24 Nov 2025 · 4 min
John Jonas explains the Philippine 13th month pay: a mandatory benefit typically given in December, calculated as one month's salary divided by 12 times months worked. Most employers pay it if an employee worked six months or more, and it's separate from the Christmas bonus.
Hello and welcome to the Secret Sauce of Outsourcing Podcast, the podcast that's dedicated to making you better at outsourcing your work. My name is John Jonas and this is episode 23. It's time to start thinking about the 13th month. So it's mid November and it's that time of the year when I get a lot of questions about the 13th month. So I'll try and answer as many as I can to fit into this podcast. But if you want more information, I have a lot of detail@onlinejobs.ph 13th month. So here's a question. I got this actually, I'm gonna read you like four questions that I got and I'm gonna answer them. Here's the first one. Very basic question. Is there any specific time when the 13th month should be paid? I was thinking of paying it at the end of January, but perhaps it can be more useful for them before the Christmas celebration. When is the best time to pay the 13th month? December 1st. December 31st. Right before Christmas. So that's the end of the question. A really great question and I'm really glad they sent it to me because the 13th month is to be paid in December. That's how it and the earlier in the month the better. Actually, the earlier in the month that you send it, the more appreciative your people in the Philippines will be. Also, it's not considered a Christmas bonus. It's just part of their annual salary. Like they budget for this money. If you want to give them a Christmas bonus, that's separate and always very much appreciated. So here's the next question I got. How do you compute for the 13th month? So, super simple answer. The 13th month is one month salary divided by 12 and then multiplied by the number of months that they worked for you that year. So if your OFS has been working for you for at least a year, their 13th month is one month salary. It's an extra month salary that you pay them. If your OFS has been working you for less than a year, let's say six months, their 13th month would be half their salary. So to make things even easier, if you add up the total amount you paid them through the year and divide by 12, you'll get the correct amount for the 13th month. Next question. I hired my VA a couple months ago in September and she just finished her training period. Do I start counting the months to compute her 13th month when I hired her or when she finished her training? So this is mostly up to you. You can start when you hired her or when the training period ended. Typically it starts when the training is finished. But what the important thing is that both of you know when you start counting. Also, typically you pay the 13th month if someone has worked for you for six months or more. But it's still just a general, generally a good idea. If someone's worked for you for less than six months, the 13th month isn't going to cost you very much and it's going to make a big deal to them. Next question. I had to let go of my VA this year. Should I still give her a 13th month bonus? Answer. If they work for you for more than six months, then yes, in the Philippines that's the practice for most companies. Otherwise no, you don't need to. Next question. I pay my VA by the hour or on a per project basis. Do I need to give them my 13th month? So the answer you don't have to, but it's still a good idea. So for us, here's what we do. We 1. Always pay the 13th month. To anybody who works for us, we pay the 13th month. Two, we also always give a Christmas bonus and that Christmas Bonus is usually 25 to $50. We send both of them at the same time early in December and we send it the same way that we send their normal monthly salary amounts. So here's the thing with the 13th month. If you're an employer in the Philippines, it is legally required that you pay a 13th month bonus. This isn't like a Philippines only thing. This is actually not uncommon in other countries. It's just kind of unheard of in the US or in most like in Australia, I don't think, or the uk it's just not common to have this. But in the Philippines it's, it's definitely part of their culture and they expect the money and they budget for it and they need it. So are you required to pay it? No. You're not a Filipino employer. You're not bound by Philippines laws at all. Should you pay it? Yes, you should. So this is just a warning. It's still November, but yeah, December. This is coming up.
