Compulsory social insurance fees for workers will increase by two percent to 24 percent of their monthly basic wage as of the beginning of the year, according to the Vietnam Social Insurance office.

Workers will pay seven percent of the total while their employers will pay the rest.

Twenty percent of the fees will go into retirement and death funds, three percent of which will go to the sickness and maternity fund, while the rest will go into the fund for work-related accidents and diseases.

Employers of soldiers, police and military officers are obliged to pay 21 percent of the common minimum wage.

Social insurance fees for volunteer participants will increase to 20 percent of their incomes from the current 18 percent. The participants will be allowed to choose the level of incomes for their payments but the level may not be lower than the minimum wage.

The number of compulsory social insurance participants has increased to over 9.7 million while the figure for volunteer participants is currently 90,000./.