How to correctly calculate the average salary for dismissal payments

When the employment relationship with an employee is terminated, a full settlement must be made. The departing employee must receive all the money he earned on the day of dismissal, in addition, compensation for vacation days if it was not used in full. In many cases, additional compensation for leaving is also due (depending on the reason and article for which the dismissal is made).

Accounting calculates these payments according to the algorithm provided by law, which is based on average earnings for a certain accounting period. Most often, the basis is taken as average daily earnings. Its calculation provides some nuances that should be followed in order to avoid financial errors.

Let's look at how this indicator is calculated in various situations and give specific examples.

How to calculate average daily earnings (except for cases of calculating vacation pay and compensation for unused vacation)?

In what cases are average earnings calculated upon dismissal?

At the moment of completion of cooperation with the employee, a full payment is made to him. In addition to the salary amount, the resigning employee must be accrued:

1. Compensation for the remainder of the vacation (if any) that was not used (part 4 of article 84.1, part 1 of article 127, part 1 of article 140 of the Labor Code of the Russian Federation).
2. Dismissal benefits if the employment relationship was terminated for certain reasons (Article 178 of the Labor Code of the Russian Federation).

IMPORTANT!

Severance pay is required to be given to all employees leaving the organization due to optimization of the number of employees or closure of the company. The exception is those who were accepted for a period of up to 2 months. However, this does not deprive the company of the opportunity to include conditions for additional payments to this category of personnel in its internal regulations.

Severance pay is due:

1. Upon dismissal due to the closure of an organization or a reduction in the number of staff :

• in the amount of average earnings for the first month after termination of the employment contract;
• in the amount of average earnings for the second month after dismissal - provided that the dismissed person was unable to find a job and received official unemployed status;
• in special circumstances, by decision of the employment service - for the third month after termination of the employment contract, and for workers in the Far North, it is possible to increase the time of payments to 5 months .

2. In other circumstances of dismissal, benefits may be paid in the amount of two weeks’ average earnings. This:

• conscription into the army;
• rupture of cooperation due to changes in working conditions that make it impossible to continue;
• dismissal due to refusal to move to a workplace in another region;
• worker's medical care indications;
• dismissal due to the return of a previously departed employee on the basis of a judicial act.

Thus, calculating average earnings per day is necessary in all of the above cases.

Legislative norms

Labor law and Government Decrees of the Russian Federation require that managers and accountants, when calculating compensation and other payments upon dismissal, be guided by the provisions given:

• Art. 139 of the Labor Code of the Russian Federation - it regulates the procedure for calculating dismissal payments;
• provision approved by Decree of the Government of the Russian Federation of December 24, 2007 No. 922 - it discusses in detail the calculation methodology relating to the determination of average earnings for the accounting period in all legally valid situations.

What standards govern the calculation of average daily earnings?

Here are the legal norms on the basis of which the average daily earnings are calculated upon dismissal:

• Art. 139 Labor Code of the Russian Federation;
• Decree of the Government of the Russian Federation dated December 24, 2007 No. 922 “On the specifics of the procedure for calculating average wages.”

According to them, average daily earnings must be calculated for a period of 12 consecutive calendar months, up to the month in which the basis for the corresponding accrual arose.

In general, the procedure for calculating it includes:

1. Determination of the calculation period and the quantity related to it:

• calendar days - to calculate payments for vacation not taken;
• working days - to calculate severance pay.

2. Summarizing the salary that needs to be taken into account.

3. Dividing the salary amount by the duration of the pay period in days.

Is it possible to check online?

It is possible to check the manual calculation of compensation upon dismissal via the Internet. To do this, you will need to enter into the appropriate program all the information it requests, taking into account the features described above. The program will process the entered data and issue the estimated amount of compensation.

If you doubt your calculations, use the Ready Solution from ConsultantPlus. Get trial access to the system and learn for free how to calculate and pay compensation for unused vacation upon dismissal of an employee.

What periods and amounts are included in the calculation of average earnings?

Regardless of the purpose for which the calculation is made, the following days are not taken into account in 12 months:

• when an employee was released from performing official functions while maintaining his salary;
• related to sick leave time;
• periods when the employee did not work and received average earnings.

Bonus payments are included in the calculation of the average salary, regardless of the presence of excluded periods, if they are calculated taking into account the time worked. Otherwise, they must be taken into account as a share of the time actually worked.

IMPORTANT!

Monthly bonuses are taken into account in the actual amount, but no more than one monthly payment for each individual indicator.

Bonuses for quarters that are fully taken into account in the period of calculating average earnings are accepted in full . Otherwise, they are included in proportion to the number of months in the quarter included in the 12 months before the month in which average earnings are calculated.

Annual bonuses for the previous year are taken into account in full , regardless of the time of their payment.

