Guatemala settlement: Q5,000 and 2.5 years → Q24,130.16 (dismissal)

Guatemala employment settlement calculator

Labor liquidation (liquidación laboral) is the total payment of benefits when employment ends. It includes severance (if applicable), proportional aguinaldo, proportional bono 14, unused vacation and pending salaries under the Labor Code (Decree 1441) and related laws. It carries no employer prior-notice pay: the Art. 83 notice is owed by the worker who resigns.

What does the settlement include?

Main formulas

Art. 82 sets one month of salary per year of service and takes the last six months' average as its base (lit. b). Decrees 76-78 (art. 9) and 42-92 (art. 4) require the aguinaldo and Bono 14 earned to be taken into account in the proportion of six months of service. At a steady Q5,000 that base is Q10,000; under six months of service the proportion shrinks with the time worked.

A full period pays 100% of an ordinary monthly salary, leap year included. If your exit falls just after the close (December or July), that 100% is paid separately and only the accrual of the period in progress is added here.

Vacation pay base (Art. 134). Vacation pay is not computed from this month salary: the Code asks for the average of the ordinary and extraordinary remuneration earned over the last year (three months for agricultural or livestock businesses). The tool has a field for that average; if you leave it empty it falls back to the ordinary monthly salary, which is only valid when your salary did not change and there were no commissions, bonuses or regular overtime.

Closed period paid separately. If you leave in December or January, the aguinaldo of the Dec–Nov period that just closed (50% in the first half of December and 50% in the second half of January) may still be pending; leaving in July does the same for the Bono 14 of the Jul–Jun period (first half of July). The notice shows that amount and prorates it to your time in that period, so a mid-period hire is never shown a full extra salary.

Resignation vs dismissal: what changes

Locked example: unjustified dismissal → Q24,130.16

Default data: Q5,000 salary · started Jan 1, 2023 · last day worked Jun 30, 2025 (912 days) · 10 vacation days · with severance

If the same case were a resignation, severance (Q14,559.38) is removed and the total drops to Q9,570.78.

Salary ladder (same 912-day tenure)

Tenure examples (salary × years)

With the same exit date (Jun 30, 2025) and 10 unused vacation days, tenure changes severance (Art. 82 base × years) while the proportional benefits for the period (aguinaldo, bono 14, vacation) stay fixed.

On a resignation only the proportional benefits apply (no severance), which is why the resignation total is identical at 1, 5, and 10 years. One year of severance equals two salaries because the base already integrates half an aguinaldo and half a Bono 14. The Q4,252.28 row uses the Guatemala minimum wage 2026 (Q4,002.28 + Q250 bonus, Acuerdo 256-2025).

Worker prior notice (Art. 83)

This Art. 83 scale is the duty of the worker who wants to end an indefinite contract without just cause; it is not compensation the employer pays on dismissal. Dismissal without cause triggers the Art. 82 severance, and Art. 80 lets the employer claim the notice amount from the worker only after proving before a labour court that the worker abandoned the job without cause. The calculator therefore adds no prior notice in your favour.

Payment deadline and checklist

The settlement must be paid when employment ends. In practice the Ministry of Labor references about 20 days. Before signing the finiquito: confirm the termination type, the Art. 82 base (six-month average plus half an aguinaldo and half a Bono 14), the dates including your first and last day worked, the pending vacation, the aguinaldo (Dec 1 – Nov 30) and Bono 14 (Jul 1 – Jun 30) periods, and request an itemized breakdown.

Legal bases

• Labor Code, Decree 1441 (termination, Art. 82 severance, vacation arts. 130–137, worker notice art. 83)
• Decree 76-78 (aguinaldo)
• Decree 42-92 (bono 14)
• Ministry of Labor and Social Welfare

Related calculators

• Guatemala finiquito
• Severance pay (indemnización)
• Resignation vs dismissal Guatemala
• Guatemala Christmas bonus
• Guatemala vacation pay
• Guatemala net salary

Frequently asked questions

Official sources

• Guatemala Labor Code, Decree 1441: governs termination of employment, the worker notice (art. 83), the Art. 82 severance and the other benefits included in an employment settlement.