Thirteenth pay or Christmas pay is a benefit received by dependent workers in Ecuador. This item corresponds to one twelfth of the salary that the worker would have received from December 1 of last year to November 30 of this year.

This bonus law, which was initially known as aguinaldo, was implemented in 1962 to benefit workers during Christmas. During the presidency of Rodrigo Borja (1988-1992), it was called the Christmas bonus, to distinguish it from the fourteenth salary, which was called the school bonus, which is received in March on the Coast, and in September in Sierra.

According to data from the Ministry of Labour, In the period of 2022, more than 1.7 million people received their thirteenth salary; Of these, 1.1 million are men and 590,286 are women.

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In addition, 1.6 million citizens received this capital on a full-time basis, and 73,790 citizens on a part-time basis. And only 30,905 were persons with disabilities. Compared to 2021, there are fewer workers who received compensation. A total of 1,581,097 people. In 2020, it was also low: 1,524,686 people.

Even before the COVID-19 pandemic, i.e. in 2019, the amount of this tithe payment was close to that of 2022. Four years ago, there were 1,695,016.

Meanwhile, the number of people with disabilities remained at more than 30,000 during all the periods mentioned above.

Labor lawyer Vannessa Velásquez explains that the payment of the thirteenth salary includes compensation that includes overtime, overtime, commissions, and excludes legal percentage of profit, reserve funds, travel expenses or occasional subsidies.

“Neither vacations nor profits, nor anything corresponding to social security contributions as reserve funds, that is not excluded. For example, if in one month I ordered 1200 dollars, and in another month I earned only 1000 dollars, but later they paid me a bonus of 5000 dollars, all this should be calculated by the twelfth and thus paid on the thirteenth by December 24th. ”, says Velásquez.

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The lawyer also points out that there are citizens who will not receive a large part precisely because they paid it monthly. “There is a possibility that the workers decided to receive that twelfth monthly part in their role and that they probably won’t have to receive it in December because they decided to take it on a monthly basis,” says Velásquez.

To calculate this, economist Guillermo Granja explains that it is necessary to know the monthly compensation. From 12. 2022 to 30. 11. 2023. “30. 11. the calculation ends no matter what, that’s the end of the period. Beware that we will get confused and think that the tithe I earned in December will be added to me, no, that does not count. There are people who eagerly await the tenth, either to save money, to settle accounts or to invest”, says Granja.

Velásquez suggests that it is best to save. “I think it’s time for Ecuadorians to think about savings and preparation because you have several crises ahead of you, energy, security, employability. We will have to see what knowledge the new government will use to improve the situation in the country. Employers are also faced with a situation where they have to comply, and if they can’t, they should seek dialogue with their workers because what happens is non-payment and waiting for fines and sanctions to arrive,” Velásquez says, adding that there is a possibility of social dialogue so, if the company does not have the option of canceling on time, an agreement is made with the workers and paid in installments.

How to calculate?

Granja explains that the calculation is simple and you need to know what it is based on, i.e. basic fees, overtime, commissions and other income. Vacations, reserve funds and travel expenses are not included.

All benefits received by the worker during the accounting period are then added up and divided by twelve.

Example 1:

A citizen who had an income of $425 in December 2022 (the value that was the base value for that year), plus eleven months in 2023 (January to November) earning $450 each month, gives a total of $5,375. Divide that amount by twelve and you get $447.91. This is the amount that this citizen will receive as the thirteenth in December.

Example 2:

In the event that a citizen earns a basic salary, but has recorded additional hours, then that thirteenth is increased.

How can I calculate overtime hours?

It is important to know the cost of an hour, and for this we divide the salary ($450) by 240, which is the equivalent of 30 days times eight hours. So that’s $1.88 per hour of labor.

The additional amount is obtained by multiplying the hourly labor value by the 50% surcharge ($1.88 x 1.5). Total: $2.82. We multiply by the number of additional hours. In the previous case it was 40 hours and resulted in $112.80.

Example 3:

A citizen who earns 1000 dollars and had overtime, i.e. worked extra days and holidays.

How can I calculate overtime?

We multiply that $4.16 by two, which is 100% of the outstanding pay, resulting in his hourly value of $8.32. So what we do is multiply $8.32 by 40 hours of overtime and holidays. And we get $332.80.

And we add $332.80 to $12,000 and divide that by twelve: $1,027.73 is what this citizen gets as a tithe.

Article 47 of the Labor Law states that the working time will last a maximum of eight hours a day, so it cannot be longer than forty hours a week, unless the law stipulates otherwise: “The longest effective working time in the underground is six hours a day.” day and only for additional, overtime or recovery hours, it can be extended by another hour, with the associated compensation and allowances.

Meanwhile, Article 55 mentions that additional hours cannot be longer than four in a day, nor twelve in a week. And work done on Saturday or Sunday must be paid with a 100% bonus.

If I have night hours, does the tithe increase?

Article 49 of the Labor Law refers to the night shift, which is performed between 7:00 p.m. and 6:00 a.m. the next day and can be of the same duration and will have the right to the same salary as for the day shift, increased by one 25%.

Now, if the worker has a salary of 500 dollars and works at night, that item must be taken into account. In this example, we are dealing with a citizen whose working hours are from 13:00 to 21:30, so three hours are considered night time.

From Monday to Friday, it would be fifteen hours, 60 a month, and 720 a year.

How did you get the value? Likewise, we need to know the value of the watch. Divide $500 by 240 to get $2.08. For this, we calculate 25% (multiply $2.08 by 0.25 = $0.52) to determine your extra payment for night shifts. $374.4 is the annual figure you get after multiplying 0.52 by 720 hours.

And the thirteenth salary? He receives an annual salary of $6,000. And we add the night shift: $374.40 for 720 hours per year = $6374.4. Divide this by twelve and you get $531.20. That’s how much this citizen will get for the tithe.