Slovenia plans legal “14th-month” salary with mandatory Christmas bonus

Slovenia could soon get the 14th-month salary legally enshrined as the government has moved to introduce a mandatory Christmas bonus.

Several months before the next general election is due, Prime Minister Robert Golob announced the rollout of the end-of-year bonus for all employees in a move that has already proved divisive, CE Report quotes The Slovenia Times.

"Based on the example of the holiday allowance, considered a kind of 13th-month pay, we intend to introduce mandatory Christmas bonus, or the 14th-month pay," he told reporters, adding that the new bonus would not be taxed, the same way as the annual mandatory holiday allowance is not.

It appeared his announcement came as a surprise to his own coalition partners and social partners. The finance and economy ministers declined to comment in the immediate aftermath of it all.

But on 18 September, Finance Minister Klemen Boštjančič faced reporters at a press conference after a cabinet session, telling them that the government had indeed confirmed the blueprint for legislation to introduce mandatory Christmas bonus for all employees.

Under the current proposal, the bonus would amount to half of the monthly minimum wage, which currently stands at €1,277 gross.

Boštjančič said the government had initially wanted to tax real estate and use the proceeds to lower labour taxes, but since the plan to introduce the property tax was abandoned, it opted for other solutions to improve people's financial situation.

According to him, a Christmas bonus is common in many European countries. The end-of-year bonus is indeed an established customary practice in some European countries, but it is more common in the southern parts of the continent. For example, in Greece, Spain and Portugal it is legally enshrined in one way or another, but in other countries such policies are usually more company- or industry- specific. Christmas bonuses are most prominent in Latin America, where these payments are mandatory in most countries.

Employers unhappy, trade unions rejoice

TV Slovenia asked random visitors at the ongoing International Trade Fair in Celje about their thoughts on the new bonus. One of them, an employer himself, said he welcomed the move, but generally speaking, employer organisations are not happy about it, describing it as an additional levy that would make the Slovenian economy less competitive.

While they welcome the fact that the bonus would not be taxed, they point out that it would still increase labour costs.

"We welcome the proposal to exempt the performance bonus from taxes and contributions, but cannot agree to the mandatory nature of the bonus," said Mitja Gorenšček, CEO of the Chamber of Commerce and Industry and chair of the Economic and Social Council, the country's main industrial relations forum.

If the bonus really came to be a transitory period would be necessary to allow companies to adapt to the new situation, Blaž Cvar, president of the Chamber of Trade Crafts and Small Business, told TV Slovenia.

On the other hand, trade unions are naturally happy about the planned bonus, with Andrej Zorko, the president of the ZSSS, the biggest trade union confederation in the country, noting that it should be paid out to both those in the public sector and the private.

Minister Boštjančič has indicated that when finalised, the bonus proposal could be a bit different, saying social dialogue will be crucial to make it sustainable in the long term and to "give everyone the sense this is a shared step forward, not some whim of the government that burdens and stifles the economy".

The employer representatives already rejected a proposal for mandatory Christmas bonus when it was first proposed as part of amendments to the umbrella law governing labour relations in early 2023. The proposal was one of the reasons employers left the Economic and Social Council at the time. After a nearly one-year hiatus social dialogue then resumed in mid-2024.