Registration of labor relations in the proper form plays a significant role in the further process of labor activity. And if for employers shadow employment, along with risks, also has advantages - they save on taxes and contributions, simplify reporting, ignore the guarantees provided for by the Labor Code of the Russian Federation, then for workers informal employment is more associated with adverse consequences than with advantages.
By agreeing to such working conditions, a person may forget about paid leave, receiving payments during illness, or dismissal with severance pay. And even if the employer promises the applicant to respect his labor rights properly, despite the lack of official documentation, in most cases these assurances are unfounded.
Thus, legal employment is a guarantee of the employee’s financial stability in any life situations, since the Labor Code of the Russian Federation obliges employers to pay employees the average salary when certain circumstances occur.
The average salary indicator is needed to pay employees for periods of absence from the office, as well as to calculate a number of accruals. This value is used to calculate vacation pay, sick leave, payment for absence from the workplace due to a business trip or medical examination, for dismissal payments when staff are reduced, and also to calculate maternity benefits. But in order to make payments correctly, the accountant needs to know how to make calculations and what to take into account for these purposes.
The rules for calculating the average monthly salary in situations established by the Labor Code of the Russian Federation are unified (Article 139 of the Labor Code of the Russian Federation). Average daily earnings are used in calculations. However, depending on the situation, there may be special features, for example, when recording working hours in aggregate.
The specifics of the procedure for calculating the average salary are provided for by the regulation of the same name, approved by Resolution of the Cabinet of Ministers of the Russian Federation of December 24, 2007 No. 922 (hereinafter referred to as Regulation No. 922).
To calculate the average monthly accruals for paying sick leave and maternity leave, a different procedure is applied, approved by Resolution No. 375 of June 15, 2007 (hereinafter referred to as Regulation No. 375).
Billing period for calculating average earnings
Regardless of what kind of labor regime the company operates, the average monthly salary is calculated based on the salary actually paid to the employee and the production rate for the last 12 months (calendar) preceding the paid event (Article 139 of the Labor Code of the Russian Federation, clause 4 of Regulation No. 922). That is, the billing period for cases provided for by the Labor Code is 12 months.
In this case, calendar months are taken in full - from the 1st to the 30th (31st) day, and for the February period - from the 1st to the 28th (29th) day.
At the same time, Article 139 of the Labor Code of the Russian Federation allows the introduction of other periods. The main thing is that this is officially documented and does not worsen the situation of the staff.
When calculating the average amount of payments, individual days and the amounts of their payment are not counted (clause 5 of Regulation No. 922). These are the periods:
- maintaining the average salary for the employee. Exceptions include breaks provided to nursing mothers;
- receiving sick leave or maternity benefits;
- downtime due to the fault of the employer or for reasons beyond our control;
- inability to work due to a strike, provided that the employee did not participate in it;
- additional paid days off to care for children with disabilities;
- other cases of release from work duties with or without retention of payments.
Please note that we are talking about cases regulated by labor legislation. In other situations, for example, for calculating maternity and child benefits, the period will be different.
Amounts included in the calculation of average earnings
What charges are taken into account in the calculations is briefly discussed in Art. 139 of the Labor Code of the Russian Federation: these are all payments within the framework of the company’s remuneration system. This issue is discussed in more detail in clause 2 of Regulation No. 922. It specifies what exactly is to be taken into account:
- wages, including piecework, as a percentage of sales, goods, commissions;
- monetary remuneration for civil servants;
- fees in media editorial offices;
- teachers' salaries for overload;
- allowances and additional payments, including for professional skills, combination, length of service, knowledge of other languages;
- payments related to working conditions;
- bonus accruals and remunerations made within the framework of the company’s remuneration rules;
- other types of salary payments.
Payments with social characteristics and that are not payment for work should be excluded from the calculation. We are talking about financial assistance, payment for travel, lunches, vacations, housing and communal services and other similar payments.
Calculation basis
Please note that not all types of accruals are taken into account when calculating the average. You cannot include social payments, all types of financial assistance, certain categories of compensation in favor of the employee (compensation for the cost of food, travel, rest, vouchers, travel to vacation spots, travel expenses, etc.).
In the base for calculating the average salary, include all types of accruals that are provided for by the regulations on remuneration in the organization. For example, include:
- official salary;
- incentive bonuses;
- bonuses;
- additional payments for overtime, night work;
- payments for combining positions;
- territorial and district allowances;
- other types of payments within the framework of remuneration for labor provided for by the current system of remuneration.
