Employment
Labour Code with regional minimum wages
The Código del Trabajo of 1959 remains the governing statute, supplemented by the Ley Marco del Sistema de Protección Social. Minimum wages are set by enterprise size and sector, producing a matrix rather than a single national figure.
Key rules
- The ordinary week is 44 hours daytime, 36 hours at night, with overtime at 25% to 75% premiums.
- Thirteenth-month pay (décimo tercer mes) and fourteenth-month pay (décimo cuarto mes) are both statutory.
- Dismissal without just cause requires one month's salary per year of service, capped at 25 months.
- Annual leave rises with seniority from 10 to 20 working days.
- Unions require 30 workers, and the hourly-employment programme (empleo por hora) was repealed in 2022.
Governing law
- Código del Trabajo (Decreto 189-59)Contracts, hours and termination.
- Ley Marco del Sistema de Protección Social (Decreto 56-2015)Social insurance architecture.
In practice
IHSS registration is mandatory and non-registration is a common inspection finding. The repeal of empleo por hora in 2022 converted many short-term arrangements into indefinite contracts, which changed severance exposure materially.