What is 13th month salary? Instructions for calculating 13th month salary

Is 13th month salary a Tet bonus?

In fact, current legal documents do not have specific regulations on 13th month salary.

The 13th month salary is an agreed salary between the employer and the employee and is not a mandatory salary. In the labor contract of many units, there will be a provision on the 13th month salary, many units do not have it.

If the labor contract stipulates a 13th salary, the employer is required to pay this salary.

However, the 13th month salary can be understood as the salary paid by the employer to the employee at the end of the year. The 13th month salary will depend on the regulations of each enterprise (usually equal to the monthly salary of the employee).

Thus, in essence, the 13th month salary is not a Tet bonus. Tet bonus is a bonus decided by the employer to reward the employee when the unit or enterprise has good business results or when the employee excellently completes the assigned work.

The 13th month salary is not included in the social insurance salary because it is essentially based on bonuses.

The thirteenth month salary is taxable income, so employees must pay personal income tax according to regulations.

The 13th month salary is paid in which month, that is the month personal income tax is calculated for employees.

Are maternity leave benefits paid for the 13th month?

According to regulations, if your company has regulations on supplementing 13 months of salary and the employee meets the prescribed conditions, then female employees who are on maternity leave will continue to receive the 13th month salary.

Are businesses required to give New Year bonuses to employees?

According to the provisions of Article 104 of the 2019 Labor Code on bonuses as follows:

"Reward

1. Bonus is the amount of money or property or in 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, employers are not required to give New Year bonuses to employees. The New Year bonus will be based on the company's situation and production and business results to decide on the bonus.

Lunar New Year 2025, are businesses required to give Tet bonuses to employees?

According to the above regulations, enterprises are not required to give Tet bonuses to employees. Depending on the business situation of the enterprise and the productivity of the employees, the employer decides whether to give Tet bonuses or not.

At the same time, according to the above regulations, employers are not required to give Tet bonuses in cash to employees. Instead, employers can give Tet bonuses to employees in other forms or in assets.

If a business has a policy of giving bonuses to employees but does not implement it, will it be penalized?

Although the Lunar New Year and Lunar New Year bonuses are not mandatory, however, in cases where the enterprise has a Bonus Regulation (clearly stipulating the cases where employees are rewarded by the company) and publicly announced to employees, the enterprise must pay bonuses to employees in accordance with the company's Bonus Regulation.

According to regulations, if a company does not pay the New Year bonus to employees as agreed in the labor contract, it will be fined from 10,000,000 VND to 100,000,000 VND depending on the number of employees not paid according to the agreement.

At the same time, the company is required to pay the full New Year bonus with interest on the late bonus to employees calculated at the highest non-term deposit interest rate announced by state-owned commercial banks at the time of the penalty.

The law allows businesses to reward in cash or material, but must publicize the reward regulations so that all employees know.

How should employers pay overtime wages to employees during Lunar New Year?

Pursuant to Article 98 of the 2019 Labor Code, it is stipulated as follows:

Overtime pay, night work
1. Employees who work overtime are paid according to the unit price of the salary or actual salary paid according to the work being done as follows:
a) On weekdays, at least 150%;
b) On weekly holidays, at least 200%;
c) On holidays, New Year's Day, and paid leave days, at least 300%, not including holiday and paid leave wages for employees receiving daily wages.
2. Employees working at night shall be paid an additional amount of at least 30% of the salary calculated according to the unit price of salary or actual salary paid for the work of a normal working day.
3. Employees who work overtime at night, in addition to being paid according to the provisions in Clause 1 and Clause 2 of this Article, shall also be paid an additional 20% of their salary calculated according to the salary unit price or salary according to the work done during the day of a normal working day or a weekly day off or a public holiday.
4. The Government shall detail this Article.

Thus, employees working on Lunar New Year 2025 will be paid at least 300% of their salary, not including holiday wages, Tet wages, and paid days off for employees receiving daily wages.

How to calculate 13th month salary?

You can refer to 2 commonly used calculation methods in businesses.

(1) How to calculate 13th month salary based on average salary

- For employees who have worked for 12 months or more:

13th month salary = Average salary of 12 months

For example: Mr. A's salary from January 2024 to October 2024 is 10 million VND/month; from November 2024 it is 12 million VND/month.

Thus, his 13th month salary is calculated as follows:

Average salary for 12 months = [(10 million VND x 10 months) + (12 million VND x 2 months)]/12 months = 10.3 million VND.

- For employees who have worked less than 12 months:

13th month salary = Working time in the year for bonus calculation/12 x average salary calculated according to the employee's working time

For example: Ms. B works at company X from May 2024, up to the end of December 2024, which is 07 months, with a salary of 12 million VND/month.

Ms. B's 13th month salary is calculated as follows: (7 months/12 months) x 12 million VND = 7 million VND.

(2) How to calculate 13th month salary based on December salary

To ensure the most benefit for employees, many businesses apply the method of calculating the 13th month salary based on the December salary, specifically:

13th month salary = 12th month salary

For example: Mr. D works from January 2024 to November 2024 with a salary of 12 million. From December 2024, his salary will be increased to 14 million.

Thus, Mr. D will receive a 13th month salary of 14 million.