How is the average salary calculated? To do this, you need to divide the calculation base by the number of days in the calculation period. It is worth noting that, for example, for vacation pay the procedure is somewhat different from the generally established one.
General calculation formula:
If you need to calculate average earnings, an online calculator will help you do this easily.
Formula for calculating average earnings
To determine the average amount of wage payments, average daily earnings are used. If a company takes into account working hours in aggregate, then another indicator is taken - average hourly earnings (clause 9 of Regulation No. 922).
Thus, the average salary is calculated using the formula: average earnings (AE) = average daily earnings x number of days of the paid period.
When recording working hours in total, another formula is used: average earnings (AE) = average hourly earnings x number of scheduled working hours in the paid period.
Methodology for calculating average daily earnings for payments for unused vacation
The principle of calculating the average daily earnings in this case is almost identical to the previous one: the same calculation period is taken (12 months), the total earnings are looked for, to which the profit required by law (salary increase, bonuses, etc.) is added.
The difference lies in the calculation of days worked in the billing period, since in order to be granted paid leave, an employee must have at least six months of work experience. So, we perform the following actions.
- We count the number of months worked and compare them with the length of service required for vacation. If an integer number of months have been worked, we use the indicator without changes. If there is a shortfall before the end of the month or the processing of an incomplete month, we apply the following principle: days that are less than 15 are discarded, the number of days greater than 15 is counted as a month. The result is an integer - the number of months for which the employee is entitled to days of paid rest.
- The number of vacation days that the employee would be entitled to during this period is calculated.
- From the total number of allotted rest days, you need to subtract the number of days that the employee managed to spend on vacation during this period.
- To determine the amount of compensation, the resulting figure is multiplied by the average daily earnings, calculated using the same formulas as for calculating severance pay.
Calculation of average earnings
To do this, you need to know the average daily earnings (ADEW).
It is determined by the formula (does not apply to the calculation of vacations and compensation for unused vacation, as well as to the calculation of benefits): SDNZ = salary for days worked in the billing period / number of days worked.
To calculate vacation pay, which as a general rule is paid for calendar days and not working days, a different formula is used. We will talk about it below.
In practice, situations arise when an employee did not have wage payments during the required period or did not work. In this case, the calculation is carried out taking into account the following features:
- the average salary is determined based on the amounts accrued for the period preceding the settlement period and equal to it;
- if there was no salary at all in previous years, then you need to take accruals for days worked in the month the paid event occurred;
- if there were no payments at all, the tariff rate and salary (official salary) are used in the calculation.
An example of calculating average earnings during a business trip
An employee of an organization with a five-day work week was sent on a business trip from February 11 to February 17, 2021. The billing period is 12 months - from February 1, 2021 to January 31, 2021. During this period, the employee was sick for three days (from March 12 to March 14, 2021) and was on annual paid leave from July 2 to July 29, 2021.
During the billing period, the employee was paid:
- salary - 522,000 rubles;
- vacation pay - 39,400 rubles;
- sick leave benefit - 6,041.25 rubles.
Calculation:
- according to the production calendar from February 1, 2021 to January 31, 2021 there were 247 working days;
- the employee worked (247 workers - 3 days of sick leave - 20 days of vacation (working)) - 224 days;
- When calculating average earnings, wages for the pay period are included, but sick leave and vacation payments are not taken into account.
SDNZ: 522,000 rubles/224 days = 2,330.36 rubles.
SZ: 2,330.36 × 5 days of business trip (working) = 11,651.80 rubles.
Legislative norms
Labor law and Government Decrees of the Russian Federation require that managers and accountants, when calculating compensation and other payments upon dismissal, be guided by the provisions given:
- Art. 139 of the Labor Code of the Russian Federation - it regulates the procedure for calculating dismissal payments;
- The regulation, approved by Decree of the Government of the Russian Federation of December 24, 2007 No. 922, discusses in detail the calculation methodology relating to the determination of average earnings for the accounting period in all legally valid situations.
