By the Sevetu team
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The norm, plainly
One month's salary, in cash or by UPI, a few days before the festival. That is what most families in Bengaluru, Mumbai and Delhi give, with sweets and often a sari or a set of clothes on top. Some give half a month, usually because the arrangement is new, or part-time and short.
Families who have kept the same worker for years rarely give less than a month. The bonus is the one time in the year the family says, in a form she can spend, that it values the arrangement.
For part-time work the rule applies per family. A woman who cleans four flats in a building expects a month's pay from each. Each of those is a fraction of a full-time salary, so it is a smaller sum than it first sounds.
When to pay it
Before the festival. The money is for the festival itself: new clothes, sweets, the trip home, the gifts she gives her own family. Diwali in 2027 falls on Friday 29 October,14 ten days earlier than in 2026, so the October salary and the bonus land close together. The five days run from Dhanteras on Wednesday 27 October to Bhai Dooj on Sunday 31 October, and many workers travel home for the week. Pay by Wednesday 27 October at the latest, and earlier if she is travelling. If you pay salary on the 1st, adding the bonus to the 1 October payment avoids a last-minute rush. A bonus that arrives after Diwali is a nice gesture that missed its point.
Mid-year joiners, and the first year
Use pro-rata: months worked divided by twelve, times a month's pay. It is the fair rule and the one most families use. Someone who started in May gets half a month's bonus at Diwali. Someone who started in October gets a token now and the full bonus next year.
Say this at hiring and write it into the agreement. A worker who was 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 should follow the worker's own main festival; Diwali is simply the most common one. 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.
Planning the whole year: the 2027 holiday list for house help · the yearly raise, worked out
What the law says
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.
Pay itself is a different matter. 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. A minimum wage notification sets pay rates, not a bonus; the bonus 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.
If you are hiring someone new, write the festival bonus into the terms on day one, along with the salary, weekly off and leave. The pages on how to hire a maid, hire a cook and hire a driver walk through what to agree, and the work agreement guide has a template.
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.
The same rule as for a maid: one month of what you pay them. A cook who comes once a day gets one month of that pay; a full-time driver gets one month of the full salary. If several workers share one household, each gets a bonus on their own pay.
A common rule is a full month after a year of work and half a month before that. Pro-rata is fairer in between: months worked divided by twelve, times a month's pay. Whichever you use, say it at hiring.
Divide the months she has worked for you by twelve and multiply by one month's pay. If you pay ₹12,000 a month and she joined in May, that is about six months by Diwali, so six twelfths of ₹12,000: ₹6,000. After a full year it is the whole ₹12,000.
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 2027 is Friday 29 October; pay by Wednesday 27 October, 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 at Diwali.
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. Read next: maid salary in 2027
Sources
- AstroSage, Diwali 2027 Puja Dates for New Delhi, read 12 November 2026: Dhanteras 27 October, Narak Chaturdashi 28 October, Diwali 29 October, Govardhan Puja 30 October, Bhai Dooj 31 October 2027. panchang.astrosage.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)
- Department of Personnel and Training, Government of India, Office Memorandum of 16 July 2026, Holidays to be observed in Central Government Offices during the year 2027, read 12 November 2026: Diwali (Deepavali) on Friday 29 October 2027. utilities.cept.gov.in (PDF)
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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
