Nov. 3, 2019
As all the Buen Fin plans …. and as Christmas holiday chatzkies are appearing on store shelves …. as we make our holiday plans … It’s time to remember our beloved household help and employees (including muchachas y mozos).
Please plan ahead to pay them their end of the year Aguinaldos by at least December 20’th …. and Plan to also give them paid Vacation days OFF for the year … Ignore the gringo-myths: The Aguinaldo is NOT a optional bonus. Our Mexican workers and their families count-on and depend on these critical annual payments owed to them.
Because the Annual vacation pay & Aguinaldo payments are mandatory, you can pay them whenever you want … like even ~NOW~ … so they can enjoy using those $$ for the upcoming Buen Fin sales ! (Nov 13 – 17, 2019)
Aguinaldo
Basically the Aguinaldo is 15 days of pay. (calculated on a 7 day work wk).
Specifically, the annual aguinaldo payment is precisely 15 days of “Daily Rate” pay.
It is not a Christmas bonus. It is a mandatory wage payment that is due by the 20’th of December. The aguinaldo is equivalent to at least “15 days wages”, and may be pro-rated if the employee has been working for you for less than a full year.
Simplified Version to Determine Aguinaldo in $ Pesos $:
# Days Worked per Week x # Weeks Worked x Rate per Day x 15 Days / 365 Days =
Note. The “Daily Rate” is based on a full week. For example, if your maid only works two days per week, and gets paid $700 pesos per week ($350 pesos per day of work). You take the weeks salary of $700 divided by 7
=> $100 pesos is the Daily Rate.
Aguinaldo in $ Pesos $
** If a worker is hired to work by the week, the “Daily Rate” equals their weekly pay … divided by 7. If he / she is hired by the month, the “Daily Rate” is the monthly amount divided by 30.
**Daily Rate Simplest Example… If you have an employee who works two days a week ~ for the entire year ~ for $350 pesos each day = $700 pesos a week:
$700 pesos / 7 days = $100 pesos per day at their “Daily Rate”
$100 pesos “Daily Rate” x 15 days of Aguinaldo pay = $1500 pesos
Note that if they work only a part year:
An alternate way of calculating the aguinaldo is determined by multiplying the total days they worked in current year by 15, then divide by 365 days, and then multiply by the daily rate:
For a part-year worker coming in for 2 days a month for 9 months =>
18 days … x … 15 days of Aguinaldo = 270
270 / 365 = 0.7392 … 0.74 x $Daily Rate ($100 pesos?) = $ _____
Note. The “Daily Rate” is based on a full week. For example, if your maid only works two days per week, and gets paid $700 pesos per week ($350 pesos per day of work). You take the weeks salary of $700 divided by 7 = $100 pesos is the Daily Rate.
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Vacation Pay
Vacation pay for current year worked. … Remember that this is the official Mexican Labor Law’s “Daily Rate” ** (see below) … and remember they should also receive this pay for all past years worked.
1st year – 6 days salary
2 years – 8 days
3 years – 10 days
4 years – 12 days
5 to 9 years – 14 days
10 to 14 years – 16 days
15 to 19 years – 18 days
20 to 24 years – 20 days
25 to 29 years – 22 days
30 to 34 years – 24 days
35 to 39 years – 26 days
Happy Holidays !
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See more details at our Full Articles:
https://yucalandia.com/answers-to-common-questions/labor-law-for-household-employees-in-mexico-what-must-we-pay/
” Under the final rule, which takes effect in 30 days, a service animal is a dog trained to help a person with a physical or psychiatric disability. Advocates for veterans and others had pushed for inclusion of psychiatric service dogs. ”
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Feel free to copy while giving proper attribution: YucaLandia/Surviving Yucatan.
© Steven M. Fry
Read on, MacDuff.
Surviving Yucatan 
Another Perspective:
Many Gringos claim: … “I just pay them 2 weeks pay … for the Aguinaldo.”
That sounds good, but is 15 = 14 ?
Mexican law says 15 days pay … and the Gringos who pay just “2 weeks” (14 days) are cheating their beloved employees out of 7%.
Then realize, that we also owe them PAID TIME OFF as vacation pay – listed above.
If the employee wants to work those vacation days, then they get the Vacation Pay by Dec. 20’th +plus you pay them their salary for the extra days worked (that were supposed to be vacation).
