The highest Tet bonus offered by employers in HCM City in 2011will be higher by 68 percent over 2010, according to the city'sDepartment of Labour, Invalids and Social Affairs.

Reports set by 1,140 companies to the department for Tet Tan Mao (Yearof the Cat) show that the highest bonuses are being offered byelectronics, milk processing, plastic production, real estate and goldtrading businesses.

Small and medium companiesincluding footwear, garments, textiles and security service companiesare on the lower end of the bonus scale.

Foreign-invested companies in general are giving average Tet bonuses of 3.02 million VND (154.8 USD).

Among State-owned companies outside the IPs and EPZs, the highest Tetbonus is 70 million VND (3,589 USD) and the lowest, 4.9 million VND (251USD). The average Tet bonus given by these firms is 6.5 million VND(333 USD), according to a department report.

For thecompanies inside the industrial and export processing zones, the highestTet bonus given made the State-owned companies is 377 million VND(19,333 USD), and the lowest, 900,000 VND (46 USD).

The average Tet bonus given by companies inside the industrial andexport processing is 1.6 million VND (82 USD) for foreign-investedcompanies and 1.9 million VND (97 USD) for State-owned companies.

Nguyen Van Xe, the department's deputy head, said that the averagewage for HCM City this year was nearly 1.3 million VND (67 USD)per month at domestic firms and 1.5 million VND (77 USD) per month atforeign invested firms.

Out of 909 companies outsidethe industrial and export processing zones, 121 had complained ofdifficulties in paying wages and Tet bonuses, Xe said.

He said 363 companies would provide free car/train tickets (to visittheir native places) and present gifts to their employees besides theTet bonuses./.