Ministry of Home Affairs responds to the fact that lecturers with PhDs receive a salary coefficient of 2.67

Mr. Truong Cong Binh (name of the character changed) said that in the period 2011-2015, he worked at a company of the Ministry of National Defense. From 2015-2020, he worked at a state research institute. During this time, he paid compulsory social insurance for 8 years and 5 months.

In 2025, he completed his PhD program and obtained a PhD. After that, he participated in the entrance exam to become a lecturer at a public university, in the right major and with qualification requirements.

On January 1, 2026, he was signed a probationary contract with a salary equal to 85% coefficient 2.67. By July 1, 2026, he will stop implementing the probationary regime according to the provisions of Law on Civil Servants No. 129/2025/QH15 and Decree No. 259/2026/ND-CP officially taking effect.

After that, he received a decision on the termination of the probationary regime and salary ranking, which stated the salary coefficient as 2.67, calculated from July 1, 2026 and enjoyed 100%. The time for calculating the next salary increase is calculated from July 1, 2026.

Mr. Binh raised the issue, according to current legal regulations, is the university ranking salary with a coefficient of 2.67 for people with a PhD degree like him in accordance with regulations or not.

In addition, he said that in 5 years from 2015-2020, he worked at a state research institute in a contract specialist position, performing scientific research and scientific publication work. He requested to be considered whether this working time is considered a similar job to serve as a basis for considering salary increases and seniority for compulsory social insurance contribution time or not.

Regarding his reflections and recommendations, the Ministry of Home Affairs has responded.

On June 30, 2026, the Government issued Decree No. 259/2026/ND-CP on recruitment, use and management of public employees, which does not stipulate higher salary grades according to training level when recruited as public employees.

Based on the provisions of Article 60 of Decree No. 259/2026/ND-CP and point a, Clause 2, Article 5 of Decree No. 93/2026/ND-CP dated March 31, 2026 of the Government detailing and guiding the implementation of a number of articles of the Law on Teachers, the Ministry of Home Affairs requests you to exchange with the civil servant management agency where you work for consideration and resolution.

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