Paying year-end bonuses and 13th-month salaries across Africa and Latin America: dates, caps and a December checklist
December is the month payouts double and banks slow down. Which countries expect a 13th month, when it is due, and how to run the whole thing as one batch before the holidays.
December is when a cross-border payout goes wrong most easily: amounts double, the person who usually runs it is on leave, and the banks in between add a day. Here is how to get every bonus into every account before the holiday.
Where a 13th month is customary or required
- Mexico — the aguinaldo, at least 15 days' pay, due by 20 December.
- Brazil — the décimo terceiro, typically in two instalments, the second by 20 December.
- Colombia — the prima de servicios, half in June and half by 20 December.
- Argentina — the aguinaldo (SAC), half in June and half in December.
- Ecuador — the décimo tercer sueldo, by 24 December.
- Nigeria, Kenya, Ghana, South Africa — no statutory 13th month; year-end bonuses are contractual and widely expected.
These are the customary dates for employees. For contractors and suppliers the terms are whatever your contract says — but the expectation is the same, and so is the deadline.
The caps that bite in December
A bonus doubles the amount on a line, and a line that fit under a mobile-money cap in November may not in December. Storspay splits automatically under one reference and one fee, so nothing bounces — but the review screen will show more transfers per line than usual. That is expected.
The December checklist
- Fund early. ACH and SEPA take a day or two in normal weeks; give yourself three in December.
- Run bonuses as their own batch, separate from salary, so the statement is clean for the auditor.
- Confirm by the 15th for a 20 December deadline. Storspay settles the same business day, but local bank holidays in mid-December vary by country.
- Use the "they receive exactly this" field for bonuses fixed in local currency, so the rate is fixed at confirmation and the recipient sees the exact figure promised.
- Schedule January payroll before you leave. A scheduled batch runs on the date you set.
One number
A US$100,000 bonus run by wire across ten countries costs roughly $5,000–$7,000 in fees and spread and lands sometime in the last week. On Storspay it costs $2,000 and lands the day you confirm. The difference is another bonus.
Price your December run on the calculator.
Who this is for — and who it is not for
Storspay is for businesses, and a sole trader counts as one. If you are a freelancer or sole proprietor trading in your own name, you open a business account of the sole-trader type. You can be paid by companies abroad, and you can pay other businesses on Storspay — including other sole traders — for work they have done for you.
What Storspay is not is a personal money-transfer service. We do not open personal accounts, and every payment has to be a business transaction: an invoice, a contract, work delivered. Money to family, gifts and personal transfers are not what this is, and we would rather say so now than at verification.
See your own corridor number. What your team receives, what Storspay costs, what you keep — no sign-up.
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