Question: How to calculate the average daily earnings to compensate for unused vacation upon dismissal in the middle of the month, if the actual accrued wages or days worked were only in the month of dismissal, and also if there were none at all? View answer
Features of calculating average earnings for sick leave
The rules for calculating sick leave are determined by the regulation on the specifics of the procedure for calculating benefits for temporary disability, pregnancy and childbirth, and child care, approved by Decree of the Government of the Russian Federation of June 15, 2007 No. 375. To pay for sick leave, the average daily earnings are used (clause 15 of Regulation No. 375) . It includes all employee payments for which contributions to the Social Insurance Fund are accrued. The average salary is determined by the formula (Part 3, Article 14 of Law No. 255-FZ, Clause 15 (1) of Regulation No. 375): SRDNZ = earnings for the billing period / 730.
The billing period for the purpose of calculating benefits for sick leave is two calendar years preceding the year of illness (Part 1, Article 14 of Law No. 255-FZ, Clause 6 of Regulation No. 375). At the same time, the average earnings for each year are limited by the maximum value of the base for calculating contributions (Part 3.2 of Law No. 255-FZ, Clause 19 (1) of Regulation No. 375).
If over the last two calendar years the employee had no earnings or their amount did not exceed the minimum wage, then the average earnings are considered equal to the federal minimum wage established on the day of illness, taking into account regional coefficients (Part 1.1 of Article 14 of Law No. 255-FZ).
Calculation example
Monthly contributory payments to an employee who submitted sick leave in 2021 and 2021 were 60,000 rubles. During the billing period, earnings amounted to: 720,000 720,000 = 1,440,000 rubles.
The maximum base for calculating contributions to the Social Insurance Fund in 2019 is 865,000 rubles, in 2020 - 912,000 rubles. The employee’s earnings for each year of the billing period did not exceed the base limits.
We determine the average daily earnings: 1,440,000 / 730 = 1,972.60 rubles.
Example 3
Let's use the conditions of the previous examples and assume that Ivanov A.V. I was on sick leave from January 14 to January 27, 2021. The calculation period in this case will consist of 2021 and 2021. The income of Ivanov A.V., subject to contributions to the Social Insurance Fund, in 2021 amounted to 580 thousand rubles, and in 2021 - 500 thousand rubles.
Then:
SDZ = (580,000 + 500,000) / 730 = 1,479.45 rubles.
Now you need to check whether the calculated amount does not exceed the maximum possible benefit amount.
The maximum base for contributions to the Social Insurance Fund in 2021 and 2021 will be RUB 755,000, respectively. and 815,000 rub.
Therefore, the maximum SDZ for sick leave in 2021 will be
SDZm = (750,000 + 815,000) / 730 = 2,150.68 rubles.
Estimated amount for Ivanov A.V. It “fits” well into this limit, so it can be used. If a specialist’s work experience exceeds 8 years, then he has the right to 100% sick pay, and the accrued amount will be:
B = 1479.45 x 14 = 20,712.30
The example shows that the employee will receive significantly less money on sick leave than he would have been paid in the form of vacation pay for the same time. This is due to the fact that the average salary for sick leave is not recalculated when wages increase in the billing period.
Subtleties of calculating average earnings for vacation pay
The guarantee of paid vacation is provided for in Art. 114 Labor Code of the Russian Federation. It says that during the main vacation, workers retain their average earnings. Since this case is provided for by the Labor Code of the Russian Federation, the procedure provided for in paragraph 2 of Regulation No. 922 is applied here.
For vacation accruals, the average salary includes payments named by the company’s remuneration system. The period for calculation will be 12 calendar months before the vacation month (clause 4 of the provisions). If an employee goes on vacation in June, then for calculations the period of time is taken from June 1 of last year to May 31 of this year.
As a rule, vacation is granted in calendar days (Article 115 of the Labor Code of the Russian Federation). To pay for such vacations, the average earnings are determined by the formula (clause 9 of the regulations): SZ = average daily earnings x number of calendar days of vacation.
To determine the average daily earnings, the indicator of the average monthly number of calendar days is used, equal to 29.3 (clause 10 of the regulation). However, the exact formula depends on whether the employee has fully worked the months of the pay period or not.
Months worked out in full (clause 10 of the regulations):
SDNZ = salary for the pay period (minus unaccounted amounts) / 12 / 29.3
Calculation example.
The employee was granted additional paid leave from January 20 to January 22, 2021. He worked out the entire billing period from January 1, 2021 to December 31, 2021. The salary for the billing period amounted to 600,000 rubles.
