Aguinaldo is Mexico’s mandatory year-end bonus: at least 15 days of salary, paid to every employee before 20 December, prorated for anyone who worked part of the year. In 2026 the deadline falls on a Sunday, so plan to pay by Friday 18 December. A full-year worker on the general minimum wage is owed MXN 4,725.60, of which MXN 3,519.30 is free of income tax.
We help foreign manufacturers open and staff plants in Mexico, free of charge, so we see the same December surprise every year: the aguinaldo was in the law all along, and not in the budget. It sits inside the roughly 35% statutory load covered in our breakdown of what it costs to employ someone in Mexico. This is the part that leaves the bank account in one week.
(Americans hear “Christmas bonus” and picture a discretionary gesture with a nice card attached. Mexican law hears a deadline.)
The Aguinaldo Rules at a Glance
Everything below comes from the Federal Labor Law and the Income Tax Law as they stand for the 2026 season. The obligation itself has not changed since 1970, which is roughly how long some budgets have been ignoring it.
| Rule | What the law says |
|---|---|
| Minimum amount | 15 days of salary, at least (Article 87) |
| Deadline | Before 20 December, every year |
| Who is covered | Every employee: permanent, temporary, unionized, commissioned, managerial |
| Partial year | Prorated by days worked, even if the person already left |
| Salary basis | The ordinary daily wage, not the integrated salary |
| Variable pay | Average daily earnings of the last 30 days worked (Article 89) |
| Income tax | Exempt up to 30 UMA, which is MXN 3,519.30 in 2026 |
| Fine for not paying | 50 to 5,000 UMA, which is MXN 5,865.50 to MXN 586,550 per worker |
| Time limit to claim | One year from the day payment was due |
The entitlement and the deadline are in Article 87 of the Federal Labor Law, the fine is in Article 1002, and the one-year window to claim is in Article 516. The tax exemption is Article 93 of the Income Tax Law, and the UMA it runs on is MXN 117.31 a day for 2026.
How to Calculate Aguinaldo
The formula is short: daily wage times 15, then multiplied by days worked and divided by 365 if the person did not work the whole year. The trap is which wage you use. Aguinaldo runs on the ordinary daily wage, not the integrated salary that already contains the aguinaldo. Use the integrated figure and you will pay the bonus on top of itself, which your workers will not report as an error.
| Step | Full year, minimum wage | Hired 1 June, MXN 450 a day |
|---|---|---|
| Daily wage | MXN 315.04 | MXN 450.00 |
| Days worked in 2026 | 365 | 214 |
| Aguinaldo owed | MXN 4,725.60 | MXN 3,957.53 |
| Tax-free portion | MXN 3,519.30 | MXN 3,519.30 |
| Taxable portion | MXN 1,206.30 | MXN 438.23 |
The 2026 general minimum wage of MXN 315.04 a day drives the first column. The second is the case nobody plans for: a plant that started hiring mid-year still owes a full prorated aguinaldo in its first December, calculated from the hire date, not from the first full month.
The Tax Rule Most English Guides Get Wrong
The exemption is 30 times the daily UMA, a fixed MXN 3,519.30 in 2026. It is not “30 days of the bonus” and it is not a percentage, however many English-language payroll blogs say otherwise. Everything above that amount is taxable income and gets withheld in the normal way.
The practical effect is blunt: at the minimum wage the exemption covers three quarters of the bonus. At MXN 450 a day it covers about half. On an engineer’s salary it disappears into a rounding error, which is why finance teams should budget aguinaldo gross and treat the exemption as a small discount rather than a plan.
Budget It Monthly, Not in December
Aguinaldo is an accrued liability from the first day someone works for you, so accrue it that way. Fifteen days of salary spread over a year is 1.25 days of payroll a month, or about 4.1% of annual wages. Set that aside monthly and December is a transfer. Skip it and December is a conversation with your treasurer.
One detail that catches employers who decide to be generous: aguinaldo feeds the integration factor that sets the IMSS contribution base. The statutory minimum factor is 1.0493, built from 15 days of aguinaldo plus 12 vacation days and the 25% vacation premium. Every extra day of aguinaldo you promise adds about 0.27% to that base permanently, so a 30-day bonus raises IMSS and INFONAVIT contributions all year, not just the December cash.
Should You Pay More Than 15 Days?
