Topic: Year-End Bonus and the Thirteenth Salary
How does Taiwan mark Year-End Bonus and the Thirteenth Salary?
年終獎金
- Local date
- February 5, 2027
- When is it?
- Paid before Lunar New Year (the Gregorian date differs each year)
Taiwan's year-end bonus is widely treated as a given, but Article 29 of the Labor Standards Act is written as a conditional: where a business closes its accounting year with a surplus, then after tax, after covering losses and after setting aside the statutory reserve, it shall give a bonus or distribute a dividend to employees who worked the full year without fault. No surplus, no obligation — and the article sets no amount, no deadline and no penalty. In practice custom carries it: most companies pay before Lunar New Year, usually described in months of salary, while public servants receive a separate year-end working bonus under their own rules. That leaves Taiwan's bonus markedly less certain than Brazil's or Indonesia's: it is a convention, not a claim.
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.