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

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

Small and medium companies including footwear, garments, textiles and security service companies are 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 Tet bonus is 70 million VND (3,589 USD) and the lowest, 4.9 million VND (251 USD). The average Tet bonus given by these firms is 6.5 million VND (333 USD), according to a department report.

For the companies inside the industrial and export processing zones, the highest Tet 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 and export processing is 1.6 million VND (82 USD) for foreign-invested companies and 1.9 million VND (97 USD) for State-owned companies.

Nguyen Van Xe, the department's deputy head, said that the average wage 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 at foreign invested firms.

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

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