Brazilians are paid monthly in arrears and are required by law to receive their salary by the 5th working day of the following month. That's not unusual, but the fact that they receive 13 monthly salaries per year is! The 13th salary was established in Brazil by then President João Goulart on 13th July, 1962. João Goulart was the last elected President prior to Brazil's Military Dictatorship, which started in 1964 and ceded power in 1985.
Goulart determined that every year, in December, all employees should receive a Christmas reward from their employers. This reward was aimed at promoting a more joyous Christmas for the employees and stimulating industry and business, increasing sales and consequently, tax revenue.
The calculation is quite simple, employers total their employees salary over the previous 12 months, divide it by 12 & then pay that amount as an extra salary at the end of the year. This calculation results in employees who have worked for less than a year receiving a proportional amount.
The 13th salary is divided in two installments, each one containing half of the value of the full amount to be paid. Legally, the first instalment must be paid between February, 1st and November, 30th and the second instalment by December, 20th. The reality is that most employers pay the 13th salary in two instalments on 30th November and 20th December(or the working day before if either or both of those dates are weekends).
Employees are permitted to ask for the first of their 13th salary instalments to be paid with their holidays however this is very unusual and I'm yet to find an employer that does this. Employees who were dismissed with “just cause”, forfeit any right to receive the 13th salary, whether they are dismissed in January, November or any other time. Any employee dismissed without cause is entitled to receive(among many other things) whatever proportion of the 13th salary they have earned that year.
Overtime worked, night shift allowances, danger money and regular bonuses are considered additionals and are included in the calculations for the 13th salary.
18th June, 2018
Miner Anglo American clinched hundreds of permits this month to explore for copper in a remote part of northern Brazil, Brazilian authorities said, as the growing electric vehicle market and a scarcity of shovel-ready mining projects fuels demand for the metal.
14th June, 2018
Amazon.com is recruiting major Brazilian cosmetics firms Grupo Boticário and Natura Cosméticos to sell via the logistics platform it is developing in Brazil, three people familiar with talks have said, making an early play for the world’s fourth-largest beauty market.
13th June, 2018
Retail sales in Brazil rose more than expected for a second straight month in April, allaying concerns over a slowdown early in the second quarter.
12th June 2018
Embraer SA jumped the most in two months as its proposed commercial-jet venture with Boeing Co. cleared a major hurdle.
11th June, 2018
B3 SA, the sole exchange operator in Brazil, plans to buy a share of Argentina’s national bourse, its chief executive officer said, in the company’s latest push across Latin America after taking minority ownership in exchanges from Mexico to Chile in recent years.
8th June, 2018
Brazil's government auctioned off three of the four pre-salt oil fields offered in the fourth round of bidding on yesterday (Thursday 7th June), collecting R$3.15 billion (US$ 807 million).
27th March, 2018
Amazon.com and Casino Guichard Perrachon are negotiating a deal in Brazil either partnering or selling the French retailer’s local appliance and electronics chain, a source familiar with the talks said on Tuesday.
19th February, 2018
Economic activity in Brazil expanded at a faster-than-expected pace in December, capping the first annual increase in four years following the deepest recession in decades.
7th February, 2018
Marcio Appel, a 45-year-old money manager whose main fund topped 89 percent of its peers in the past year, is betting on Brazil’s benchmark stock index to double over the next 12 months.
6th February, 2018
Boeing has presented a plan to Brazil’s government that would give it an 80 to 90 percent stake in a new venture encompassing Embraer’s commercial jet business, a Brazilian newspaper reported on Tuesday.