Paid Holiday and the 13th and 14th Months in Portugal in 2026 — A Practical Guide to Annual Leave, the Subsídio de Férias (Holiday Pay) and the Subsídio de Natal (Christmas Pay)

One of the first things a newcomer to the Portuguese labour market has to unlearn is the idea that a salary is paid twelve times a year. In Portugal, a full-time employee is normally paid fourteen times: twelve monthly salaries, plus a subsídio de férias (holiday pay) and a subsídio de Natal (Christmas pay), each worth roughly a full month's wage. Get that wrong when you read a job offer and you can misjudge your real annual income by two months' pay. This guide explains how paid leave and the two extra payments work in 2026, what the law guarantees, and where expats most often trip up.

None of the core rules changed for 2026. The government's "Trabalho XXI" labour reform, which would have touched holiday scheduling and the twelfths system, was voted down in Parliament on 19 June 2026, so the text of the Código do Trabalho (Labour Code, Lei n.º 7/2009) stands unchanged. Everything below reflects the law in force.

Your paid holiday: 22 working days

Every employee is entitled to a minimum of 22 working days of paid annual leave (art. 238 of the Labour Code). Crucially, these are dias úteis — working days, meaning Monday to Friday excluding public holidays, not calendar days. So 22 days of leave stretches across more than four weeks of the calendar once weekends and holidays are added in.

You keep your normal pay during the holiday, and the days do not shrink if you work part-time — leave is counted in days, not hours, so a part-timer also gets 22 working days (their holiday pay is simply proportional to their lower salary). You may voluntarily "sell back" the days above 20, receiving pay instead of time off, but the floor is 20 working days and your employer cannot force you below it (art. 238 n.º 5).

One point of confusion worth clearing up: the old rule that granted up to three bonus days for low absenteeism was abolished back in 2012 and has not returned. It survives only where a collective bargaining agreement specifically grants it, so unless your sector's contrato coletivo says otherwise, do not expect attendance-based extra days.

Your first year is different

You do not walk into 22 days on day one. In the year you are hired, leave accrues at two working days for every full month of the contract, capped at 20 working days (art. 239). And you generally cannot take any of it until you have completed six full months with the employer.

If the calendar year ends before those six months are up, you can take the accrued leave up until 30 June of the following year. There is also a ceiling: the rules cannot combine to give you more than 30 working days of leave in a single calendar year. For short contracts of six months or less, the same two-days-per-month accrual applies, usually taken just before the contract ends.

A common newcomer mistake is to read older guidance citing a "60 days" waiting period. That is outdated — the current Labour Code says six complete months, not 60 days.

Booking it: the vacation map

Holiday dates are set by agreement between you and your employer (art. 240). If you cannot agree, the employer decides — but only within the 1 May to 31 October window, and after consulting the workers' representatives (art. 241). At least ten consecutive working days must be taken as a single block.

Your employer is legally required to draw up a mapa de férias (vacation map) showing everyone's holiday dates by 15 April each year and to keep it posted at the workplace from 15 April to 31 October. Leave is normally used in the year it is due, though in defined situations — the employer's fault, or by written agreement — it can be carried into the following year, generally up to 30 April.

The holiday subsidy (Subsídio de Férias)

On top of being paid normally during your holiday, you receive the subsídio de férias — an extra payment equal to your base pay (retribuição base) plus any diuturnidades (length-of-service premiums) and other regular components tied to how the work is done (art. 264). For most employees that works out to roughly one month's salary.

Unless you have signed a written agreement to the contrary, the holiday subsidy must be paid before your holiday begins, and proportionally if you split your leave across the year. Failing to pay it is one of the most serious offences an employer can commit under the Labour Code.

The Christmas subsidy (Subsídio de Natal)

The subsídio de Natal is an amount equal to one month's pay, which must be paid by 15 December each year (art. 263). In the year you are hired, the year a contract ends, or a year in which your contract is suspended for a reason attributable to you (for example, prolonged sick leave), the Christmas subsidy is paid pro rata to the time you actually worked.

