End-of-Contract Pay Calculator

Severance, nothing: the compensation of article 366.º of the Labour Code exists only when the employer ends the contract for objective reasons. What you get is the final settlement, and the law guarantees it whatever the reason for leaving: untaken vested holiday with its allowance (article 245(1)(a)), pro-rata holiday and allowance for the year of cessation ((b)), and the pro-rata Christmas allowance (article 263(2)(b)). On a €1,200 salary with 10 days of holiday untaken and three months worked in the year, that is €1,990.90 gross. Skip your notice period and the article 401.º indemnity is deducted.

It does, and it is written down. Article 245(1) grants the right «a receber a retribuição de férias e respectivo subsídio», which is two amounts per day, and article 238(5) confirms it from the other side by saying that the pay and allowance of waived days «cumulam com a retribuição do trabalho prestado nesses dias». The logic is that the month's salary paid for the work you did; the holiday you did not take is a separate credit. That is why 22 untaken vested days are worth two months of salary, not one.

Two counts added together. First, the days that vested on 1 January for the previous year's work and that you have not yet taken: 22 working days for a full year (article 238(1)), minus those already used. Second, the pro-rata for the year you leave, which is 22 days × months of service ÷ 12. Leaving at the end of March gives 5.5 pro-rata days. Mind the article 245(3) cap: if cessation falls in the calendar year after the one you were hired in, or the contract did not run longer than 12 months, the two counts together cannot exceed 22 days × contract months ÷ 12.

It is, pro rata. Article 263(1) fixes the Christmas allowance at «um mês de retribuição» and (2) makes it «proporcional ao tempo de serviço prestado no ano civil» in three situations, one of which is (b), «no ano de cessação do contrato de trabalho». Leave at the end of March and you receive three twelfths of a month. Paragraph 3 adds that breaching this article «constitui contra-ordenação muito grave», which tells you how negotiable it is. If your employer pays the allowance in twelfths through the year, the part already received is deducted, because you already have it.

The base pay and seniority payments for the days you missed, no more and no less. Article 401(1) fixes «uma indemnização de valor igual à retribuição base e diuturnidades correspondentes ao período em falta», computed at a thirtieth of the monthly salary per day. On a €1,200 salary, missing 30 days costs €1,200 and missing 15 costs €600. Note the indemnity is owed TO THE EMPLOYER, and in practice is set off against what they owe you, which is why it appears here as a deduction. Paragraph 2 exempts a worker with recognised domestic-violence victim status.

Both taxed, unlike dismissal severance, which has its own regime. Holiday pay, the holiday allowance and the Christmas allowance are pay, they fall inside the contributory base and so carry the 11 % employee share of Social Security, which the calculator deducts. Income tax is flagged but not computed, because it depends on your bracket and because allowances are withheld separately from the rest of the payslip. The headline figures on this page are gross, and the net shown is gross less Social Security and less any notice indemnity, still before income tax.

You get these credits AND, if the dismissal was for objective reasons, severance on top. The final settlement on this page does not depend on why you left: article 245.º says «cessando o contrato de trabalho», without distinguishing. Severance is a different calculation, article 366.º, and depends on your seniority and on the transitional rate regime (14 days of pay per year since May 2023, with higher rates for earlier service). Use the dismissal severance calculator for that part and add the two. And if it is the employer who failed to serve notice, article 363(4) requires them to pay you the missing period.

During the contract, as a rule no. Article 237(3) says that «o direito a férias é irrenunciável e o seu gozo não pode ser substituído, ainda que com o acordo do trabalhador, por qualquer compensação, económica ou outra», with a single exception: article 238(5) allows a worker to waive the days above 20 working days and take the money. On CESSATION it is different: there is no way to take the holiday then, which is exactly why article 245.º orders it paid. That is why a final settlement can be far larger than an ordinary month.

On cessation, in the final reckoning, which follows the rules for pay. If it goes unpaid, employment credits prescribe fast: article 337(1) of the Labour Code says that «o crédito de empregador ou de trabalhador emergente de contrato de trabalho, da sua violação ou cessação prescreve decorrido um ano a partir do dia seguinte àquele em que cessou o contrato de trabalho». One year is not long, which is why it is worth checking the final payslip against an independent calculation in the month it arrives.