When you leave a job, it can be for two reasons: either because the company has fired you or because you have voluntarily resigned from that job. In both cases, the person is entitled to a severance payment. But what is severance pay for voluntary resignation and how is it calculated?
If you want to know what your company should pay you if you are the one who wants to end the employment relationship, take a look at what we have prepared for you below.
What is the severance pay for voluntary resignation?
Before talking to you about severance pay, it is important that you understand what voluntary termination is. It is a situation in which it is a worker who, without pressure, and for personal, work or any other reasons, decides to end the employment relationship which links him to the company.
In other words, the employee decides to leave the job without being asked to do so. This creates a problem for both parties: for the employee, the loss of the job; for the company, the need to find another person.
In general, voluntary withdrawal requires 15 days' notice, The same as if the company fired you. If you do not give this notice, the company would be entitled to deduct those 15 days from your salary. This time is used by the company to find a replacement.
Now, when this type of voluntary resignation occurs, the worker Yes, you will receive a settlement in which all the amounts that the company owes you are settled, That is, salary, extra pay, unused vacation days, overtime, etc.
What does a severance payment for voluntary resignation entail?
When calculating the severance pay for voluntary resignation, you must take into account what it must contain. In this case, the most important data to be included are the following:
- Payroll for the current monthHere, depending on whether you have worked the whole month or not, it is normal to divide your salary by 30 days and prorate it based on the days you work. For example, if you give your notice on January 1 and leave on the 15th, you would only be paid for half a month, the days you worked.
- Unused vacation. By law, workers have 30 days per year of work, so if the person has not enjoyed them, they must be paid in the severance pay for voluntary resignation. Here, let's say that we have to follow a rule of three: if in 360 days you are entitled to 30 days of vacation, in the days you have worked in the year, you will be entitled to X. Now, if you have already enjoyed some of those days, those must be discounted.
- extraordinary paymentsNo, it doesn't mean that you will be paid the full amount of the extra pay. But you will receive the proportional part. Therefore, you must take into account that the Christmas pay starts counting from January 1st, while the summer pay starts counting from July 1st. If you leave in January, then you would only be entitled to receive 15 days of Christmas pay (continuing with the previous example), because you have only worked that long. But, for summer pay, you would have to calculate the days you have worked from July 1st to January 15th.
- Extraordinary hours. If you work overtime, or have not yet been paid for the overtime you did, this must be reflected in the severance pay because these are amounts that the company owes you and, therefore, must be paid.
- Other amounts. Bonuses for objectives, extraordinary gratuities and any other economic amount that you have established from the company and that it has to pay you.
The fact that you submit a voluntary resignation does not mean that you are not entitled to your severance pay. You are, because this document contains a list of amounts that the company owes you and, once settled, the employment relationship is terminated. However, the fact that they present you with the severance pay does not mean that you have to agree with it.
If you feel that not all the amounts have been included, or that it has been incorrectly calculated, you can always state on the document when you sign it that you do not agree and report the case to the courts.
How to calculate severance pay for voluntary resignation
Let's put a easy example so you can understand how to calculate the severance pay for voluntary resignation. Imagine that you have a contract and you decide to present a voluntary resignation at your company on January 20. You comply with the 15 days notice period.
Your salary is 1200 euros per month and you have two extra payments of that amount. In addition, you have enjoyed 30 days of your 15 days of vacation.
When calculating the severance pay, it must contain:
- Your daily salary and the prorated amount for the days you have worked in the current month. In January, you worked 20 days, which is what you are entitled to get paid. In this case, the 1200 euros salary is divided by 30 days, which gives a daily salary of 40 euros. Now, multiplying 40 euros by 20 days, you are owed 800 euros in salary.
- Your extra payments. Extra payments are paid twice a year, but each one is an annual bonus. That is, to receive the July bonus you must have worked 360 full days and for the Christmas bonus you must also have worked 360 days. In the case of the Christmas bonus, you must have only worked 20 days (because it starts counting on January 1st). But, for the summer bonus, you will have worked from July 1st to January 20th. That is, you have worked 6 months of 30 days each (although some are 30 days and others 31) plus the 20 days in January. That is, 180 days + 20 days in January, which makes a total of 200 days. Using a rule of three, you would obtain the proportional part of these extra payments.
- The holidays not enjoyed. In the example we have given you, as a worker, you have taken 15 days of vacation. However, it is normal that unused vacations must be paid before the end of the current year that generates them. Otherwise, they are lost. Well, since you are leaving on January 20, you would only be entitled to the prorating of those vacations. That is, if for 360 days you are entitled to 30 days of vacation, for 20 days, you will be entitled to x. You will have to multiply that result by the daily salary you receive and it will give you the exact amount.
Finally, you would only have to enter the total amount owed by the company and the severance payment for voluntary resignation would be ready.
As you can see, the severance pay for voluntary resignation is something that you have to receive, no matter what, when you end your employment relationship with a company (whether voluntarily or not). Calculating it before the company presents it to you can give you security, since, in case the expected amounts do not match, you could ask why and make the decision on whether you agree or not with that document.