Brazil

Employment

Brazilian Labor Code does not require the employment contract to be written in Portuguese, however many companies as common practice have written contracts where all the benefits, requirements and duties are discussed.
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Employees have fixed monthly salaries which must be negotiated and stated contractually in BRL. Salary will increase automatically each year in accordance with rates negotiated by unions.

Payroll

Salaries are paid on monthly basis on the last day of the month.
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Every year by 20th of December, employee is entitled to receive 13th salary payment, that could be considered as a Christmas Bonus. However, it is not paid as bonus, it’s paid as an additional payroll (13th), with its own taxes to be applied, withheld and paid, separated from regular payroll.

HR & Labor

Working Hours: Full time employment is considered 44 hours per week and eight hours a day. Employees working 6 consecutive hours are entitled to one hour of break. Up to two hours of overtime are permitted per day, with compensation of an extra 50%
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Working Age: Employer cannot hire an employee below the age of 16. Employees between 16 and 18 years of age have special restrictions applied to them.

Immigration

In order to work in Brazil, the employee must have a working visa which is requested by the employer at the Immigration of the Ministry of Labour and Employment.
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To work in Brazil foreigners need to have either a Temporary visa (type v), or a permanent visa. A temporary visa can either be with an employment contract with the local company, or without under the Technical Assistance Agreement between a Brazilian company and a foreign company.

Benefits

Basic monthly benefits include meal voucher, health insurance, business travel insurance, life insurance and transportation.

Minimum Wage

Minimum wage is R$880 per month or R$4.00 per hour.

Public Holidays

There are 20 public holidays. Employees are eligible to receive paid days off for 7 national holidays and 5 religious or municipal holidays.

September 7: Independence Day
October 12: Lady of Aparecida
November 1: All Saints Day
November 2: All Souls Day
November 15: Republic Day
November 20: Zumbi dos Palmares
December 25: Christmas Day

January 1: New Years Day
February 12-13: Carnival
February 14: Ash Wednesday
March 30: Good Friday
April 21: Tiradentes Day
May 1: Labor Day
May 31: Corpus Christi
July 9: State Rebellion Day (Sao Paulo Only)
September 7: Independence Day
November 2: All Souls Day
November 15: Republic Day
November 20: Zumbi dos Palmares
December 25: Christmas Day

Pension Fund

The employer contributes between 26.8% to 28.8%.

Employees contribute 8% of their wages if they are up to BRL1,399.12. Between BRL1,399.13 to BRL2,331.88, employees contribute 9% and 11% from BRL2,331,89 to BRL4,663.75. Contribution ceiling is at BRL482.93.

Sick Days

Employees are entitled to a sick leave as long as they provide the appropriate documentations from the doctor. The first 15 days of the leave are reimbursed by the employer, afterwards the government takes over the payments.

Severance Payments

Employees are entitled severance payment which includes the balance of their wages, any holiday entitlement they didn’t use, 13th month salary and access to the funds from the Brazilian Government Severance Indemnity Fund Law. The employer contributes 8% of the employee's wages to this account. If the termination is with a cause, the employees do not have an access to the severance account.

Advance Notice

Employee must provide 30 days of notice.

Termination Procedure

Employer must provide the employee with 30 days of notice to the employee for the first year in the company and afterwards each year, the employee is entitled to 3 more days of notice added to the 30 days. Employer can give a payment in lieu of notice.

Vacation Days

Employees are entitled to 30 days of vacation for every 12 months of work.

Law demands that payment for vacation must be at least one third higher than regular salary (adding 33,33% to the regular salary).

Also, employee can offer the company to work for 10 days receiving all the rights above and an additional of 10 days of salary.

VAT

VAT is 17% standard rate.

Payroll Tax

Social Assistance includes funds for: The National Institute for Colonization and Agrarian Reform, National Service Trade Apprenticeship, Social Service of Commerce, and Brazilian Service of Micro & Small Companies Support

SAT/RAT is a tax paid for the risk of labor accidents. The fee is dependent on how high the risk of accidents are in the work place ranging from 1% for low risk to 3% for high risk.

Social Security

Employers are required to contribute 8% of wages to each employee's deferred salary account to the severance fund in addition to 20% of an employee's wages to the public pension system. There is an additional maximum of 8.8% for other social security taxes. In some business sectors, the 20% for the public pension system contribution has been replaced by a contribution levied on gross revenue.

Deductions and allowances may include:
- social security taxes paid by the employee; - contributions to a private Brazilian pension plan (up to 12% of the gross income);
- payments under court order (such as alimony); - - expenses incurred by self-employed individuals (to produce business income or to maintain one); - a standard deduction per dependent up to 2,275 BRL;
- educational expenses (up to 3,561 BRL per annum);
- unreimbursed payments for health insurance plans as well as medical, dental, psychotherapy and physical therapy expenses;
- documented contributions to approved Brazilian cultural, artistic, audio-visual activities and Brazilian Youth and Child counsels, up to 6% of tax due or 3% if the donations is at the time the tax return is filed.