The default contract with no end date; may be verbal or written and can only be terminated for just cause, resignation, or with payment of a statutory indemnity.
Must be written, max 3 years; terms under 1 year renewable up to 3 times, then renewals must be at least 1 year; non-renewal requires 30 days' written notice or it auto-renews.
Law 2101 completed its phase-down on 15 Jul 2026 (42-hr week); under the 2025 reform daytime runs 6am-7pm, night work +35%, overtime +25% day / +75% night (max 2 hrs/day), Sunday/holiday +90% from Jul 2026 (100% Jul 2027).
Must be agreed in writing; max 2 months for indefinite contracts (or one-fifth of a fixed term, capped at 2 months); either party may terminate without indemnity during it.
The prima de servicios is a mandatory 13th salary equal to one month's pay per year, paid in two halves: by 30 June and by 20 December.
Job titles generally unregulated, but regulated professions (law, medicine, engineering, accounting) require a Colombian professional license (tarjeta profesional).
For salaries under 10 SMLMV: pension 12%, ARL 0.522%-6.96% by risk class, caja de compensación 4% (~16.5%), with exoneration from health 8.5%, SENA 2% and ICBF 3%; plus accruals for prima 8.33%, cesantías 8.33% (+12% interest) and vacations ~4.17%.
Employees pay 4% pension + 4% health (8%), plus a 1%-2% pension solidarity fund above 4 SMLMV; income tax withheld separately at progressive 0%-39% UVT-based rates.
In addition to statutory leave, employees are entitled to the following statutory benefits:
Employers and employees fund Colombia's integrated social security (PILA) system on salaries capped at 25 SMLMV; legal-entity employers are exonerated from health, SENA and ICBF for workers earning under 10 SMLMV, while integral salaries (min 13 SMLMV) contribute on 70% of pay.
Workers' compensation runs through the ARL (Administradora de Riesgos Laborales) system, funded entirely by the employer at 0.522% to 6.96% of salary depending on the activity's risk class (office work Class I at 0.522%); the ARL covers medical care and pays 100% of salary for work-related illness or injury from day 1.
Colombia has two distinct concepts: cesantías, a savings benefit of one month's salary per year deposited into the employee's severance fund every February (plus 12% annual interest), owed however employment ends; and the indemnización por despido sin justa causa — for salaries under 10 SMLMV, 30 days' pay for the first year plus 20 days per additional year; for 10+ SMLMV, 20 days plus 15 per additional year; for fixed-term contracts, the wages remaining to the end of the term.
The prima de servicios is a mandatory 13th salary equal to 30 days' pay per year of service, paid half by 30 June and half by 20 December, and proportionally on termination; the transport allowance is included in the calculation base for eligible employees.
P.S. our team speaks multiple languages and we'd love to chat in your preferred language if requested.
Your employee's hours, time off, holidays, bonuses, and commissions are automatically calculated into payroll. RemoFirst will invoice you in either US Dollars (USD), Euros (EUR), British Pounds (GBP), Canadian Dollars (CAD), Australian Dollars (AUD), or Singapore Dollars (SGD) around the 15th of each month to make sure your employees are paid on time. To make it even easier, you can summarize your entire global team's salaries to aggregate them into one payment (instead of many individual payments).
Unlike full-time employees, contractors work on projects with multiple companies at a given time and are technically self-employed. Full-time employees are solely focused on their employer and usually receive benefits (such as health insurance, equity or stock options, and time off) as an additional form of compensation. While it can be cheaper to work with international contractors instead of paying benefits to a full-time employee, you run the risk of misclassification. It's recommended to work with an EOR for contractor onboarding and payments, so you can know that your international contractors are paid compliantly and on time.
Whenever the employee or employer has a question about, or anything else related to international employment, they can speak with our customer support team to get answers from our team of experts.
