This article was published at the Voleh blog.
Havra’a is a mandatory payment by law. It is paid annually to all employees who have at least one year’s tenure with their current employer. There are several rates (for private and public sector) and they are updated each year in June.
The current rate (June 2011) in the private sector is 365 shekels per day. Employees are allotted days according to their tenure as follows:
1 year = 5 days
2 – 3 years = 6 days
4 – 10 years = 7 days
11 – 15 years = 8 days
16 – 19 years = 9 days
20 and onwards = 10 days
The amounts are gross and subject to income tax, social security and health tax.
They are usually paid in July’s salary, however some employer’s break it up into 2 or 3 payments during the course of the year and in Hi-tech they usually divide it by 12 paying 1/12th each month.
