13th Salary Pro-Rata

Proportional 13th salary: formula and rules

Law 4.090/1962 created the 13th salary (gratificação natalina), and every CLT employee is owed it. You reach for the proportional version when someone hasn't worked a full calendar year, which usually means a dismissal, the end of a contract, or a hire partway through the year. The formula is proportional 13th = (monthly salary / 12) · months worked. Here's the rule that trips people up: a month counts as a full month only if the employee worked 15 days or more in it. Work fewer than 15 days and that month simply drops out.

Say a worker is hired on June 10 earning R$ 3,000. That's 22 days in June, so June counts. June through December gives 7 months, which works out to R$ 3,000 · 7/12 = R$ 1,750. The base for the calculation isn't just the salary. Habitual overtime (averaged out), commissions, the night-shift bonus and hazard pay all get folded in, since any variable component you receive regularly counts.

Brazilian context and payment schedule

Payment comes in two installments. The first is due by November 30 and covers 50% of the value with nothing deducted; the second arrives by December 20, and that's when INSS and IRRF are withheld over the full amount. If someone is dismissed, the proportional 13th gets paid in full at termination, bundled into the severance package. CLT internships do earn a proportional 13th, but interns covered by Law 11.788/2008 (which sits outside the CLT) don't.

FAQ

Do I get 13th if I worked only 14 days in the month I was hired? No. That month doesn't count, so the proportional 13th starts counting from the following month.

Does dismissal for just cause cancel the 13th? Yes. A just-cause dismissal forfeits the proportional 13th for the current year, and that's among the harshest financial penalties it carries.

Is unpaid sick leave counted? The employer pays the first 15 days of medical leave, and those count as usual. From day 16 on, INSS takes over and those days stop generating 13th. The exception is a work-related injury (acidente de trabalho), where the count keeps running.