DOLE Ilocos to employers: Don’t forget employees’ 13th month pay

LAOAG CITY, Ilocos Norte — With still around a hundred days before the Christmas holidays, the Department of Labor and Employment (DOLE) in the Ilocos region reminded employers on Friday, Sept. 16, to give covered employees their 13th month pay.

DOLE regional director and lawyer Evelyn Ramos said that the release of the 13th month pay is a “mandatory benefit to all rank-and-file workers in the private sector, whether regular or contractual.”

Under the law, workers should receive their 13th month pay on or before Dec. 24, computed based on the 1/12 of the total basic salary of an employee within a calendar year, or basic monthly salary for the whole year divided by 12 months, the regional DOLE said.

To be qualified, they should have rendered work for a month within the year, said Ramos.

“We are giving this reminder early on to give employers the leeway to take this into account in their company’s budget towards the last quarter, as there should be no exemptions to this requirement,” Ramos said.

Meanwhile, the agency also said that the second tranche of the wage hike, which was made effective last June under Wage Order RB1-21, shall take effect on Dec. 1.

“By December 1, the second tranche will set P400 as the minimum daily wage rate for non-agriculture companies with above 30 employees; P370 for 10 to 29 workers; and P342 for 1 to 9 employees,” said Ramos.

READ: Gov’t opens soft loans to MSMEs for 13th month pay of workers

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