The monthly base wages of civil servants and public employees, including teachers and doctors, will be increased from VND1.49 ($64) to VND1.6 million ($69), from July 1 2020. This will be the highest wage hike in the past eight years.

Public sector employees have complained for years that their earnings are too low. Local economists said at a recent conference that low wages have and will continue to foster corruption in the public sector.

Data from the General Statistics Office shows that at the end of 2017 there were more than 5.2 million people working in the public sector. The size of Vietnam’s public sector compared to the population is among the biggest in Southeast Asia, according to the World Bank.

In 2017, Prime Minister Nguyen Xuan Phuc ordered government offices to reduce staff numbers by between 1.5-2 percent every year over the next five years.

Vietnam's per capita income last year was $2,587.