Minimum Wage & Other Salary Regulations
As of late 2012, the minimum wage in Chile is 193,000 Chilean pesos per month. The minimum wage is the same for union and non-union workers.
Salaries must be paid in Chilean pesos. Employers and employees can include clauses in their contract whereby a portion of the salary will be paid in some other form – such as room and board – but at least half of the salary must be paid in pesos. And those pesos must be available in cash, unless the employee asks for or agrees to another form of payment (such as bank transfer).
Salaries cannot be reduced without terminating the contract and beginning another.
Employees must be paid at least once a month, though employers may pay out salaries more than once a month if they wish. It is most common to pay once a month, either at the end of the month or during the first week of the next month.
Bonuses
It is not required that employers give bonueses, though it is common practice to give bonuses at the end of the year and/or around Chilean Independence Day (September 18).
If an employer pays bonuses regularly over the years, and then abruptly stops, employees may sue the employer merely because the bonuses had been an established custom – and they generally win.
