Ownership-Related Wage Differentials By Occupation In Vietnamese Manufacturing

This paper examines ownership-related wage differentials for four types of workers employed by medium–large (20 or more employees) wholly foreign multinational enterprises (WFs), joint-venture multinationals (JVs), state-owned enterprises (SOEs) and domestic private firms in Vietnamese manufacturing in 2009. When all sample firms were combined, unconditional JV-private and WF-private wage differentials were 106–124% for managers, 78–87% for professionals and technicians, 56–68% for clerical and support workers and 22–48% for production workers. Correspondingly, conditional wage differentials which account for influences of worker education and sex, in addition to firm capital intensity and size, were smaller and usually significant: 72–78% for managers, 32–36% for professionals and technicians, 23–28% for clerical and support workers and 15–16% for production workers. SOE-private differentials were all much smaller. There was substantial variation at the industry level, but conditional WF-private differentials were positive and significant for most occupations and industries and JV-private differentials were also positive and significant in most industries for highly paid managers or professionals and technicians, but not for lowly paid clerical and support workers or production workers. Most industry-level SOE-private differentials were also insignificant.