IMPORTANT!

An exception to the general rule is financial assistance for vacation, which is taken into account when calculating average monthly earnings upon dismissal (Resolution of the Presidium of the Supreme Arbitration Court of the Russian Federation dated November 30, 2010 No. 4350/10).

Exclusion from the calculation of special periods

The first point in applying the methodology for calculating dismissal payments will be to determine the total amount of the employee’s earnings for a particular period established by law. All time actually worked by the employee and the amounts accrued to him for these working days are taken into account, except for special periods excluded by law. Amounts that an employee received during the following periods should not be included in total income when calculating his severance payments:

• while on a business trip, since during this time his earnings were retained (Article 167 of the Labor Code of the Russian Federation);
• during paid or administrative leave (Article 114 of the Labor Code of the Russian Federation);
• period of temporary disability (illness, caring for a loved one, pregnancy and childbirth);
• additional free days provided for caring for disabled children;
• downtime through no fault of the employee;
• a strike in which the employee did not take part, which interfered with the performance of his work duties;
• other periods provided for in clause 5 of the Regulations approved by Decree of the Government of the Russian Federation of December 24, 2007 No. 922.

Question: An employee was hired by the organization on June 1, 2018, works at 0.5 rate and receives 12,500 rubles. from full rate 25,000 rub. There were no excluded periods. The employee went on maternity leave from 04/02/2019. What average daily earnings should the employer use to calculate maternity benefits? View answer

How to calculate average daily earnings for vacation compensation

To calculate the average daily amount of earnings for vacation compensation, take the average monthly number of days per month equal to 29.3 (Part 4 of Article 139 of the Labor Code of the Russian Federation). If within 12 months before the month of dismissal there are no periods excluded from the calculation, then the formula is used:

EXAMPLE

The amount of the salary of an employee dismissed in June 2021 from June 2020 to May 2021 amounted to 564,000 rubles. The specified time has been fully worked out. Let's calculate the average daily earnings.

Solution:

564 000 / 12 / 29,3 = 1604.09 rub.

If in the period taken into account there was time excluded from it, the formula changes:

The number of days in months not fully worked is determined by the formula:

EXAMPLE

The employee will retire in June 2021. From June 2021 to May 2021, he worked for 10 full months. In February 2021, he was on vacation from 02/01/2021 to 02/20/2021, and in April 2021 he was on sick leave from 04/01/2021 to 04/25/2021. Earnings amounted to 879,000 rubles excluding vacation pay and sick leave. Let's calculate the average daily earnings upon dismissal.

Solution:

1. In February 2021, we take into account 9 calendar days out of 28.
2. In April, we take into account 5 days out of 30.
3. The duration of partial periods in days will be: 29.3 / 29 × 9 + 29.3 / 30 × 5 = 9.09 + 4.88 = 13.97 days.
4. The amount of average charges per day will be: 879,000 / (29.3 × 10 + 13.97) = 879,000 / 306.97 = 2863.47 rubles.

Special situations for accrual and payment

Difficulties in determining the amount of vacation compensation upon dismissal may arise in the following situations:

• In the period for which the right to leave is determined, there are time intervals that are not included in the length of service. In this case, the beginning of the year following the one that includes such intervals is shifted by the corresponding number of calendar days. And vacations at your own expense are shifted to the beginning of the next year only if their total duration for the year exceeds 14 calendar days (Article 121 of the Labor Code of the Russian Federation) and the shift occurs by the difference between the actual number of days of vacation without pay for the year and 14 calendar days days.
• The employee quits before the end of the year for which he has already taken a full vacation. In this situation, upon dismissal, that part of the vacation pay is withheld from him, which corresponds to the overpaid part of the vacation (clause 2 of the Rules on regular and additional vacations, approved by the People's Commissar of the USSR on April 30, 1930 No. 169). However, if the dismissal occurs on grounds that give the right to payment of vacation pay in full, then compensation payments upon dismissal attributable to the overpaid part of the vacation are not considered unnecessary.

For information on how to calculate vacation pay attributable to the overpaid part of the vacation, read the article “Deduction for unworked vacation days upon dismissal .

If an employee goes on vacation with subsequent dismissal, the calculation of compensation and its payment must be made on the last working day. On this working day preceding the vacation with subsequent dismissal, the employee must receive a final payment, work book and other documents necessary for further employment (letter of the Federal Service for Labor and Employment dated December 24, 2007 No. 5277-6-1).

How to calculate average earnings for severance pay

In general, the average daily earnings for severance pay are calculated using the formula:

IMPORTANT!

If in the 12 months before the month of calculation there were non-working holidays (as in connection with the situation with coronavirus 2021 according to the decrees of the President of the Russian Federation), neither these days nor the amounts of payment for them are included in the calculations (letter of the Ministry of Labor of Russia dated May 18, 2020 No. 14- 1/B-585).

