The uniqueness of labour as a factor of production is that labour services cannot be separated from the employee. However, since the object of sale is only the services of the employee, not an employee himself, the labour conditions, determined by the labour and collective agreements or other agreements concluded at other levels and within the current legislation, are equally important. Speaking as a subject of labour, a person can realize his or her labour potential by the way of self-employment, that means to act as an independent producer seller of their products. Another way of labour potential realization is hiring, that means offering of the services as a hired employee to the employer, who is the subject of ownership. In this case there is an exchange under the principle: qualification and working time of the worker - for wages and profits. Each enterprise is confronted with a set of goals, among them – economic and social leadership. For their achievement the company uses all the available arsenal of resources - material, land, financial, labour. This indicates the equivalence of all types of resources in achieving the goal. But this is not quite true, because every resource can be included in production only through the activity of labour and people. And this activity depends on the attitude of the company to its employees, the degree of their motivation and stimulation.

The study aims to identify and measure factors affecting the salaries of employees in manufacturing enterprises in Hanoi, the important area of Vietnam’s economy. We conducted a questionnaire consisting of 31 observation variables with a 5-point Likert scale. Independent variables were measured from 1 “without effect” to 5 “strongly”. Based on the literature review and results of interviews, a total of 350 questionnaires were sent to participants; 300 of them met the standards and were subject to be analyzed. The results of Exploratory Factor Analysis (EFA) and Multiple Regression Analysis (MRA) identify six main determinants influencing the salaries of employees in manufacturing enterprises in Hanoi, including Paying views of business leaders (PV), Financial ability of the enterprise (FA), Capacity of workers (CW), Capacity of the contingent of employees engaged in salary work (CC), Role of grassroots trade unions (TU), and State policies and laws on labor – salaries (STL). Based on the findings, some recommendations have been proposed to help the firm leaders design appropriate personnel policies for creating better job satisfactions for employees in the future. On this basis, the authors propose a number of recommendations to improve the salaries of employees in manufacturing enterprises in Hanoi.