SDNZ amounted to: (600,000 rubles / 12 / 29.3) = 1,706.50 rubles.
SZ per month: 1706.50 × 3 (vacation days) = 5,119.50 rubles.
There were shortcomings in the months (clause 10 of the regulations):
SDNZ = salary for the billing period / (29.3 x number of fully worked months, number of days in unworked months).
Number of days in unworked month = 29.3 / (by the number of calendar days of the month x by the number of calendar days falling within the time worked in a given month).
Calculation example
The employee goes on a two-week vacation from January 11 to January 24, 2021. The billing period is January 1–December 31, 2020. The calculation includes 530,000 rubles.
During this period the employee did not work:
- 7 calendar days - in February (vacation);
- 7 days - in December (sick leave);
- 2 calendar days in March, 30 calendar days in April, 3 calendar days in May (presidential non-working days from March 30 to April 30, from May 6 to 8, 2021);
- March 2–29, 2021 and October 1–31, 2021 – business trip.
Thus, the employee worked fully for 6 months: January, June, July, August, September, November.
We count the number of days in months that are not fully worked:
- February: (29.3 / 29 days x (29 days - 7 days)) = 22.23 days;
- March - excluded from the calculation, since the employee did not work there at all (non-working days and business trips);
- April - non-working days throughout the month;
- May - (29.3 / 31 days x (31 days - 3 days) = 26.46 days;
- October - business trips are excluded from the calculation;
- December - (29.3 / 31 days x (31 days - 7 days) = 22.68 days.
SDNZ: 530,000 rubles / (29.3 × 6 months 22.23 days 26.46 days 22.68 days)) = 2,144.27 rubles.
NW: RUB 2,144.27 x 14 days = 30,019.78 rubles.
What do you need for correct calculations?
To determine the average daily earnings you will also need to know other quantities:
- The amount of all payments received by the employee. This includes: salary and all kinds of bonus parts, bonuses, and allowances. Excluded: social payments (one-time assistance, payment for travel and food) and payments based on average earnings (sick leave, vacation, business trips);
- Settlement period is a period of time for which payments received are summed up. How many days were worked during this period?
Excluded days (for calculations of all types of compensation):
- spent on a business trip;
- absence from work due to illness;
- time off;
- additional days off provided by the employer (to care for a sick family member/disabled child);
- downtime;
- strikes;
- unscheduled unpaid leave.
Average daily earnings is the ratio of the entire amount earned by an employee during the accounting period to the twelve months (preceding) and to the average number of calendar days in a month (a coefficient of 29.3 is taken - adopted in April 2014. Article 139 of the Labor Code of the Russian Federation).
The result can be calculated manually using this formula, or you can use a special online calculator. In the form on the website you need to enter the values corresponding to each column and click on the “Calculate” button. The result will be fast and accurate.
For the convenience of calculations, you can use the online average salary calculator on our website.
When determining the amounts of each type of payment, the procedure for calculating average daily earnings is different.
Calculation of average earnings upon dismissal
When an employee is dismissed, a company is liquidated or staff is reduced, he is paid severance pay in the amount of average monthly earnings (Part 1 of Article 178 of the Labor Code of the Russian Federation).
Since this payment is provided for by the Labor Code of the Russian Federation, the general procedure is used to calculate average earnings using average daily earnings (regulation No. 922).
According to paragraph 9 of the regulation, to determine the average salary, you need to multiply the average daily salary by the number of paid working days.
The average daily salary is calculated using the formula:
SDNZ = accruals for days worked in the billing period / number of days worked.
Calculation example
An employee of a company with a five-day work week was dismissed due to staff reduction on August 17, 2021. He is paid for the period from August 18 to September 17, 2021, that is, 23 working days. Billing period: August 1, 2021 – July 31, 2021. The salary for this period amounted to 420,000 rubles (vacation pay is not taken into account). He worked there for 230 days.
SDNZ = 420,000/ 230 days. = 1,826 rubles;
SZ - 1,826 rubles x 23 days. = 41,998 rubles.
An example of calculating average daily earnings for vacation
Arina goes on vacation on July 31, 2021. Her salary has not changed for more than a year and is 30 thousand rubles. I didn’t take sick leave, I didn’t go on business trips. Over the past 12 months, I have been on vacation once, from November 1 to November 14, 2021.
