Prima and cesantías in Colombia: amounts, dates and payroll handling

Every Colombian employee on an ordinary salary earns three statutory payments on top of monthly pay: the service bonus (prima de servicios), severance savings (cesantías) and interest on those savings (intereses sobre cesantías). Together they cost the employer about 17.67% of salary a year: 8.33% for the prima, 8.33% for cesantías and 1% for the interest.

What makes them hard for a foreign employer is less the amount than the timing. The prima arrives in two instalments, one mid-year and one before Christmas. Cesantías are calculated at 31 December and paid into a fund in early February. The interest goes to the employee in January. Each payment has its own legal deadline and its own penalty for missing it.

Annual leave is a different matter. The 15 working days of paid vacation are time off on full pay rather than an extra payment, so they cost nothing beyond the monthly salary when taken. Some employers provision 4.17% of salary for vacation anyway, which pushes the total accrual towards 22%, but that is an accounting choice rather than an additional cash payment.

The three together are part of the prestaciones sociales, the statutory benefits set by the Labour Code and Ley 50 de 1990. Permanent, fixed-term and project employees all earn them, pro rata to the days actually worked. The main exception is the all-inclusive salario integral, covered at the end of this guide.

The Labour Code’s article 306 fixes the prima de servicios at a month’s pay per year, with one half due no later than 30 June and the other by 20 December. For budgeting it behaves like a thirteenth salary cut into two.

Each half covers a semester. An employee who works only part of a semester receives a proportional amount, so someone who starts on 1 April receives half of the June instalment, for three months out of six, and the full December one. On a salary of COP 8,000,000 a month, a full year produces COP 4,000,000 in June and COP 4,000,000 in December.

Article 307 adds that the prima is not salary. It does not enter the contribution base for pension, health or ARL, so the employer pays no social security on it. It is, however, taxable income, and because Colombian withholding adds up all payments made in a month, the prima months carry more tax. In the worked example, withholding rises from COP 92,000 in an ordinary month to COP 693,000 in June and December, and the employee’s net for those months is COP 10,587,000. Warn new hires about this before June, so the higher deduction does not look like a payroll error.

Employees often ask when the June payment will land, since many plan around it. The legal answer is any day up to 30 June; the practical answer is to set a date in the payroll calendar and keep to it every year.

Cesantías are severance savings of one month’s salary per year of service, proportional for part of a year. The employer calculates the year’s amount at 31 December and must deposit it, before 15 February of the following year, in the cesantías fund the employee has chosen. In practice the last day is 14 February.

Which salary counts? If pay was stable for the final three months, the December salary; if it moved, the twelve-month average. For the COP 8,000,000 employee, the 2026 cesantías are COP 8,000,000, deposited by 14 February 2027.

A late deposit is one of the most expensive mistakes in Colombian payroll. Under article 99 of Ley 50 de 1990, each late day costs the employer a further day of the employee’s pay. A deposit made a fortnight late for that employee would cost roughly half a month’s salary in penalties, on top of the cesantías themselves.

Ley 2466 de 2025 changed two details. First, a direct payment to the employee now discharges the debt if the employer can prove it, though every employee must still belong to a fund. Second, an employer may now pay into the fund every month in advance, 8.33% of salary each time, instead of one lump sum each February. That evens out cash flow and takes the February deadline, with its daily penalty, off the table. For a growing Colombian team it is worth considering from the first payroll.

Cesantías and their interest are not subject to withholding tax when paid. That makes them a reliable part of an employee’s planning, and a reason employees check the fund statement each February.

On the year-end cesantías figure the employer adds 12% annual interest, and that money goes straight into the employee’s pocket the following January rather than into the fund. For a full year this equals 1% of annual salary, which is why it appears as 1% in cost tables.

For part of a year the interest is proportional. In the worked example, 2026 cesantías of COP 8,000,000 generate COP 960,000, which the employee receives in January 2027. If the contract ends during the year, the interest is paid with the final settlement rather than the following January.

The reform also lets employer and employee sign an agreement to spread the interest across the year as 1% of salary per month. That suits employers who prefer even monthly cost and employees who would rather have the money during the year. Without a written agreement, the January date applies.

The interest is easy to forget because it is small and goes to the employee rather than the fund. A missed January payment is still a breach, and it tends to come to light at the worst time: in the final settlement, when an employee leaves and checks every line.

