13th Month Pay Calculator

Started in April? Your 13th month pay is not a full month's salary

Your payslip says ₱20,000 basic salary, so it is easy to expect ₱20,000 in December. That is only true if you earned that basic salary for all twelve months. The 13th month pay is one-twelfth of the basic salary you actually earned from January 1 to December 31, so a new hire, someone who resigned, or someone with unpaid absences gets a smaller amount.

This calculator adds up your basic salary for the year, divides it by 12, and shows how the amount was built. It can also check the ₱90,000 tax-free limit and the balance still due if part of your 13th month pay was released earlier. It does not decide whether a pay item counts as basic salary for your company. Your contract, company policy or payslip settles that.

How to use the calculator

The result updates as you type. Calculate estimate checks every entry and moves you to the first one that needs fixing.

Example: hired on April 16 with three unpaid days

Let's say you were hired on April 16, 2026, at ₱20,000 a month, Monday to Friday. You also took three days of leave without pay in September. Here is how the calculator gets your 13th month pay.

First, it counts the months you worked. April 16 to April 30 is 15 of April's 30 days, or half a month. May to December is 8 full months. That makes 8.5 months.

Then it removes the unpaid days. With a 261-day year (Monday to Friday), your daily rate is ₱20,000 × 12 ÷ 261.

Your estimated 13th month pay is ₱13,936.78. It is well under ₱90,000, so it is tax-free, and it should be paid on or before December 24, 2026. If you had expected ₱20,000, the difference comes from the 3.5 months before you were hired and the three unpaid days.

How the calculation works

The rule comes from Presidential Decree No. 851, and DOLE repeats it every year in its labor advisory: the 13th month pay must be at least one-twelfth of the total basic salary earned within the calendar year.

Why divide by 12 even when you worked only six months? Because the benefit is designed as one month's pay for a full year of work. Six months of salary divided by 12 gives half a month's pay, which is the fair share for half a year. Dividing by 6 would give you a full month's pay for half the work.

Each pay type builds the total basic salary differently:

Partial months

When you start or leave in the middle of a month, the calculator counts that month as the calendar days you were employed divided by the days in the month. Leaving on August 15 counts August as 15 ÷ 31, or about 0.48 of a month. Payroll departments sometimes prorate by working days instead, so the centavos can differ slightly. If your payslips show the exact basic pay for that month, use Month by month and enter it.

The daily rate for absences

The daily rate is your monthly salary × 12 ÷ the paid days your salary covers in a year. Use 261 for a Monday-to-Friday schedule, 313 for Monday to Saturday, or 365 if you are paid for every day including rest days. Many companies use one of these factors. Check your contract or ask payroll which one applies to you. Only leave without pay counts here. Paid vacation or sick leave is still basic salary and does not lower your 13th month pay.

The calculator keeps full precision internally and shows pesos rounded to the centavo.

What counts as basic salary

This is the part most people get wrong. DOLE describes basic salary as all earnings paid for services rendered, but it leaves out allowances and benefits that are not part of the regular salary. The usual exclusions are below.

There is one important exception. If your contract, a collective bargaining agreement, company policy or long practice treats an item as part of basic salary, it counts. That is why two employees with the same monthly pay can receive different amounts at different companies.

Is your 13th month pay taxed?

Under the TRAIN Law (Republic Act No. 10963), your 13th month pay and other benefits of the same kind, such as a Christmas or productivity bonus, are tax-free up to ₱90,000 combined per year. Only the amount above ₱90,000 is added to your taxable income. Bills to raise the limit were filed in 2026, but as of October 2026 none has become law.

Let's say your basic salary is ₱45,000 a month for the whole year, and your company also gives you a ₱60,000 performance bonus.

Only ₱15,000 is taxed, at your regular income tax rate, not the full ₱105,000. Enter your other bonuses under Absences, bonuses and advances to see this split. The calculator shows the taxable amount but does not compute the tax itself, because that depends on your whole year's taxable income.

When it must be paid, and partial releases

Employers must pay the 13th month pay on or before December 24. DOLE's 2025 advisory said no request for exemption or deferment would be granted. Some companies release half in May or June and the rest in December, which is allowed as long as the full amount is paid by December 24.

If you already received part of it, enter that amount under 13th month pay already received. With a ₱20,000 estimate and a ₱10,000 mid-year release, the balance still due is ₱10,000. If the amount you received is larger than the estimate, the calculator flags it, which usually means a salary, date or absence entry needs checking.

If you resigned or were terminated, you are still entitled to the share you earned up to your last day. It is usually included in your final pay.

Who is entitled

DOLE's rule covers rank-and-file employees in the private sector who worked at least one month during the calendar year, regardless of position, employment status or how they are paid. That includes probationary and casual employees, piece-rate workers, employees paid a fixed wage plus commission, people with more than one employer, those who resigned or were terminated, and those on maternity leave.

Managerial employees and government workers follow different rules, so this calculator is not meant for them. If you work for more than one employer, each one computes the 13th month pay on the basic salary it paid you.

Before you compare it with your payslip

• Use the basic line of your payslips, not gross pay. Remove overtime, night differential, holiday pay and allowances.
• Check your exact first and last day employed in the year, since the partial months matter.
• Count only leave without pay as unpaid absences. Paid leave is still basic salary.
• If you got a raise during the year, use Month by month so each month has the right amount.
• Ask payroll which daily-rate factor and partial-month method they use if your figure is off by a small amount.
• If the difference is large and payroll cannot explain it, DOLE's regional offices handle 13th month pay concerns.

Questions about 13th month pay

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