Conditions for employees to receive the 13th month salary

Reply:

1. What is the 13th month salary?

Currently, in the 2019 Labor Code as well as in other relevant guiding legal documents, there is no definition of "What is the 13th month salary?".

According to the guidance in Official Dispatch 560/LĐTBXH-BHXH in 2018 on determining salary as the basis for social insurance payment issued by the Ministry of Labor - Invalids and Social Affairs, the 13th month salary is understood as a bonus that the enterprise pays to employees in order to support and encourage employees to work. Enterprises often pay the 13th month salary to employees on the occasion of Lunar New Year or the beginning of the new year.

The 13th month salary can be paid based on the regular monthly salary, the employee's average annual income or a fixed amount.

In addition, Article 104 of the 2019 Labor Code mentions bonuses for employees as follows:

1. Bonus is the amount of money or property or other forms that the employer rewards the employee based on the production and business results and the employee's level of work completion.

2. The bonus regulations are decided by the employer and publicly announced at the workplace after consulting with the employee representative organization at the workplace where there is an employee representative organization at the workplace.

According to the above regulations, a bonus is an amount of money or property or other forms that an employer rewards an employee based on the production and business results and the employee's level of work completion.

2. What are the conditions for employees to receive the 13th month salary?

To know whether employees are entitled to the 13th month salary or not? Employees can go through the terms of their benefits in the labor contract or according to the support policy of the business where the employee works.

The 13th month salary is not a mandatory bonus that businesses must pay to employees. Businesses only have to pay the 13th month salary (Tet bonus) to employees when all 3 of the following conditions are met:

- The enterprise has issued legal bonus regulations and publicly announced the bonus regulations at the workplace;

- Employees have met all the conditions for Tet bonus in the announced bonus regulations.

- Employees continue to work for the company until the 13th month salary is calculated.

If the business suffers losses or the employee does not meet the conditions for the Tet bonus, the business may not pay the 13th month salary to the employee.

3. Is the 13th month salary of employees subject to compulsory social insurance?

Monthly salary for compulsory social insurance contribution is regulated in Clause 2, Article 89, Law on Social Insurance 2014 as follows:

Monthly salary for compulsory social insurance

For employees paying social insurance according to the salary regime decided by the employer, the monthly salary for social insurance payment is the salary and salary allowance according to the provisions of the law on labor.

It can be seen that according to the above regulations, from January 1, 2018 onwards, forworkerIf social insurance is paid according to the salary regime decided by the employer, the monthly salary for social insurance payment is the salary and salary allowance according to the provisions of the law on labor.

In addition, according to the guidance in Official Dispatch 560/LĐTBXH-BHXH in 2018 on determining salary as the basis for social insurance payment issued by the Ministry of Labor - Invalids and Social Affairs, the 13th month salary bonus and the bonus based on annual work performance evaluation are not used as the basis for calculating social insurance payment.

Thus, employees' 13th month salary is not subject to mandatory social insurance./.