Topic: Year-End Bonus and the Thirteenth Salary
How does United States mark Year-End Bonus and the Thirteenth Salary?
Holiday / year-end bonus
- Local date
- December 15, 2026
- When is it?
- No statutory deadline; the employer decides
The United States has no thirteenth salary and no law setting a year-end bonus. It lives entirely in the employer's discretion, and what federal regulation actually governs is a different question: whether the money counts toward overtime pay. Under 29 CFR 778.211, a bonus can be excluded from the regular rate only if the employer keeps both the fact and the amount to itself until the last moment, with no prior promise; the moment terms are stated in advance it becomes a non-discretionary bonus and must be folded back into the regular rate and the overtime recalculated. That distinction shapes how American bonus policies are written — the clearer the promise, the higher the cost.
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.