Fifteen days is the floor, not the market. Shelter operator Tetakawi states that many industrial companies already pay 30 days, and collective bargaining agreements in mature industrial parks routinely set more than the minimum. We could not find a published survey of aguinaldo days by region or sector, so treat any single number you read, including that one, as a claim rather than a benchmark.
The way to settle it is local, not national. Ask what the plants on your street pay before you set your own figure, because the operator comparing two offers is comparing December, not annual compensation theory. Labor depth and the going package are part of what our site selection work scores before you commit to a park.
Aguinaldo Is Not Profit Sharing
Foreign employers routinely confuse the two, then budget for one. Aguinaldo is a fixed December obligation of at least 15 days of salary, owed whether the company made money or lost it. PTU, the profit sharing rule, is 10% of taxable profit, paid the following May, capped at three months of salary, and skipped entirely in a company’s first year of operation.
One arrives with the holidays, the other arrives with the tax return. A plant that opens this year meets aguinaldo in its first December and PTU in its second May, which is a useful thing to know before the second one shows up uninvited.
What Happens If You Pay Late
Late or missing aguinaldo is a labor violation with a fine of 50 to 5,000 UMA per affected worker, which in 2026 means MXN 5,865.50 to MXN 586,550. Workers have a free route to claim it through PROFEDET, the federal labor defense office, which offers orientation, conciliation and representation at no cost, and they have a year from the due date to do it.
A bad year is not a defense. The obligation is fixed by the labor law, not by results, so a loss-making plant owes the same 15 days as a profitable one. It is one of the cleanest rules in Mexican payroll, and one of the least negotiable.
Will the Aguinaldo Rise to 30 Days?
Not yet, and not this season. A reform to raise the minimum on a seniority scale, reaching 30 days after six years of service, was presented in July 2026 and is still sitting in committee. Similar proposals have been introduced repeatedly and none has passed.
Plan on 15 days as the legal floor for December 2026, and keep the scale in the five-year model rather than this year’s budget. Mexican labor reform has a habit of arriving eventually and then all at once, as the 40-hour week is currently demonstrating.
What We Tell First-Time Employers in Mexico
The aguinaldo itself is simple. What goes wrong is timing, basis and the assumption that a US payroll calendar transfers. These are the five points we walk through before a plant runs its first December.
- Pay by Friday 18 December 2026. The legal deadline is before 20 December, and this year that lands on a Sunday. Banks do not care about your intentions.
- Accrue 1.25 days of payroll a month. It converts a December shock into a scheduled transfer.
- Use the ordinary daily wage. Not the integrated salary, and for commissioned staff use the average of the last 30 days worked.
- Include leavers. Anyone who worked part of the year is owed their proportional share, whether or not they are still on the payroll in December.
- Decide the number once, deliberately. Days above 15 are permanent: they raise your IMSS base all year and are very hard to take back.
If you would rather not run a Mexican payroll calendar at all in year one, the aguinaldo, the withholdings and the December filings all sit inside a shelter’s scope. What that covers, and how to test a provider on it, is in our shelter company scorecard.
Frequently Asked Questions
What is the aguinaldo in Mexico?
It is a mandatory annual bonus of at least 15 days of salary that every employer must pay before 20 December. It is set by Article 87 of the Federal Labor Law and applies to all employees, including temporary and managerial staff.
How is aguinaldo calculated?
Multiply the ordinary daily wage by 15. For a partial year, multiply that result by days worked and divide by 365. For variable pay, use the average daily earnings of the last 30 days worked.
When must aguinaldo be paid in 2026?
Before 20 December 2026. That date is a Sunday, so employers should pay by Friday 18 December to be safely inside the deadline.
Is aguinaldo taxable in Mexico?
Partly. The first 30 UMA are exempt from income tax, which is MXN 3,519.30 in 2026. Anything above that is taxable and withheld through payroll.
Do employees who left during the year get aguinaldo?
Yes. Anyone who worked part of the year is entitled to the proportional amount, regardless of whether they are employed on the payment date.
What is the penalty for not paying aguinaldo?
A fine of 50 to 5,000 UMA per affected worker, which is MXN 5,865.50 to MXN 586,550 in 2026, plus the amount owed. Workers can claim it free of charge through PROFEDET for one year after the due date.
December is the easiest month to get Mexican payroll wrong and the most expensive one to fix. Send us your headcount plan and we will price the full year, aguinaldo included, free of charge.
