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Final pay timeline
Final pay timeline is DOLE Labor Advisory No. 06-20’s rule that final pay is released within 30 days from separation, unless a better policy is shorter.
How it works
Final pay is unpaid wages, prorated 13th month, convertible leave, separation pay if any, less lawful deductions for unreturned property. The clock starts on the separation date, not when clearance ‘feels done.’ You may run clearance. You may not use clearance to wander past day 30. Certificate of employment is a different clock: three days from request. For a U.S. company hiring one Filipino teammate, write this into the brief, the employment contract, and the peso payroll file before the start date. Slack habits do not override the Labor Code, BIR, or NPC. If the local employer of record holds the paper, they run the statutory step; you still owe a clean operating definition so the seat does not fail in week three. Put a number on the example when you budget loaded cost, because a nameless allowance always returns as a December surprise or a missed SLA.
Example: last day 15 February. Money out by 17 March. Laptop returned 20 February, deducted only if value remains unpaid. COE issued 16 February when asked.
How it differs
Quitclaim can document receipt. It does not extend the 30 days. Resignation notice is the 30 days before exit, a different thirty.
Common errors
Holding pay until a U.S. manager ‘has time.’ Deducting a full laptop MSRP after two years of use.
In practice
Treat Final pay timeline as a week-one operating object. Look at the next peso payslip and the next remittance file. If this word does not show up there, the quote from the sales call is incomplete. Write an owner - founder, local employer, or worker - and a date you will look at it again: first cutoff, first holiday, or first miss. If nobody can show a contract clause, a payslip line, a calendar block, or a checklist box, you do not have final pay timeline yet. You have a conversation. Convert the conversation before the person starts, while changing the deal still costs a paragraph rather than a resignation. Re-read the worked example above against the actual hire in front of you. If the numbers in that example cannot be swapped for this seat’s pesos, hours, and start date, the brief is still unfinished.