By the Sevetu team
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The norm, plainly
Ask ten families in Bengaluru, Mumbai or Delhi what they give their house help at Diwali and eight will say the same thing: one month's salary, in cash, a few days before the festival, plus sweets and often a sari or a set of clothes. The other two give half a month, usually because the arrangement is new or part-time and short. Almost nobody who has kept the same worker for years gives less than a month, because everybody understands what the bonus is: the one time in the year the family says, in a form the worker can spend, that it values the arrangement.
For part-time work the same rule applies per family. A woman who cleans four flats in a building expects a month's pay from each, and each is a fraction of a full-time salary, so it is not the burden it first sounds.
When to pay it
Before the festival, not after. The money is for the festival: new clothes, sweets, the trip home, the gifts she gives her own family. Diwali in 2026 falls on Sunday 8 November;1 the five days run from Dhanteras on 6 November to Bhai Dooj on 11 November, and many workers travel home for the week. Pay by Friday 6 November at the latest, and earlier if she is travelling. A bonus that arrives after Diwali is a nice gesture that missed its point.
Mid-year joiners, and the first year
Pro-rata is the fair rule and the one most families use: months worked divided by twelve, times a month's pay. Someone who started in May gets half a month's bonus at Diwali. Someone who started in October gets a token and the full bonus next year. The point is to say this at hiring, and to write it into the agreement, because a worker who has been told "one month at Diwali" and receives a sixth of that has been let down, whatever the arithmetic.
When her festival is not Diwali
The bonus is a festival bonus, not a Diwali bonus, and it should follow the worker's own main festival. For many Muslim workers that is Eid; for Tamil families Pongal; for Malayali families Onam; for Bengali families Durga Puja; for Christian families Christmas. Ask, once, when you hire. Some families give the full bonus at the worker's festival and a smaller gift at Diwali, which is a good arrangement. What does not work is giving a Diwali bonus to a worker whose festival was three months earlier, with nothing then.
Leave and the weekly off around the festival
The bonus is one of three things the season involves. The other two are time.
- Festival leave. Most workers want three to seven days around their main festival, often to travel home. This should come out of paid leave if the agreement has it (eight to twelve days a year is common in the metros), and be agreed a month ahead so both sides can plan.
- The weekly off. It does not disappear because it is the festive season and the house is full of guests. If she works her off day for a party, it is paid extra or swapped, and agreed in advance.
Both belong in the agreement alongside the bonus; the work agreement guide has the wording.
What the law says
Two things, and they surprise people in opposite directions.
First, no law obliges a household to pay a bonus. The Payment of Bonus Act, 1965 applies to factories and to establishments in which twenty or more persons are employed;2 a private household is neither. The bonus is custom, and the way to make it binding between you and your worker is to write it into the agreement.
Second, custom is not the only thing that applies to pay. Some states notify a minimum wage for domestic work. Karnataka does, and its notification sets monthly and daily rates for household employment;3 the agreed salary should not sit below it. The Bangalore pay guide explains what the notification does and does not say. No state's notification sets a bonus rate for domestic work; that part remains the household's decision.
The gift, if you give one
Ask what would actually help rather than deciding for her. A sari is traditional and often welcome; so is a phone recharge, school shoes for a child, a pressure cooker she mentioned, or simply more cash. Give the sweets that your own family eats, not a separate cheaper box. And give it to her directly, with a thank-you, rather than leaving it in the kitchen.
Questions people ask
The custom in Indian metros is about one month's salary, paid before the festival, with sweets and often a gift on top. For a part-time worker, one month of what you pay her. Half a month is common only where the arrangement is very new.
No law requires it. The Payment of Bonus Act covers establishments with twenty or more persons, not households. It is a strong custom, and writing it into the work agreement makes it binding between you and your worker.
Before the festival. Diwali 2026 is Sunday 8 November; pay by Friday 6 November, or earlier if she is travelling home for the week.
Pro-rata: months worked divided by twelve, times one month's pay. Tell her this at hiring so there is no disappointment in November.
Give the bonus at her own main festival (Eid, Pongal, Onam, Durga Puja, Christmas) and a smaller gift at Diwali if you like. Ask once, when you hire.
Cash, or UPI, is the bonus. A gift is extra. If you want to give something, ask what would help rather than choosing for her.
No. Where a state notifies a minimum wage for domestic work, it is a floor on the regular monthly pay; the bonus sits on top of it.
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- Drik Panchang, Diwali Puja calendar 2026: Lakshmi Puja on 8 November 2026, with the five-day festival from 6 to 11 November. drikpanchang.com
- Ministry of Labour and Employment, Government of India, The Payment of Bonus Act, 1965, section 1(3): the Act applies to every factory and to every other establishment in which twenty or more persons are employed on any day during an accounting year. labour.gov.in (PDF)
- Government of Karnataka, Office of the Labour Commissioner, minimum wage rate sheet for 2026-27, Sl. No. 27, employment in residential houses including domestic helpers. karmikaspandana.karnataka.gov.in (PDF)
Written by the Sevetu teamSevetu is a hiring marketplace for household work in India, operated by Fiel Private Limited. These guides come from the questions families and workers ask us. Nothing here is sponsored, and where a number has no defensible source we say so instead of inventing one. About Sevetu
