Average income in telecommunications through the roof

The average income of three telecom giants' employees. Unit: USD per month, Viettel has yet to publish its data 2018.

VNPT: tripling in five years

At the meeting between Deputy Prime Minister Vuong Dinh Hue and VNPT in the first working day after Tet (Lunar New Year), Pham Duc Long, VNPT’s general director reported about the group’s operations.

Accordingly, the average income of VNPT employees in 2018 was about VND28 million ($1,217) per month.

This is a very surprising number. Five years ago, VNPT began restructuring its operations and employees’ salary at the time was VND11.7 million ($509) per month.

“During the restructuring, VNPT has focused on creating mechanisms to motivate employees, then synchronously deploying the 3P salary scale and BSC/KPI (Balance Scored/Key Performance Indicators) evaluation criteria throughout the corporation. This motivated employees to improve their efficiency, productivity, and income,” Long said.

Deputy Prime Minister Vuong Dinh Hue lauded VNPT as for its multifaceted activities garnering success on all fronts, as the group conducted restructuring, continued manufacturing, and still reached high and stable profit growth, ensuring the lives of tens of thousands of employees, contributing to the nation’s e-government, smart education, smart healthcare, and smart city initiatives.

“The salary of VND28 million ($1,217) per month multiplied with over 37,000 employees shows the great contribution of VNPT to society,” the deputy prime minister assessed.

Viettel, the highest payer

VNPT employees’ income is high, however, Viettel pays even better. According to Viettel’s report, in 2017 the average income of the corporation’s employees was VND31.8 million ($1,383) per month.

This is also a spectacular 29-fold increase against 2000. The salary of VND650-700 million ($28,260-30,434) per year for Viettel's overseas employees might take other companies aback but is considered money well spent by Viettel.

At the beginning of 2010, when implementing the plan to manufacture a Vietnamese brand of phones, the Ministry of Information and Communication allowed Viettel to pay for foreign experts $23,000 per month, equivalent to nearly VND6 billion ($260,869) per year, an unprecedented salary.

In its development strategy to 2020, Viettel has set the target to increase productivity to VND3-4 billion ($130,434-173,913) per employee per year, and the average income to VND40-50 million ($2,139 – 2,173) per employee per month.

MobiFone not far behind

According to MobiFone’s president Nguyen Manh Thang, although in 2018 the corporation had many difficulties, MobiFone still achieved some good news. This corporation currently has 3,905 employees, 90 per cent of whom have bachelor’s degrees, 20 per cent have master’s degrees, with the average income of VND22.79 million ($991) per month.

Compared to the previous years, MobiFone’s average income has decreased. In 2017, MobiFone had 4,109 employees with the average income per month of VND24.6 million ($1,069), higher than the average of VND22.9 million ($995.6) of 2016 and 2015.

It can be seen that telecommunications offers high average incomes and has thus become a dream for many. Nevertheless, the sector is also highly contested and is often complained of for the great pressure during work.