According to article 87 of the Federal Labor Law, employees and workers in Mexico are entitled to receive the Christmas bonus, a benefit that is equivalent to at least 15 days of their salary. According to this law, employers must pay the bonus to their employees before December 20.
The bonus payment corresponds to base workers, trust workers, plant workers, unionized workers, for a specific job or time, seasonal, for an indefinite time subject to trial or subject to initial training, temporary, commission agents, commercial agents, insurance, salesmen, among others governed by the Federal Labor Law, according to information from the Ministry of the Interior.
The same article of the Federal Labor Law mentions that even employees who have not completed a year of service, regardless of whether or not they are working on the date of liquidation of the bonus, have the right to be paid the proportional part of this benefit, according to the time they have worked.
How to calculate how much you get as bonus?
Here we share how to calculate how much you get as a Christmas bonus. Let’s start from the assumption that an employee earns 12 thousand pesos per month to make an example of calculation:
- If the employee has been employed for at least one year or more, the bonus will be equivalent to a fortnight’s salary or half of the monthly salary.
In our example, if the employee earns 12,000 pesos per month, he is entitled to a bonus of 6,000 pesos, that is, the equivalent of what he earns in a fortnight or half of his monthly salary.
- If the employee has been working in the company for less than a year, the bonus is paid proportionally to the time he has been working.
To do this, the daily salary is multiplied by the days of the bonus according to the contract:
15 days x 400 pesos per day = 6000 pesos
Next, divide that amount by the 365 days of the year, to find out how much you are entitled to per day:
6,000 pesos ÷ 365 days = 16.43 pesos per day.
Now multiply that amount by the days of the year elapsed or worked. In other words, suppose that the employee has worked for a total of 240 days:
240 days x 16.43 pesos = 3,943.2 pesos for bonus concept.
If you are an entrepreneur and want to know how much your Christmas bonus corresponds to, we share with you how to calculate your Christmas bonus if you are an entrepreneur.
What can you invest your bonus in?
Personal finance experts recommend that, if you have no debts or urgent expenses, you can invest your Christmas bonus to make a profit and take advantage of it, or it can even be used to start building your emergency fund.
On her Little Pig Capitalist website, Sofía Macías, who is one of the most recognized personal finance experts in Mexico, recommends some instruments in which you can invest your bonus:
Short-term and medium-term investments
- CETES. They are one of the easiest and fastest options. If you want to know more about this investment instrument, we share with you what CETES are, how they work and how to invest.
- Bank notes. A bank promissory note is a security or fiscal document through which companies or other economic agents make a commitment to pay a certain sum of money on a certain date, according to the Economipedia definition. Normally, the chosen bank will have a yield comparator so that you know how much you will receive according to the time you choose to invest your money, explains Sofía Macías.
- Short-term government debt investment funds. To access this investment instrument, it is necessary to open an account in a brokerage firm and request this option. It can be opened from a thousand pesos in some cases and once the account is open, it is possible to diversify the investments in terms and risks, according to the author of Little Capitalist Pig.
long-term investments
- Afore or retirement plan. In this type of investment, the money is saved for retirement in order to put it to work in the investments selected by the administrator according to your age and, therefore, the portfolio for you.
- ETFs. It is contracted in specialized Brokerage Houses, it consists of a set of assets that are listed on the stock market and can be shares, bonds or even raw materials such as gold. Sofía Macías explains that the advantages of this instrument are having a diversified portfolio and the possibility of choosing what to invest in.
- Stock Exchange. In Mexico there are two (Mexican Stock Exchange and Institutional Stock Exchange) and it is about investing in shares or bonds of companies listed there. It can be invested through a Brokerage House, previously considering their commissions and they operate with the authorization of the National Banking and Securities Commission. If you want to know more about it, we share with you how to invest in the Stock Market to earn money and the Mexican Stock Exchange, what it is and how it operates.
What happens if you do not receive your bonus or receive it out of time?
Since the Federal Labor Law establishes that it is mandatory for the employer to pay the bonus to their employees in a timely manner, in case of not doing so, you have one year to claim the payment of your bonus before the competent jurisdictional instances.
The Federal Attorney for the Defense of Labor (PROFEDET), provides free advice and representation to employees in the event of non-compliance by the employer with the payment of the Christmas bonus.
What is the origin of the bonus?
According to the portal of the Ministry of the Interior, in Mexico the Christmas bonus emerged as a mandatory benefit in the reform of the Federal Labor Law in 1970.
But the payment of the bonus has its origin before said reform, when some employers, during December, voluntarily paid a certain amount of money to their workers for the Christmas celebrations.
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