Costa Rica
Min. wage
(x13 payments)
₡373,092 /mo
About the minimum wage
Employer tax
~26.83%
Understand employer tax
Annual leave
14 days
Learn about annual leave
Notice period
Up to 1 month (by tenure)
Termination and notice info
Updated
Sep 2026
The default contract is indefinite-term; a written contract is standard practice and any relationship not genuinely temporary is deemed indefinite by law.
Only valid where the work is temporary by nature, limited to 1 year (up to 5 years for specialized technical services), otherwise converts to indefinite.
Day shift 8 hrs/day, 48 hrs/week; night shifts capped at 6 hrs/day (36/week) and mixed shifts at 42/week; overtime at 150% up to 4 extra hours/day.
A probation period of up to 3 months is customary, during which either party may terminate without notice or severance liability.
A mandatory 13th salary (aguinaldo) equal to one month's average pay must be paid within the first 20 days of December; there is no 14th salary.
No general job-title regulation, but the applicable minimum wage depends on the occupation category in the annual wage decree, and certain professions require colegiatura (professional college membership).
~26.83% (2026): CCSS health/maternity (SEM) 9.25%, pension (IVM) 5.58%, FODESAF 5%, INA 1.5%, IMAS 0.5%, Banco Popular 0.5%, labor capitalization fund (FCL) 1.5%, complementary pension (ROP) 2%, plus INS allocation ~1%.
10.83% (2026): SEM health 5.5%, IVM pension 4.33%, Banco Popular 1%; income tax withheld separately at progressive monthly rates 0% (up to CRC 918,000) to 25% (above CRC 4,727,000).
In addition to statutory leave, employees are entitled to the following statutory benefits:
Payroll contributions are collected by the CCSS (Caja Costarricense de Seguro Social) and allied institutions. For 2026, employer charges total ~26.83% and employee withholdings 10.83% of gross salary:
Employers must take out a mandatory occupational-risk policy (seguro de riesgos del trabajo) with the Instituto Nacional de Seguros (INS) before hiring; the premium varies by risk classification (commonly ~1%-4% of payroll) and covers medical care, disability and death benefits for work-related accidents and illnesses.
Employees dismissed without just cause (con responsabilidad patronal) are owed cesantía severance: 7 days' wages after 3-6 months of service, 14 days after 6-12 months, and roughly 19.5-22 days per year thereafter, capped at 8 years of service. The employer also owes preaviso — statutory notice of up to 1 month (or pay in lieu) by tenure — plus accrued vacation and proportional aguinaldo.
The aguinaldo is a mandatory 13th salary equal to 1/12 of all ordinary and extraordinary remuneration (including overtime and commissions) earned between 1 December and 30 November, payable within the first 20 days of December; late or non-payment exposes the employer to fines and labor claims.
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.
