NR-16 Hazard 30 Percent

NR-16: Hazardous Work Bonus (30%)

Brazilian Regulatory Standard NR-16 deals with periculosidade, meaning work that by its nature or method puts the employee at imminent risk of death, severe injury or serious illness. The hazard bonus is set at 30% of the base salary, not the minimum wage, and it leaves out gratifications, premiums and profit sharing. The math is just adicional = 0.30 · salario base. What counts as eligible work is spelled out in CLT art. 193: contact with flammables (storage above 250 L for liquids or 135 kg for LPG, plus transport and handling), explosives, electricity above 1 kV or in controlled / risk zones (NR-10), ionising radiation, security guards (Law 12.740/2012), and delivery motorcyclists (Law 12.997/2014).

You cannot stack periculosidade and insalubridade (NR-15). When both apply, the worker keeps whichever is bigger, as CLT art. 193 §2 puts it. Habitual or intermittent exposure already triggers the right; what cancels it is eventual contact, which TST jurisprudence reads as fortuitous and very brief. A technical report, the laudo de periculosidade, signed by an engineer or physician registered with MTE, is what confirms or denies the bonus.

Applications

Payroll teams use it to run the 30% bonus for electricians, security guards, motoboys, gas station attendants and ammunition handlers. It also helps when you need to weigh the adicional against insalubridade and keep the larger one, when you prepare the laudos de periculosidade that audits, court actions and union negotiations demand, and when you forecast the knock-on effect on overtime, FGTS and 13th salary, since the bonus becomes part of the remuneration base for all of those.

FAQ

Is the 30% applied to the minimum wage? No. NR-16 works off the employee's own base salary, whereas NR-15 still leans on the minimum wage.

Does a fuel station attendant always qualify? Yes. Annex 2 of NR-16 treats the whole site as a hazardous area, so the worker's specific task doesn't change the answer.

Can I receive periculosidade and insalubridade together? No. You have to pick the higher of the two (CLT art. 193 §2).