Separation Pay Calculator
DOLE
Work out separation pay under Labor Code Articles 283 and 284, with the one-month floor and the six-month rounding rule both applied.
This calculator does not carry current agency interest or dividend rates. You enter the rate, so a result is only as current as the figure you typed.
It is an estimate for planning, not an official quotation, and DOLE's own computation is what governs. Confirm the figures before you commit to anything.
Every figure on this page is from Official Gazette's own published documents.
Last verified 1 source, listed below
Presidential Decree No. 442, Labor Code of the Philippines1. PHGuides is independent and not affiliated with DOLE.
What this calculator does
It applies Article 283 and Article 284 of the Labor Code, renumbered as 298 and 299, to your monthly pay and length of service, and returns the higher of the two amounts the statute offers.
Two rules in that statute decide most of the answer, and both are easy to miss.
Rule one: it is “whichever is higher”, not “per year of service”
The Code sets a one month pay floor alongside the per-year amount. An employee with short service on the half-month ladder gets the floor, not the smaller per-year figure.
| Service | Ground | Per-year amount | One-month floor | Entitlement |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 year | retrenchment | ₱10,000.00 | ₱20,000.00 | ₱20,000.00, floor wins |
| 5 years 7 months | retrenchment | ₱60,000.00 | ₱20,000.00 | ₱60,000.00 |
| 5 years 7 months | redundancy | ₱120,000.00 | ₱20,000.00 | ₱120,000.00 |
Every figure is this calculator’s own output at ₱20,000.00 monthly pay.
Rule two: six months counts as a whole year
The Code says a fraction of at least six (6) months shall be considered one (1) whole year. Five months counts for nothing.
| Service | Credited years | Redundancy entitlement |
|---|---|---|
| 5 years 5 months | 5 | ₱100,000.00 |
| 5 years 6 months | 6 | ₱120,000.00 |
| 5 years 7 months | 6 | ₱120,000.00 |
One extra month of service is worth ₱20,000.00, a full month of pay, at the point the fraction crosses six months. Nothing else in the calculation moves that sharply.
The rate depends on the ground, and the grounds are statutory
| Authorized cause | Rate per year |
|---|---|
| Installation of labor-saving devices | 1 month per year |
| Redundancy | 1 month per year |
| Retrenchment to prevent losses | 1/2 month per year |
| Closure not due to serious business losses | 1/2 month per year |
| Disease, Article 284 | 1/2 month per year |
Redundancy pays double what retrenchment pays for identical service. At ₱20,000.00 monthly and 6 credited years that is ₱120,000.00 against ₱60,000.00, a difference of ₱60,000.00 decided entirely by which cause the employer names.
The rate is a selector on this calculator rather than a box you fill, because it is fixed in the Code rather than negotiated.
The notice period
Article 283 requires a written notice on the workers and on the Department of Labor and Employment at least one (1) month before the intended date. That is one notice to two recipients, and it is separate from the money.
Worked projections
At ₱20,000.00 monthly pay, every row computed by this calculator:
| Credited years | 1 month per year | 1/2 month per year |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | ₱20,000.00 | ₱20,000.00 |
| 5 | ₱100,000.00 | ₱50,000.00 |
| 6 | ₱120,000.00 | ₱60,000.00 |
| 10 | ₱200,000.00 | ₱100,000.00 |
| 11 | ₱220,000.00 | ₱110,000.00 |
The half-month column at 1 credited year reads ₱20,000.00 rather than ₱10,000.00 because the one-month floor applies.
What this calculator does not do
It does not decide whether your termination was for an authorized cause. Just causes under Article 297, formerly 282, carry no separation pay at all, and the difference between a just cause and an authorized cause is a legal question this page does not answer.
It also does not compute your final pay, which is a separate reckoning of unpaid salary, pro-rated 13th month pay and unused leave. For the 13th month component see the 13th month pay calculator, and for the SSS benefit that may follow an authorized-cause separation see the SSS unemployment benefit guide.
Read next
The statutory leave and premium entitlements that sit alongside this are in the service incentive leave guide.
The grounds, the notice requirement and the six-month rounding rule are set out in full in the separation pay guide, and what else is owed when employment ends is in the final pay guide.