The Social Security Fund (abbreviated to FSS in Macao) reminds employers that the contribution amount of the social security system was increased from 45 patacas to 90 patacas on January 1^st this year.  Beginning in February, employers are required to pay the new amount of contributions for their casual workers.

In Macao, if an employer has hired a casual worker (i.e. a local employee hired under a term contract), he/she must pay contributions for the employee in the month that immediately follows the employee’s working month.  For example, if an employee works in January, his/her employer should pay contributions for him/her in February.

Under the Executive Order, the contribution amounts for casual workers were set as follows from 1 January 2017:

Regarding the late payment of contributions for casual workers, if an employer pays the contributions within 60 days after the statutory payment period, he/she is required to pay a late payment interest at a monthly interest rate of 3% of the total amount of unpaid contributions.  For any time frame less than a month, it is also counted as a full month and the minimum interest is 50 patacas.  If the overdue contributions remain unpaid after 60 days, besides a late payment interest, the employer may also be subject to a fine that is calculated on a quarterly basis and not exceeding half of the amount of unpaid contributions, where 500 patacas is the minimum amount.

In addition, if the casual worker hired has never enrolled as a beneficiary of the FSS, the employer must also enroll him/her in the month that immediately follows the working month of the casual worker.  Otherwise, the employer shall be fined between 200 and 1,000 patacas for each employee affected by his/her offence.

For more information about the contributions of casual workers, please call 2853 2850 during office hours or visit the FSS’ website at http://www.fss.gov.mo/en/social/social-mandatory.