Arts. 1–9

The incentive bonus is hereby created for private-sector workers, with the purpose of stimulating and increasing their productivity and efficiency.

The productivity and efficiency bonus shall be agreed in companies by mutual agreement and collectively with the workers and in accordance with such productivity and efficiency systems as are established. This bonus does not increase the value of the wage for the calculation of severance payments or compensation for time served, nor Christmas bonuses, except for computation of the seventh day, which shall be computed as ordinary wage. It is a deductible expense for the determination of the taxable income of the income tax; with respect to the worker it shall not give rise to taxable income subject to tax. It shall not be subject to nor affected with regard to the payment of the employer or employee contributions to the IGSS, IRTRA and INTECAP, unless employers and workers agree to pay such contributions.

By its nature, the bonus-incentive referred to in this law neither constitutes nor substitutes for the minimum wage already established or to be established in accordance with the law, the wages already agreed upon or other incentives already benefiting the workers of an enterprise or workplace.

The labor authorities shall ensure strict observance of this law and shall apply the legal sanctions contained in the Labor Code for noncompliance therewith.

The incentives established in each company or workplace shall be applied observing by analogy, for the benefited workers, the principle of equality of wage provided for in subparagraph c) of Article 102 of the Political Constitution of the Republic of Guatemala.

When, by order of the employer, the worker is obliged to rest one additional day, interrupting the continuity of the paid rest to which the worker is entitled in accordance with the Labor Code, such additional rest shall likewise be remunerated.

Private employers shall grant to their workers an incentive bonus of not less than sixty-seven cents with twenty-five hundredths of a cent of a quetzal (Q.0.6725) for agricultural and livestock activities and sixty-four cents with three hundred seventy-five thousandths of a cent of a quetzal (Q.0.64375) in other activities, which shall be calculated per effective ordinary hour of work in legal-tender currency and paid to the worker daily, weekly, biweekly or monthly, according to the company's form of payment. In piecework, the incentive bonus shall be determined based on the calculation of the daily average.

This bonus does not affect the acquired rights of the workers, the minimum wages established or to be established in the future and, by its nature, is independent of any increase in the wage that employers may have granted or plan to grant to their workers, for any reason, and does not limit their right to obtain wage improvements through collective bargaining or through the execution of collective agreements on conditions of work.

All provisions that conflict with this law are hereby repealed.

This Decree shall enter into force on the day following its publication in the Official Gazette.