If your employment was ended for an authorised cause — redundancy, retrenchment, closure, the installation of labour-saving devices, or disease — the Labor Code entitles you to separation pay. The amount depends on which ground applies, and the grounds pay at different rates.
This calculator applies the formula in the statute and shows every step, with the provision each step comes from, so you can check it rather than trust it.
Your details
Basic salary only — exclude allowances, overtime and bonuses.
Not sure which applies? The ground your employer wrote on your notice is what matters — and it is not always correct.
How the computation works
Separation pay is owed only for authorised causes under Articles 298 and 299 — business or health reasons not attributable to you. The rate is not the same for every ground:
- Redundancy or installation of labour-saving devices — one month pay, or one month pay per year of service, whichever is higher.
- Retrenchment to prevent losses, or closure not due to serious business losses — one month pay, or one-half month pay per year of service, whichever is higher.
- Disease — one month salary, or one-half month salary per year of service, whichever is greater.
- Closure due to serious business losses — the statute's carve-out means no separation pay is due under this article.
In every case a fraction of at least six months counts as one whole year. And note the floor: because the law says "at least one month pay or the per-year amount, whichever is higher", a person with short service still receives one full month.
What this calculator does not decide
It applies the statutory formula to the ground you select. It cannot tell you whether your employer selected the right ground — and that is very often the real dispute. A "redundancy" that is really a retrenchment pays double. A "closure due to serious losses" excuses separation pay entirely, but the employer must actually prove those losses with audited financial statements. A dismissal dressed as an authorised cause may be an illegal dismissal, which carries reinstatement and backwages rather than separation pay.
It also uses the monthly basic salary you enter. What counts as "one-half month pay" has been the subject of litigation, and a collective bargaining agreement or company policy may entitle you to more than the statutory minimum — never less.
The legal basis
- Article 298 (formerly Article 283), Labor Code of the Philippines, Presidential Decree No. 442 — closure of establishment and reduction of personnel. Source of the redundancy, labour-saving device, retrenchment and closure rates, and of the six-month fraction rule.
- Article 299 (formerly Article 284), Labor Code — disease as a ground for termination.
- The renumbering is not cosmetic trivia: most material written before 2015 cites Articles 283 and 284. The Supreme Court refers to "Article 298 (formerly Article 283)" — see, for example, G.R. No. 224097, February 22, 2023, which quotes the same formula this calculator applies.