Vietnam Severance Allowance Calculator
Most employees hired since 2009 get little or nothing here — see why below before you calculate.
Read this first. Unemployment insurance has been mandatory in Vietnam since 2009. Any period your employer paid into it is excluded from this calculation — your protection for that period is the unemployment insurance benefit instead, claimed separately from Vietnam Social Security, not from your employer. If you were hired after 2009 and have been continuously insured, your employer-paid severance may genuinely be zero.
Estimate only. Not legal advice — confirm with Vietnam Social Security (BHXH).
The formula
Under Article 46 of the 2019 Labor Code, severance allowance equals 0.5 months' salary for every year of service that wasn't covered by unemployment insurance. The salary used is your average over the 6 consecutive months immediately before your contract ends.
The 0.5 multiplier is fixed by law and can't be negotiated down — but the real variable that determines your actual payout is how many years, if any, fall outside unemployment insurance coverage.
Why most modern employees get little from this
Vietnam made unemployment insurance mandatory in 2009. Since severance allowance exists specifically to cover employees for years not protected by that insurance, anyone hired in 2009 or later — and continuously insured since — typically has an employer-paid severance allowance of exactly zero. That's not a bug in the law; unemployment insurance took over that role. If you were hired before 2009, only your pre-2009 years count toward this calculation.
This is genuinely confusing for a lot of people, because the intuitive expectation — "I worked here 10 years, I should get 5 months' pay" — simply isn't how the current law works for anyone insured throughout.
Rounding rules
Your severance-eligible period is rounded to the nearest whole year: 6 months or more rounds up to a full year; under 6 months rounds down. A 3-year-and-7-month uncovered period counts as 4 years; 3 years and 4 months counts as 3.
FAQ
What should I claim instead if I've been insured the whole time?
Unemployment insurance benefit (trợ cấp thất nghiệp) — a separate monthly payment from Vietnam Social Security, typically 60% of your average insured salary, paid for a number of months based on how long you contributed. Register at your local employment service centre.
Does this apply to foreign employees?
Foreign teachers and other foreign employees are generally not subject to Vietnam's unemployment insurance deductions, which means — unlike Vietnamese staff — their entire work period typically counts toward severance without the post-2009 exclusion.
What if I don't know my exact unemployment insurance start date?
Check your BHXH (Social Insurance) book, or ask your employer's HR/payroll team — they're required to have this on record.