Following one employee through a year shows why Colombian payroll budgets need more than twelve equal lines. Here is the 2026 calendar for a hire on COP 8,000,000 a month from 1 January, with the prestaciones dates added to the ordinary monthly runs:

• By 30 June 2026: first half of the prima, COP 4,000,000, paid with or alongside June salary.
• By 20 December 2026: second half of the prima, COP 4,000,000.
• 31 December 2026: cesantías for the year calculated, COP 8,000,000.
• January 2027: interest on cesantías, COP 960,000, paid to the employee.
• By 14 February 2027: cesantías deposited in the employee’s chosen fund.

Over the year, the three payments add COP 16,960,000 to a base salary of COP 96,000,000. Our breakdown of employer cost in Colombia puts them next to pension, ARL and the family compensation fund for the full figure of about COP 128,821,120.

Three mistakes recur in payrolls run from abroad. The first is treating the December prima as optional because it resembles a discretionary year-end bonus; it is statutory. The second is depositing cesantías in a fund the employer chose, instead of the one the employee picked. The third is forgetting that a salary increase during the year changes the cesantías base, because a salary that changed in the last three months is averaged over the year.

The simplest way to avoid surprises is to accrue the prestaciones every month in your own accounts, at roughly 17.67% of salary, and release the accrual on each payment date. Our guide to Colombian payroll shows how the payments sit inside the monthly cycle of PILA and withholding.

If the contract ends partway through a year, all three payments are settled in the final settlement (liquidación), in proportion to the time worked since the last payment. The employee receives the proportional prima for the current semester, the cesantías for the current year and the interest on them, together with salary to the last day and any untaken vacation.

Take the COP 8,000,000 employee leaving on 30 September 2026. The settlement would include the second-semester prima for July to September, half of COP 4,000,000, cesantías for nine months, COP 6,000,000, and interest on those cesantías for the nine months, about COP 540,000, alongside September salary and any untaken vacation.

Paying that settlement late is costly. Above minimum-wage level, article 65 of the Labour Code adds a day’s wage per day of lateness, running for as long as two years. It is a separate penalty from the one for late cesantías deposits.

Short contracts are no exception. The 2025 reform spelled it out: even a contract of a few weeks generates vacation and prestaciones pro rata. A three-month project hire therefore earns a quarter of the annual prima, cesantías and interest, all due at the end.

Senior employees on a salario integral do not receive the prima, cesantías or interest separately, because the integral salary already includes them. It needs a signed agreement and a floor of 10 SMMLV of pay plus at least 30% for the benefits it absorbs: 13 SMMLV in total, or COP 22.76 million a month this year.

The integral salary replaces the three payments and the surcharges for overtime, night, Sunday and holiday work, but not annual leave, which the employee still takes. Contributions and payroll levies are calculated on 70% of it. When an existing employee moves onto an integral salary, the employer settles the cesantías and other prestaciones accrued to that date, without ending the contract.

For most hires the ordinary structure applies, and the payments described above are part of every year. At Employer of Record Colombia they sit on our payroll calendar from the employee’s first month: both prima instalments, the January interest and the February fund deposit, processed alongside ordinary salary. How a new hire picks a cesantías fund during onboarding is covered in our EOR onboarding timeline for Colombia.

Q01When is the prima paid in Colombia?+

A.Half falls due by 30 June, the remainder by 20 December. Together they equal 30 days’ salary a year, proportional for part of a semester.

Q02What is the deadline for depositing cesantías?+

A.Before 15 February of the year after they are earned, which in practice means 14 February. The deposit goes into the cesantías fund the employee has chosen. Missing it costs a day’s pay per day late.

Q03How much is the interest on cesantías?+

A.It is 12% per year of the 31 December cesantías figure, handed to the employee in January. Over a full year this equals 1% of annual salary. A written agreement can switch it to monthly payments of 1% of salary.

Q04Are the prima and cesantías included in social security contributions?+

A.No. The prima is not salary under article 307 of the Labour Code and does not enter the contribution base. Cesantías and their interest, for their part, are not subject to withholding tax when paid.

Q05Do employees on salario integral receive the prima and cesantías?+

A.No. The integral salary, at least 13 minimum wages in 2026, already includes the prima, cesantías and interest. Annual leave is still taken and paid separately.