In Nicaragua the Aguinaldo (Christmas Bonus) is colloquially known as “The Thirteenth Month” and is a mandated extra month’s salary paid to the employee by the employer during the first 10 days of December.
The Aguinaldo is calculated using the monthly salary the employee is receiving at the time the Aguinaldo is paid. (See below for employees with less than a full year of employment)
This means that if an employee has had a pay raise during the calculation year, which runs from December 1st to November 30th), their Aguinaldo is based on their new salary. All minimum wage workers will fall under this calculation as they received a wage raise starting on March 1st 2022. In addition, Zona Franca workers received their minimum wage salary increase on January 1st 2022.
If an employee started part way during the calculation year, the Aguinaldo is paid to that employee on a pro rata or proportional basis for the actual time employed. Note: In this case, the person’s previous employer should have paid them their proportionate amount of the Aguinaldo as part of their “Liquidation Payment” when they left that position.
Labor Code of Nicaragua
Aguinaldo; “DEL DÉCIMO TERCER MES” is discussed in Chapter IV, Articles 93 to 99 of the Labor Code of Nicaragua.
It identifies three typical types of payment structure;
Basic Aguinaldo: An additional month’s salary (if they have completed one year of continuous service) is paid at the same rate as the last month’s salary paid to the employee. Article 94.
Pro-Rated: New workers only completing a part year of service will receive an Aguinaldo based on the amount of time worked. Article 93. “after one year of continuous work, or the part proportional to the period of time worked, greater than one month
and less than one year.
Commission Workers: Those workers paid by commission will receive an Aguinaldo based on the highest monthly salary received during the previous 6 months (June – November inclusive). Article 94. – The thirteenth month will be paid
according to the last month of salary received, except when the salary is earned
by commissions, job, piecework etc. (variable income). In these
cases, it will be paid according to the highest salary received during the last six
months.
Article 95 makes it clear that the Aguinaldo must be paid by the 10th of December. The penalty for employers who are late paying the bonus is “compensation paid to the employee equivalent to one working day for each day the payment was delayed”.
Article 97 states that the Christmas Bonus is to be paid free of any deductions (including taxes). The exemption to that rule being any deductions for food provided to the worker as part of their employment.
