13th month pay 2026: deadline, who qualifies, how it is computed
13th month pay in the Philippines is due by December 24, 2026. Who qualifies, how to compute it, what counts as basic salary, tax rules and how to complain.
Why it matters
Millions of private-sector workers in the Philippines count on the 13th month pay for Christmas spending and debts. Knowing how it is computed lets workers check their payslip and employers avoid a DOLE complaint.
Every rank-and-file worker in a private company in the Philippines who has worked at least one month this year is owed 13th month pay by December 24, 2026. The amount is one twelfth of the basic salary earned from January to December, and the rule comes from a 1975 decree, Presidential Decree 851.
Quick answer: Add up the basic salary you actually earned in 2026 and divide by 12. Employers must pay it on or before December 24, 2026. It covers rank-and-file private-sector employees with at least one month of service, including those who resigned or were let go during the year (they get a pro-rated amount). Up to 90,000 pesos (about $1,400) of 13th month pay and other bonuses combined is free of income tax.
As of October 28, 2026, the Department of Labor and Employment (DOLE) had not yet published its labor advisory for the 2026 payout. It usually does so in late November: the 2025 version, Labor Advisory No. 16-2025, was reported on November 29, 2025, and the 2024 one around November 22, 2024. Those advisories restate the same rules each year, so the guide below follows the decree, its implementing rules and the 2025 advisory. Check the 2026 advisory when it appears for the new compliance report date.
When is the 13th month pay deadline in 2026?
December 24, 2026, a Thursday. The decree says the benefit must be paid “not later than December 24 of every year.”
Employers may split it. The implementing rules allow half to be paid before the regular school year opens and the other half by December 24, and a company can agree a different payment schedule with its recognized union. What it cannot do is pay late. DOLE said in its 2024 and 2025 advisories that “requests or applications for exemption or deferment will not be accepted.”
Who qualifies for 13th month pay?
The original decree of December 16, 1975, applied only to workers earning no more than 1,000 pesos a month. President Corazon Aquino’s Memorandum Order No. 28 of August 13, 1986, removed that ceiling and extended the benefit to all rank-and-file employees.
Under the revised guidelines DOLE issued after that order, a worker qualifies if they are rank-and-file and have worked at least one month in the calendar year. Job title does not matter. Neither does employment status (regular, probationary, casual, contractual, seasonal) or how wages are paid.
The guidelines and DOLE’s advisories name several groups that are often unsure whether they count. They do:
- Piece-rate workers, paid per unit produced.
- Employees on a fixed or guaranteed wage plus commission, whose 13th month pay is based on wage and commission together.
- People with more than one employer, who get 13th month pay from each, based on what each one paid them.
- Workers who resigned or were dismissed before December, who get a pro-rated amount.
- Employees on maternity leave who received a salary differential, according to DOLE’s 2024 advisory.
Managers are the main group left out. The guidelines define a managerial employee as someone who sets and carries out management policy, or who can hire, fire, suspend, transfer or discipline staff, or effectively recommend those actions. Anyone else is rank-and-file for this purpose. Many companies pay managers a 13th month anyway as policy; the law just does not require it.
Which employers are exempt?
Fewer than most people think. The revised guidelines exempt only these:
- the national and local government and government-owned corporations, except those that operate essentially as private subsidiaries of the government;
- employers already paying a 13th month pay “or its equivalent”;
- employers of household helpers and persons in the personal service of another;
- employers of workers paid purely on commission, boundary or task basis, or a fixed amount for a specific job (piece-rate workers stay covered).
The “equivalent” exemption is narrower than its name suggests. A Christmas bonus, mid-year bonus or cash bonus counts only if it adds up to at least one twelfth of the employee’s basic salary for the year. Cash and stock dividends, cost-of-living allowances, other regular allowances and non-cash benefits do not count. A company that hands out a 5,000-peso Christmas bonus to a worker on 20,000 pesos a month has not met the rule; it still owes the difference.
Household workers (kasambahay) are a separate case. Their right to a 13th month pay is written into a later law, the Domestic Workers Act (Republic Act 10361 of 2013).
How is 13th month pay computed?
The rule is one line in the implementing rules: the benefit shall “not be less than one-twelfth of the total basic salary earned by an employee within a calendar year.” The key word is earned. Unpaid absences and unpaid leave reduce it; a raise mid-year increases it.
Take a sales clerk in Cebu, in the central Philippines, who earned a basic salary of 18,000 pesos a month from January to June 2026 and 19,500 pesos a month from July after a raise. She also earned 6,000 pesos of overtime during the year.
- List the basic salary for each month as it was actually paid: six months at 18,000 pesos and six months at 19,500 pesos.
- Take out what is not basic salary. The 6,000 pesos of overtime stays out (see the table below).
- Subtract any unpaid days. She had none. Had she taken two days of unpaid leave, the pesos deducted for those days would come off the total.
- Add it up. 108,000 + 117,000 = 225,000 pesos of basic salary earned in 2026.