- The billing period is from July 1, 2021 to June 30, 2021. We exclude from it 14 days spent on vacation.
- Earnings for the billing period - 345 thousand rubles (11 x 30,000 + 15,000).
- The number of days worked during the billing period is 337.9 (11 x 29.3 + 16 / 30 x 29.3).
- Average daily earnings = 345 thousand rubles / 337.9 = 1021.01 rubles.
To avoid manual calculations, use a vacation pay calculator.
We wrote about how to book a vacation in the article.
Calculation of average earnings for benefits
Events related to the birth of a child are also subject to payment. The woman receives maternity benefits and, for the first year and a half of the baby’s life, child benefits. Their size is also tied to average earnings. Maternity pay makes up 100 percent of the average salary. And the child benefit is 40 percent of this amount every month, but not less than the lower limit determined by the state (Article 11 of Law No. 255-FZ).
To calculate payments, you should be guided by regulation No. 375.
For calculations, the average salary for the two calendar years before the year of maternity leave is used. The time spent working in another place is also taken into account (clause 6 of the regulations). The average earnings include all employee accruals for which contributions to the Social Insurance Fund are accrued.
If an employee goes on a second maternity leave without going to work and, accordingly, he was not paid a salary for the last two years, then to calculate the average amount of wage payments, unpaid years can be replaced. For this purpose, the two years preceding the initial decree are taken. Years can be changed only if, as a result, maternity and child benefits will be larger (clause 11 of the regulation).
To calculate the amount of benefits, the average daily earnings are used (clause 15 of the regulation). It is determined by the formula (clause 15 (2) of the regulation): SDNZ = earnings for the billing period / by the number of calendar days in this period.
The following are excluded from the calculation:
- sick days;
- maternity leave;
- Holiday to care for the child;
- release from work with retention of salary, if no contributions were accrued for it.
In this case, the average daily salary cannot be more than the amount obtained by dividing the maximum values of the bases for calculating contributions in force in the two years preceding the leave by 730.
Accordingly, the calculation of this value is carried out according to the formula: maximum size of the SDNZ = maximum values of the bases for the 2 previous years / 730.
In addition, if the employee has had no salary at all over the last two years or its monthly amount did not exceed the minimum wage, then the average earnings are taken to be equal to the minimum wage (clause 11(1) of the regulation). Average daily earnings from the minimum wage are calculated according to the formula (clause 15 (3) of the regulation): minimum SDNZ = minimum wage on the date of vacation x 24 / 730.
Calculation example
The employee will go on maternity leave starting January 18. In the last two years, contributions subject to contributions amounted to: 663,000 rubles: in 2021 - 339,000 rubles in 2021 - 324,000 rubles.
The total number of calendar days in 2021 and 2021 is (365,366) = 731. Since the woman was on sick leave for 21 days in the calculation period, only (731 - 21) = 710 days are included in the calculation.
SDNZ: 663,000 /710 days. = 993.80 rubles.
In 2021, the limits for insurance contributions to the Social Insurance Fund are 865,000 rubles, in 2020 - 912,000 rubles.
SDNZ in the maximum possible amount: (865,000,912,000) / 730 = 2,434.25 rubles.
The smallest possible amount of SDNZ: 12,792 (2021 minimum wage) x 24 / 730 = 420.56 rubles.
How to use the calculator?
Adding a service to bookmarks helps you quickly and taking into account all the nuances to calculate the amount of average earnings. It is not necessary to constantly look for new calculators or formulas to determine, because the online service displays a detailed report of the actions. The sequence of entering information is quite simple:
- First, you should indicate the number of calendar days of the billing period. The default is 12 months, but there is a choice.
- Next, you need to enter the current calculation date.
- Then the number of days that should be excluded from the billing period is indicated (time of incapacity for work, various vacations or business trips is removed).
- It is necessary to indicate the amount of payments received for each previous month. They include all types of bonuses, advances, and travel allowances.
- At the last stage, you need to click the “Calculate” button.
The online average salary calculator shows not only the exact amount, but also the correct and detailed algorithm for calculating the indicator. This tool is absolutely free and makes accounting work easier for both economists and anyone who wants to make calculations.
To obtain a reliable result, it is worth keeping in mind that filling out all fields is extremely important. You must make payments for all specified months. If the employee was not at work during one of the periods, then the value should be set to zero.
