Topic: Year-End Bonus and the Thirteenth Salary
How does India mark Year-End Bonus and the Thirteenth Salary?
Statutory bonus (Payment of Bonus Act)
- Local date
- November 30, 2026
India's statutory bonus comes from the Payment of Bonus Act 1965, which covers establishments employing twenty or more people; an employee qualifies after thirty working days in the accounting year. The floor is 8.33 per cent of wages and the ceiling 20 per cent — and the floor does not depend on profit, so a loss-making year still owes the minimum, which is exactly the reverse of Taiwan's surplus condition. Payment is due within eight months of the close of the accounting year; since India's year ends on 31 March, the practical deadline falls at the end of November, and most employers deliberately pay earlier so the money arrives before Diwali, the largest buying season of the year.
What is this topic?
Taiwan's year-end bonus rests on Article 29 of the Labor Standards Act, which applies only when the business closes its year with a surplus — a condition, with no deadline and no penalty, so the amount is the company's call. Brazil is the opposite: the thirteenth salary has been a statutory obligation since 1962, first instalment by 30 November and second by 20 December, with fines for lateness. Indonesia's THR must be paid in full seven days before the religious holiday, never in instalments, with a 5 per cent fine if late. The same idea — extra money once a year — runs from binding law to pure custom across the seven markets, and that is what decides whether anyone can rely on it.
Sources and dates
Dates follow local time zones, calendars, and official notices. Check the source when a date is estimated or locally variable.