster path to the first payroll.
Your cost model changes depending on salary, SHUI ceilings, employee nationality, work permit needs, and team size.
Sunbytes can prepare a role-by-role EOR cost breakdown before you commit, so your Finance team sees the fixed statutory lines and the quote-dependent service lines separately.
Get a cost breakdown for your team
Additional costs Dutch and EU companies should budget for
EOR pricing is not only salary plus monthly provider fee. Your first Vietnam hire may also trigger market-practice costs, document costs, and exit provisions.
13th month bonus provision
The 13th month bonus is not a fixed statutory salary obligation under the Labor Code. Article 104 of the Labor Code treats bonus as an amount based on business performance and employee performance, following the employer’s bonus rules.
In practice, many Vietnam employment packages include a Tet or 13th month bonus. For budgeting, the cleanest method is to reserve 1/12 of annual gross salary each month if the employment package includes it.
For a EUR 2,000 gross monthly salary, that provision is about EUR 167 per month.
Work permit cost for foreign nationals
If your Vietnam hire is a foreign national, work permit support can affect both cost and onboarding time.
Decree 219/2025/NĐ-CP is the current government decree on foreign workers in Vietnam, effective from 7 August 2025. The National Public Service Portal lists work permit procedures with processing periods measured in working days and fees that can differ by filing route and locality.
| Cost item | Budget note |
|---|---|
| Government fee | Confirm by locality and filing route |
| Document preparation | May be charged by the EOR or legal support provider |
| Translation / legalization | Depends on employee documents and country of issue |
Severance and exit provisions
Severance is an exit-cost risk, not always a monthly cash cost.
The Labor Code 2019 includes severance allowance rules under Article 46. The practical calculation depends on the employee’s service period, salary base, unemployment insurance participation, and reason for termination.
For an EOR arrangement, ask one question before signing: when an employee exits, what cost sits with the provider, and what cost is passed through to your company?
That answer belongs in the service agreement, not in an email thread after the resignation or termination has already started.
Annual leave payout
Annual leave is usually a productivity and planning cost during employment. It becomes a cash cost if unused leave must be paid out on exit.
For a first Vietnam hire, ask how unused leave is tracked, approved, and paid when the employee leaves. This protects your payroll close-out process and avoids a late adjustment after Finance has already closed the month.
Before comparing quotes, use the guide on how to compare EOR providers in Vietnam to check what should be included and what may be billed separately.
Monthly cost walkthrough for a first Vietnam hire
This example illustrates the employer of record cost, not Sunbytes’ pricing. Assume a Dutch company hires a senior software engineer in Ho Chi Minh City with a gross salary of EUR 2,000 per month.
Using an illustrative conversion rate of EUR 1 ≈ VND 29,146.55, the gross monthly salary is about VND 58.3 million. Because this exceeds the current social insurance salary ceiling but remains below the Region I unemployment insurance ceiling, employer SHUI is estimated at about EUR 350 per month before the 1 July 2026 base-salary increase.
| Cost line | Illustrative amount |
|---|---|
| Gross salary | EUR 2,000 |
| Employer SHUI estimate | About EUR 350 |
| 13th month provision, if included | About EUR 167 |
| EOR management fee | Quote required |
| Estimated monthly cost before EOR management fee | About EUR 2,517 |
How Sunbytes gives Dutch and EU teams cost clarity before hiring
The cost case for EOR is strongest when it separates what is fixed from what needs a provider quote.
SHUI is fixed by law. Salary is agreed with the employee. The management fee depends on the level of support your team needs. Work permits, bonus provisions, and exit handling depend on the employee profile and employment package.
Sunbytes supports Dutch and EU companies hiring in Vietnam through an Accelerate Workforce Solutions model that gives your team a compliant employment foundation before the first payroll runs. The Cybersecurity Solutions layer supports employee-data handling, access control, and GDPR-aware workflows. The Digital Transform Solutions layer matters when the Vietnam hire joins a technical delivery team and needs clear scope, onboarding, and delivery structure from week one.
For EOR, the proof needs to be operational: onboarding in 2 to 4 weeks, payroll on time, and offboarding within 24 hours. The brief also flags Utrecht HQ, ISO 27001, GDPR Article 28 DPA, EUR billing, and NL-VN timezone overlap as proof anchors, with ISO year and EUR billing needing ops confirmation before publish.
For a cost breakdown request, talk to our expert
FAQs
EOR cost in Vietnam includes gross salary, employer SHUI contributions, the EOR provider’s management fee, and additional provisions such as 13th month bonus or work permit support. SHUI is the main statutory employer cost and totals 21.5% before contribution caps apply. Management fees vary by provider, scope, and team size, so they should be quoted for your specific hire.
For the first or second Vietnam hire, EOR is often easier to approve because it avoids the upfront legal and administrative work of entity setup. Entity setup can make sense when Vietnam becomes a long-term operating base with a larger local team. The break point depends on team size, time horizon, control needs, and internal finance capacity.
SHUI includes social insurance, health insurance, and unemployment insurance. Vietnam Social Security lists employer rates of 17.5% for social insurance, 3% for health insurance, and 1% for unemployment insurance. Employee contributions are withheld separately from salary.
The Labor Code does not set a fixed mandatory 13th month salary payment. Bonus treatment depends on the employer’s bonus rules, business results, and employee performance. For budgeting, many employers still reserve 1/12 of annual gross salary each month when the employment package includes a 13th month or Tet bonus.
The main extra cost is work permit support. Budget separately for government filing fees, document preparation, translation, legalization, and possible advisory support. Decree 219/2025/NĐ-CP is the current decree on foreign workers in Vietnam, and the National Public Service Portal lists work permit procedure details.
An EOR may support work permit sponsorship when it is the legal employer and the employee meets the required conditions. The quote should separate government fee, document preparation, and provider service fee. Confirm the exact route before setting the employee’s start date.
For Dutch searchers, “kosten employer of record Vietnam” usually means the total monthly employment cost in EUR. That includes gross salary, SHUI employer contributions, the provider management fee, setup fee if charged, and extra provisions such as 13th month bonus or work permit support.
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