Costa Rica employment facts
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These are the 17 statutory values we hold for Costa Rica in Global Employment Facts (Employ Borderless), 10 of them read from a statute or the government that administers it. Each row names the page it came from, the date the figure took effect and the date a person last checked it. They are legal minimums, not what employers in Costa Rica actually offer, and they are what our three published indexes score Costa Rica on.
Robbin Schuchmann
Co-founder, Employ Borderless
What the law requires in Costa Rica
CR| Field | Value | Unit | Tier | Source | Effective | Verified | Caveats |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Statutory paid annual leaveannual_leave_days | 10 | working days a year | Statute | National statutes and government sources | 2026-09-12 | 2026-09-16 | - |
| National public holidayspublic_holidays | 12 | days a year | Statute | National statutes and government sources | 2026-09-12 | 2026-09-16 | - |
| Statutory notice periodnotice_weeks | 3.6 | weeks | Statute | National statutes and government sources | 2026-09-12 | 2026-09-17 | - |
| Statutory severanceseverance_weeks | 14.4 | weeks | Official | World Bank Employing Workers | 2019-05-01 | 2026-06-22 | - |
| Employer social contributionsemployer_ssc_rate | 24.62 | % of gross pay | Official | OECD | 2025-01-01 | 2026-09-13 | - |
| Employee social contributionsemployee_ssc_rate | 9.85 | % of gross pay | Official | OECD | 2025-01-01 | 2026-09-13 | - |
| Statutory minimum wagemin_wage_monthly | CRC 367,108.56 | a month | Official | OECD | 2025-01-01 | 2026-09-13 | - |
| Income tax bracketsincome_tax_brackets | 1 band | - | Official | OECD | 2025-01-01 | 2026-09-13 | - |
| Corporate tax ratecorporate_tax_rate | 30 | % | Statute | National statutes and government sources | 2026-09-12 | 2026-09-17 | currentness uncertain |
| Standard VAT ratevat_rate | 13 | % | Statute | National statutes and government sources | 2026-09-12 | 2026-09-17 | currentness uncertain |
| Statutory maternity leavematernity_leave_weeks | 17.3 | weeks | Statute | National statutes and government sources | 2026-09-12 | 2026-09-17 | - |
| Statutory paternity leavepaternity_leave_weeks | 1.1 | weeks | Statute | National statutes and government sources | 2026-09-12 | 2026-09-17 | - |
| Statutory parental leaveparental_leave_weeks | 0 | weeks | Official | oecd_family_db | 2024-01-01 | 2026-06-11 | - |
| Maximum probation periodprobation_months | 3 | months | Statute | National statutes and government sources | 2026-09-12 | 2026-09-17 | - |
| Statutory weekly hoursavg_weekly_hours | 48 | hours a week | Statute | National statutes and government sources | 2026-09-12 | 2026-09-17 | - |
| Overtime premiumovertime_premium_pct | 50 | % above base pay | Statute | National statutes and government sources | 2026-09-12 | 2026-09-17 | - |
| State pension ageretirement_age | 64 | years | Official | OECD Pensions at a Glance | 2024-01-01 | 2026-06-23 | - |
Where a field is missing from this table, we hold no sourced value for Costa Rica and publish the gap rather than filling it. Where a statute and a compilation disagree, the statute wins.
Source tiers on this page: Statute is statute or government source · Official is official multilateral compilation.
Use these numbers
Free to reuse under CC BY 4.0 with attribution. The full edition, the per-field coverage table, the corrections log and the methodology live on the dataset page.
For what these rules mean in practice, who can employ under them and what hiring there actually costs, read our guide to hiring in Costa Rica.
Schuchmann, R. (2026). Global Employment Facts (Employ Borderless) [Data set]. Employ Borderless. https://employborderless.com/hiring-intelligence/global-employment-facts/
DOI pending. Until the Zenodo record resolves, cite the canonical URL above. Cite the dataset, not this page: the edition is frozen, so the numbers above will still be these numbers next quarter.