- Divide by 12. 225,000 ÷ 12 = 18,750 pesos (about $290). That is the minimum her employer must pay by December 24.
Notice the result is not simply her current monthly salary of 19,500 pesos. For anyone whose pay changed during the year, “one month’s salary” is the wrong shortcut.
What counts as basic salary?
The revised guidelines define basic salary as all pay for services rendered, then list what is excluded unless a contract, company practice or policy treats it as part of basic salary.
| Pay item | Counted in 13th month pay? |
|---|---|
| Regular monthly or daily basic wage | Yes |
| Commissions, if paid on top of a fixed wage | Yes |
| Overtime pay | No, unless company policy includes it |
| Night shift differential and premium pay | No, unless company policy includes it |
| Holiday pay | No, unless company policy includes it |
| Cash value of unused vacation and sick leave | No, unless company policy includes it |
| Cost-of-living allowance (COLA) | No, unless company policy includes it |
Source: DOLE Revised Guidelines on the Implementation of the 13th Month Pay Law; DOLE Labor Advisory No. 16-2025.
Holiday pay is a frequent source of confusion. The extra pay for working on regular holidays such as Undas on November 1 adds to take-home pay but, as a rule, not to the 13th month base. Our guide to November holidays and holiday pay in the Philippines explains how those premiums are calculated.
It does not work in reverse either. The guidelines say 13th month pay is not part of the regular wage when computing overtime, premium pay, Social Security System (SSS) contributions or private retirement plans.
Resigned or terminated in 2026?
You are still owed a share. The revised guidelines say an employee who resigned or whose services were terminated before the payment date gets 13th month pay in proportion to the time worked in the year, and can claim it when the employment ends rather than waiting for December.
Using the same clerk: if she had resigned on September 30, 2026, her basic salary earned would be six months at 18,000 pesos (108,000) plus three months at 19,500 pesos (58,500), or 166,500 pesos. Divided by 12, that is 13,875 pesos (about $215).
Commentators on Philippine labor law note that the pro-rated amount is usually released as part of final pay, and that it is owed whatever the reason for leaving. The guidelines themselves make no exception for dismissal.
Is 13th month pay taxed?
Only above 90,000 pesos (about $1,400). Section 32(B)(7)(e) of the National Internal Revenue Code, as amended by the Tax Reform for Acceleration and Inclusion (TRAIN) law, Republic Act 10963, excludes from taxable income up to 90,000 pesos a year of 13th month pay and other benefits combined. The ceiling took effect on January 1, 2018, up from 82,000 pesos.
The cap is shared. Christmas bonuses, productivity incentives and similar payments count toward the same 90,000 pesos. Only the excess is added to taxable compensation and taxed at the normal income tax rates; it is withheld by the employer under Bureau of Internal Revenue (BIR) Revenue Regulations No. 11-2018. A worker on a monthly basic salary under about 90,000 pesos who gets no other bonuses will usually receive the full 13th month pay tax-free.
What do employers have to report?
DOLE requires employers to report their compliance online after the payout. For the 2025 payment, the deadline was January 15, 2026, through the DOLE Online Compliance Portal at reports.dole.gov.ph. DOLE set the same January 15 date the year before, and the state-run Philippine News Agency (PNA) has reported DOLE saying the date would not be extended.
The 2025 report asked for the establishment’s name, address and main business, total employment, the number of workers who received the benefit, the amount paid per employee and in total, and a contact person. If the 2026 advisory keeps the pattern, the report for this December’s payout would be due January 15, 2027. That date is not confirmed until DOLE publishes the advisory.
Compliance is monitored by the DOLE regional, field or provincial office that covers the workplace.
How to file a complaint about unpaid 13th month pay
The first stop is the Single Entry Approach (SEnA), a free conciliation and mediation process at DOLE offices. Republic Act 10396 of 2013 made it the standard first step for labor disputes and set a 30-day window to settle. Workers can file a Request for Assistance at the nearest DOLE regional or field office, or online through DOLE’s SEnA service.
- Gather records: payslips, the employment contract, any bonus slips and the last date worked.
- File a Request for Assistance under SEnA at the DOLE office covering the workplace.
- Attend the conference with the employer and a DOLE desk officer, who tries to reach a settlement.
- If there is no settlement within 30 days, the case is referred on, usually to a DOLE regional office for inspection or to a labor arbiter of the National Labor Relations Commission (NLRC), depending on the claim.
Regional DOLE releases show 13th month pay among the most common claims settled this way, often bundled with unpaid holiday pay, overtime or final pay. Under the Labor Code, money claims generally must be filed within three years from the date the pay fell due, so an unpaid December 2026 benefit can still be claimed into late 2029.
Watch for: DOLE’s 2026 labor advisory on 13th month pay, expected in late November. It will confirm the compliance report deadline and portal. Employers who split the benefit should also check that the first half paid earlier in the year is counted in December’s balance.
This article is for information only and is not legal advice.
