Articles by Niko Nurmentaus
Cesantías in Colombia: the annual severance deposit, 12% interest, and the 14 February deadline
Cesantías in Colombia are severance savings: one month of salary for every year of service, which the employer calculates on 31 December and deposits by 14 February into a fondo de cesantías, the severance fund the…
Sick pay in Germany: Entgeltfortzahlung im Krankheitsfall, Krankengeld, and the U1 refund
An employee in Germany who is too ill to work keeps 100% of their pay from the employer for up to six weeks per illness. That obligation is Entgeltfortzahlung im Krankheitsfall (continued pay during illness). From the…
Mexico's fondo de ahorro: how the savings fund match works and when it is tax-exempt
A fondo de ahorro is a savings fund in which the worker sets aside part of each payslip and the employer deposits the same amount. The Mexico savings fund benefit is one of the country's most common prestaciones…
Portugal's subsídio de férias and subsídio de Natal: the 14-payment year and how each payment is taxed
A Portuguese employee on €1,500 a month is paid €21,000 a year, not €18,000. The difference is the subsídio de férias (holiday subsidy) and the subsídio de Natal (Christmas subsidy), often called the 14th and 13th month…
Mexico vacation days after the vacaciones dignas reform: the 12-day minimum and the 25% prima vacacional
Since 1 January 2023, a worker in Mexico earns at least 12 paid vacation days after the first year of service, double the 6 days the law required before. The vacaciones dignas ("decent vacations") reform rewrote Article…
Guides by Niko Nurmentaus
How Collective Agreements Work in Spain: Automatic Coverage, Provincial Wage Tables
Spain has one of the most far-reaching collective-agreement systems in Europe. A properly negotiated and registered sector agreement binds every employer and worker in its scope automatically, whether or not they are…
How Collective Agreements Become Binding in Germany: Five Routes, Not One
If you have run payroll in France, Portugal, or Spain, you carry an instinct that quietly breaks the moment you cross into Germany. A German collective agreement, a Tarifvertrag, binds almost no one automatically, and yet Germany still reaches roughly 70 percent effective coverage...
Sectoral Extension of Union Agreements in Portugal: How It Works and Why the Rules Vary by Region
Picture two retail cashiers. Same chain, same job description, same cash register. One works in a shop in Oeiras, just outside Lisbon. The other works in Santarém, about an hour up the road. Neither...
