Employees in the Philippines can expect year-end bonus

“We will release a labour advisory to guide our employers in the payment of the 13th-month pay this year, for 2022. At the same time, we are also contacting our employers’ organisations for the correct payment of the 13th-month pay,” said Alvin Curada, director of the DOLE’s Bureau of Working Conditions (BWC).

He noted that for this year, the computation for the 13th-month pay would be based on all the basic salary that a worker received from January 1 to December 31 this year. 

“It will be divided by 12. The total is the 13th-month pay. This is 1/12 of the total basic salary earned by the employee in one calendar year or this year,” Curada said. 

Under Presidential Decree 851, which was signed by the late president Ferdinand E Marcos in 1975, workers should get or receive their 13th-month pay no later than December 24 every year. 

All rank-and-file employees of a private company are entitled to 13th-month pay, provided they have been employed for at least one month within the calendar year. 

READ: Firms in the Philippines told to pay 13th month wages or face sanction

Companies are required to report to DOLE through its Online Establishment Report Form not later than January 15, 2023, on the settlement of the 13th-month pay.  Based on BWC data, it recorded a high compliance rate in the payment of 13th-month pay at 97.1% in 2021, reported PNA.