Duodécimos: the twelfths option

By default, the two subsidies are paid as lump sums — the holiday subsidy before your leave, the Christmas one by mid-December. But they can instead be spread across the year in duodécimos (twelfths), a slice added to each monthly payslip.

Two things matter here for 2026. First, duodécimos require a written agreement between employer and worker — the employer's consent is mandatory, and you cannot impose the arrangement unilaterally. The temporary regimes that once made twelfths automatic have lapsed; the Authority for Working Conditions (Autoridade para as Condições do Trabalho, ACT) confirms the full-payment rules are back in force. Second, the old "50% cap" you may still see quoted is obsolete — the current Code sets no percentage limit, so an agreement can cover part or all of the subsidies.

The trade-off: if you agree to duodécimos, there is no big June or December cheque, because the money is already blended into your twelve monthly slips — and, as we will see, taxed less favourably.

Tax and social security on the two subsidies

Both subsidies are treated as earnings. They are subject to Segurança Social contributions — 11% deducted from the worker and 23.75% paid by the employer — the standard rates, unchanged for 2026.

They are also subject to IRS (personal income tax) withholding, but with a helpful twist: each subsidy is taxed by autonomous withholding (retenção autónoma), meaning it is not stacked on top of that month's salary. Taxing it separately keeps the marginal rate lower than if the lump sum were bundled into a single fat paycheque. This advantage disappears if you take the subsidies in duodécimos, because the twelfths are added to your monthly pay and taxed as part of it.

For workers on or near the minimum wage, income-tax withholding is generally zero — the 2026 mínimo de existência (tax-free existence minimum) is €12,880 — but the 11% social-security deduction still applies to all fourteen payments.

The minimum-wage math, in fourteen payments

The 2026 salário mínimo nacional (national minimum wage) is €920 a month gross, up €50 from €870 in 2025. Because it is paid fourteen times a year, a full-year minimum-wage worker earns €920 × 14 = €12,880 gross — the twelve salaries plus the two subsidies. After the 11% social-security deduction (and with essentially no income tax at this level), that is roughly €818.80 across each of the fourteen payments. This is exactly why comparing a Portuguese "monthly" figure against a foreign twelve-month salary is misleading: you have to multiply by fourteen, not twelve.

When you leave a job

Whenever a contract ends — resignation, dismissal, or expiry of a fixed term — you must be paid for holiday you have earned but not taken, plus the matching holiday subsidy (art. 245), and a pro-rata Christmas subsidy for the part of the year you worked (art. 263 n.º 2). In practice, a departing employee typically receives accrued-but-unused leave and its subsidy together with the proportional Christmas payment. If you are on a fixed-term contract, the same two-days-per-month accrual and pro-rata subsidies apply on expiry.

Common pitfalls for expats

• Read offers as "×14," not "×12." A quoted monthly salary in Portugal almost always implies fourteen annual payments. Always ask whether a figure is stated over twelve or fourteen months before comparing it to a job back home.
• You will not get 22 days in year one. Leave accrues at two days per full month up to 20, and generally cannot be used until you have been there six months. Both subsidies are pro-rated in the hire year too.
• Duodécimos shrink the lump sums. If your contract puts the subsidies in twelfths, there is no windfall in June or December — and you lose the lower autonomous-withholding tax rate.
• The waiver is optional. You can sell back days above 20, but you cannot be compelled to; the guaranteed floor is 20 working days off.
• Part-timers keep the days, not the full pay. You still get 22 working days of leave, but your holiday and Christmas subsidies are proportional to your part-time salary.

Paid leave and the two subsidies are among the most valuable — and most misread — parts of a Portuguese employment package. If you are still decoding your monthly slip, our guides to your employment contract and payslip and to reading the recibo de vencimento break down every line. For the wider picture, see how much you actually need in our 2026 cost-of-living guide, and if a job ends, how unemployment benefit is calculated.

This guide is general information, not tax or legal advice. Collective bargaining agreements can improve on the statutory minimums described here, and individual circumstances vary — check your contrato coletivo or consult a professional for your own situation.