Basically: 1 year of employment earns them one (1) weeks worth of paid vacation days off work …
So, a part time employee who works 2 days a week, gets 2 days off + the pay for those days at the end of their first year.
For 2’nd year employees, it’s 10 days Vacation days Paid Time Off (for full time employees) … and so on.
Happy Holidays!
steve
Little confused on this, above you say 2nd year employee 10-days/chart says 8 days – Could you give me an example of a part time (2 days per week) completing 2 years. Tks.
Are you asking about annual Vacation Pay or Aguinaldo Pay?
Vacation pay = 8 days of “daily rate” pay for 2 years of service.
Aguinaldo pay = 15 days of “daily rate” pay.
The formulas are listed above, for how to determine the “daily rate” pay.
Daily Rate pay is the Weekly pay divided by 7).
It’s difficult to write it out for “an example’ … when we have no idea what you pay them.
Some readers have asked how to handle workers who have
1. Worked only part time.
and~or
2. Worked only part of the year.
and~or
3. Worked different amounts of time each week, or at different $$ rates of pay.
and~or
4. The worker is paid by the month. (28 day month = 30 day month = 31 day month)
???
In those cases, some labor lawyers have advised to calculate the worker’s “Daily Rate” based on the whole year’s pay.
Calculate the total salary you paid the worker for the whole year (in $Pesos) and divide by 365 days to get their “Daily Rate” for Aguinaldo (15 day) pay and Vacation pay.
Let’s pick a really complex (but ultimately simple) example:
Imagine a worker started on May 1, 2017 (a Monday) …. who worked 1 day a week for 3 months (as a trial period) for $150 pesos each week, and you liked their work, and then on Aug. 1, you decided to give them 2 days a week of work at $300 pesos a week,
Total Pay for 2017:
April 1 – July 31, 2017 Total Pay: (13 weeks)
13 weeks x $150 per week = $1,950 … Total Pay April – July
Aug. 1 – Dec 31 2017 Total Pay (22 weeks)
22 weeks x $300 per week = $6,600 … Total Pay Aug – Dec.
Annual Total Pay = $1,950 + $6,600 = $8,550 Total Pay for 2017
Daily Rate for 2017:
$8,550 Pesos / 365 Days = $23.42 per Day for Daily Rate calculations
AGUINALDO 2017 pay (15 days):
15 Days x $23.42 Daily Rate = $351 pesos of Aguinaldo pay for 2017
Vacation Pay (for 1 year = 6 paid vacation days):
6 days x $23.42 = $141 pesos.
Total Aguinaldo + Vacation Pay (paid by Dec. 20’th) = $492 pesos
with paid Vacation time off of: 1½ work days off.
Makes sense?
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How much for a contractor who comes to do a short project, such as painting your house, for a few days then goes away? My builder insisted aguinaldo was only for regular employees, not for one-off jobs. And, that is what he has been doing for me.
Project work => no aguinaldo.
Regular maintenance work, like a mozo or muchacha (cleaning lady), then yes, then they are owed the aguinaldo plus vacation pay.
Good morning.
Our cleaning lady started work for us on October 17, 2019 and works one day a week at $350.00 pesos. How do I calculate the Aguinaldo pay and Vacation pay. Thank you. Tracey
October 17 to Dec 31 = 11 cleanings @ $350 = $3850 pesos total annual 2019 income.
As the formula says above …
“Salario Diario” (Average Daily Rate) = $3850 / 365 days = $10.55 pesos per day.
15 days of Aguinaldo pay x $10.55 pesos per day = $158 pesos Aguinaldo.
Vacation Pay:
“6” vacation days x $10.55 pesos per day = $63.30 of vacation pay …
Happy Trails,
Steve
Joe Tompkins wrote:
Steve–a million thanks for this! I want to suggest that you run the post on Facebook again this year–you’ll keep a lot of local part-time workers from getting shafted. And I realize that most of them don’t know the rules themselves and so are easily “cheated.” ( I don’t think most employers would do it intentionally—but it is confusing. And most employees would be reluctant to call out a mistake on their employers.)
Thanks again—you are always a tremendous public service! Thanks for looking out for us!
Steve please email me. I want to send you an excel spreadsheet I made and see if you agree.
OK … Done