EXAMPLE

The employee is being laid off in June 2021. During the period from June 2021 to May 2021, he worked 254 days and earned RUB 645,000. What will be his average daily earnings and the amount of severance pay?

Solution:

645,000 / 254 = 2539.37 rubles.

In order to calculate the average monthly earnings upon dismissal, you need to multiply the amount of average accruals per day by the number of working days for the monthly period according to its planned schedule - starting from the day following the date of dismissal.

Let's supplement the example by indicating that during this monthly period he had to work 20 days. Then the severance pay will be:

2539.37 rub. × 20 = 50,787.4 rub.

Exclusion of certain amounts from total income

Regardless of exactly what time within the billing period the accruals were made, some of them are not taken into account when determining the average daily earnings (during the calculation of the total income for the billing period). Such payments include social:

• financial assistance to staff;
• compensation for travel and food;
• payment of tuition fees;
• funds provided for recreation and recovery;
• money for utilities, payment for kindergarten for employees’ children, etc.

Calculation of average earnings if there was no income in the billing period

There are often circumstances as a result of which the employee had no income in the 12 months before dismissal. Then the following rules are used for calculations:

1. If in earlier periods the employee worked and had accruals, take the previous billing period, which is equal in duration.
2. When the worker did not have any accruals before the month of separation, the calculation is based on the actual amounts of salary and days worked in the month of calculating the average daily earnings upon dismissal.
3. If the employee has not previously been employed by employers for pay, the established salary or tariff rate is used for calculation.

Results

Payment of compensation for unused vacation upon dismissal of an employee is mandatory for the employer. Its calculation must be done taking into account all the features of determining the average daily earnings and the number of days of unused vacation. Excessive vacation pay paid in advance is subject to withholding. The calculation can be checked via the Internet.

Sources:

• Tax Code of the Russian Federation
• Labor Code

You can find more complete information on the topic in ConsultantPlus. Free trial access to the system for 2 days.

Sickness benefits

To calculate benefits for illness or work injury, you must act in accordance with the provisions of Federal Law No. 255-FZ of December 29, 2006. This standard differs significantly from the rules established by Resolution No. 922. Let's look at the differences.

What is included in calculating the average salary for benefits? To calculate the benefit, you will need to determine all the same calculation indicators: the calculation base and the calculation period. These indicators are calculated in a special way.

The calculation base includes all types of remuneration for labor from which insurance premiums for temporary disability and maternity (VNiM) were calculated and paid. This includes official salary, bonuses, territorial additional payments, compensation bonuses and other types of payments assigned as part of the labor relationship with the employee. The calculator for calculating average earnings for unemployment benefits works similarly.

The base is strictly limited; it must not exceed the established limit on VNiM insurance premiums for the corresponding calendar years. Current limits:

• 2016 - 718,000 rubles;
• 2017 - 755,000 rubles;
• 2018 - 815,000 rubles;
• 2020 — 865,000 rub.

The calculation period for benefits is equal to two calendar years preceding the year in which the insured event occurred (illness, maternity leave, injury). For example, if a certificate of incapacity for work was issued in 2020, then the years 2021 and 2021 will be included in the calculation.

From the calculation period, exclude all days for which the employee was not accrued remuneration for work. For example, unpaid leave, maternity or child care leave, duration of illness, injury or caring for a sick relative.

For fully worked two years, the billing period will be 730 days. If it is a leap year, the period increases to 731 days.

An example of how to calculate the average daily earnings for sick leave.

Morkovkin issued a sick leave certificate from February 11 to February 20, 2020. For previous years his salary was:

• in 2021 - 595,500 rubles, which does not exceed 755,000 rubles. — the maximum base for contributions to VNiM in 2021;
• in 2021 - 850,000 rubles, which exceeds 815,000 rubles. — the maximum base for contributions to VNiM in 2021, therefore, the calculation includes an amount equal to the established limit for VNiM SV.

The base for calculating sick leave is RUB 1,410,500. (RUB 595,500 + RUB 815,000).

Morkovkin’s average daily earnings to pay for sick leave benefits are 1,932.19 rubles. (RUB 1,410,500 / 730 days).

When to index?

If salaries at the company where you work have been increased, then the calculations require indexation with an increase factor. The coefficient takes into account the increase in both tariff rates and monthly payments to them. It must be calculated by dividing the new size by the old one.

Indexing example

Important. The only condition for using this formula is a general increase in wages for the department or area, that is, its massive nature. If an increase was made for an individual employee, then the increasing vacation pay coefficient is calculated.

Moreover, these provisions, prescribed by letter of Rostrud dated October 31, 2008 No. 5920-TZ, also apply to part-time workers.