Welcome to our blog! We discussed regular and collective vacations, and we received many requests to explain vacation selling, technically called pecuniary bonus, in more detail. Although the correct term is pecuniary bonus, everyone usually calls it vacation selling. We will use “vacation selling” here, but please remember the technical term.
What is Vacation Selling?
Vacation selling allows employees to sell up to one-third of their vacation period. Generally, employees are entitled to 30 days of vacation after one year of work.
How Does it Work?
Instead of taking the full 30 days off, the employee can choose to take only 20 days and sell the remaining 10 days to the company. During these “sold” days, the employee continues working and receives payment for those days.
Practical Example:
Suppose an employee with a salary of R$3,000.00 wants to take a 20-day vacation starting on June 1st, 2025, and sell 10 days. The schedule would be:
- 06/01/25 to 06/20/25: Vacation
- 06/21/25 to 06/30/25: Working normally
For the 10 days worked (June 21st to June 30th, 2025), the employee will receive their regular pro-rated salary, which would be R$1,000.00 (R$3,000.00 / 30 days * 10 days). In addition, they will receive the amount corresponding to the 10 vacation days sold, which is the same amount of R$1,000.00 plus a one-third (1/3) increase, totaling R$1,334.00. Therefore, for the 10 days worked and sold, the employee will receive R$1,000 + R$1,000 + R$334 = R$2,334.00.
Vacation Selling in Case of Split Vacations:
The 30-day vacation can be divided into up to three periods, following these rules:
- One of the periods must be at least 14 days.
- No other period can be shorter than 5 days.
In cases of split vacations, the employee can also sell up to 10 days and take the remaining 20 days off, for example:
- 15 days in the first period and 5 days in the second period; or
- 14 days in the first period and 6 days in the second period.
Important General Rules:
- It is the employee’s choice to sell vacation days, and the company must accept if the employee requests it up to 15 days before the end of the entitlement period.
- If the request is made at another time, it is up to the company to accept or deny the vacation sale request.
- Payment for sold vacation days must be made along with the regular vacation payment, that is, up to two days before the vacation starts.
Reduced Vacation and the Pecuniary Bonus:
In some situations, such as unjustified absences, the vacation period can be reduced to 24, 18, or 12 days. In these cases, the number of days that can be sold also decreases:
- 24 days of vacation: 8 days can be sold
- 18 days of vacation: 6 days can be sold
- 12 days of vacation: 4 days can be sold
Important Note: We reiterate that the technical name for “vacation selling” is pecuniary bonus.
We hope this explanation has helped you understand the vacation selling process in Brazil better. If you have any further questions, please feel free to ask!