Statutory bonus
v1salarioauxiliodiasprimaHow it is worked out
Work out the Colombian prima de servicios from salary, transport allowance and days worked.
The prima amounts to fifteen days of pay per half year worked, and it is calculated on salary plus the transport allowance where that is received. On a salary of two million, an allowance of 200,000 and a full half year, the bonus is 1,100,000.
The expression that runs
(salario + auxilio) * dias / 360The fields arrive with an example filled in: put your own numbers in and run it again. You can also edit the formula to fit your case.
What if the formula were yours?
This calculator is not hand-written: it is an Axioma formula. Open it in the editor to see how it is built, adapt it to your case and create the ones you need.
How it is worked out, and why it divides by 360
The base is salary plus transport allowance: 2,200,000. That base is multiplied by the days worked and divided by 360, the commercial year these calculations use, where every month counts as thirty days.
A full half year is 180 days, which is half a year, so the bonus is half the base: 1,100,000. Work less than that and it is proportional: ninety days gives half as much.
When it is paid and what goes into it
It is paid in two instalments: the first by 30 June and the second within the first twenty days of December. Entitlement starts on the first day worked, even when the half year is incomplete.
The transport allowance belongs in the base whenever it is received, a detail that is often forgotten and leaves the bonus short. The bonus itself carries no health or pension contributions, because it does not count as salary.
What this calculation does not cover
If pay changed during the half year, the base should be the average of what was earned rather than the latest salary. Commissions, overtime and surcharges belong in that average too.
And an integral salary carries no prima, since it is already built into the benefits factor. Severance savings, interest on them and holiday pay are separate calculations with their own bases.
Frequently asked questions
- Does the transport allowance count towards the bonus?
- Yes, whenever the employee receives it. Leaving it out puts the bonus below what is owed: in the example that is a hundred thousand of difference.
- What if I did not work the whole half year?
- The bonus is proportional to the days. Enter the days actually worked and the result adjusts by itself.
- Does the bonus pay health and pension contributions?
- No. The prima de servicios does not count as salary, so it generates no social security contributions, although it does feed into other employment calculations.