what is דמי הבראה?
How much should my employer pay me?
What happens when I move to a new job?
Is דמי הבראה part of my employee rights?
The Israeli government looks out for the population of Israeli employees, not only ensuring that they are legally entitled to paid leave to take time off work, but also ensuring that they have money to spend whilst on holiday. דמי הבראה is the legal responsibility on an employer to provide a ‘bonus’ vacation payment to their employees once a year.
What exactly is דמי הבראה - Vacation bonus?
Well, in short it's an annual bonus which you're entitled to once a year as part of your employee rights. Most employees in Israel know that the summer months are not just a source of suffocating heat and bags to pack. They also correspond to a significant increase in their salaries, through the דמי הבראה bonus. דמי הבראה - vacation pay, is an annual payment from the employer, in addition to your base salary. (An annual bonus of sorts).
Some employers may choose to pay the דמי הבראה - vacation bonus as an addition to your monthly salary spread out throughout the year. In order to be considered דמי הבראה the employee contract must specify this.
How much דמי הבראה should I get?
The payment is defined according to the length of service of each employee (see table below) multiplied by a predefined daily rate. The more seniority you have, the more days you get. The value of each day remains unchanged.
Each employer can increase the number of days of דמי הבראה in a collective agreement or an individual agreement with its employees.
Who is entitled to דמי הבראה in Israel?
An employee is entitled to receive the דמי הבראה only after the completion of their 1st year of employment. It’s therefore necessary to work 12 full months to be entitled to receive the דמי הבראה.
So once the summer months have arrived, an employee who is in their second year of work will receive the דמי הבראה covering the entire period from the start of his employment until the payment of the דמי הבראה.
Maternity leave, paid leave, sick leave and service in the army as a reservist (milouim), are also counted in the calculation of seniority.
If an employee leaves his place of work (dismissal / resignation) the employer will have to pay him the unpaid days of דמי הבראה in proportion to their period of employment.
If you work as an Osek Patur or an Osek Murshe, your clients will not need to pay you דמי הבראה as you are not working as an employee. For more information read: Osek Patur guide
Examples - understanding דמי הבראה
An employee with less than one year of seniority.
Madame B. is legal secretary. She started working on November 1, 2018 with her new employer. When the 2019 Dmei Havrah is paid to the business’s employees (say in June 2019) she will not yet have one year of seniority and so will not receive the דמי הבראה in 2019.
However, when the payments for the 2020 year are paid (say in June 2020), she will have one year and 8 months of seniority. Therefore, she will have the right to the first year at 5 days and for the second year she will receive 6 x 8/12 = 4 days.
Since she works in the private sector, she will therefore receive a payment of (5 + 4) x 378 = 3,402 Shekels.
An employee who leaves their employment
If an employee resigns, they are still entitled to the remaining days of דמי הבראה. So, the calculation will therefore be done pro-rata, according to the same calculation model as the previous example.
דמי הבראה: How much should I get?
So there’s a little bit of number crunching to do to calculate how much you should get. To make it easier, you first calculate how many ‘days’ of דמי הבראה you’re entitled too. Then, you multiply the number of ‘days’ by the government set value. This will give you the amount of דמי הבראה that you’re entitled to.
It is important to note that the number of days of דמי הבראה the employee can claim per year is calculated based on seniority. i.e. the length of time you’ve worked for your employer.
Indeed, the more seniority, the more the number of days of דמי הבראה increases.
Below is a summary table of the number of days of דמי הבראה according to seniority, broken down by sector of activity:
Years of employment | Entitlement of דמי הבראה “Days” |
Year 1 | 5 Days |
Years 2 & 3 | 6 Days |
Years 4 – 10 | 7 Days |
Years 11 – 15 | 8 Days |
Years 16 – 19 | 9 Days |
Years 20+ | 10 Days |
The value of each day depends on where you work. In 2021 the values are as follows:
Employment Type | Value per day |
Public Sector Employees | 429 ILS |
Private Sector Employees | 378 ILS |
*The values per day change each year. You can find updated values per day on the Hebrew website Kol Zchut.
It only remains for us to wish you a pleasant vacation in Israel, or elsewhere.