Hiring domestic help in Costa Rica

What to keep in mind: domestic work has its own rules on holiday, rest breaks and pay in kind. And it applies even when the work is by the hour or by the day: the entitlements are then calculated in proportion, but every one of them exists.

What counts as domestic work

Someone who provides assistance and wellbeing to a family or a person, for pay: cleaning, cooking, laundry, ironing and the other tasks of a household that do not generate profit for the person hiring. Also caring for people, where that is agreed and is carried out in the home of the person being cared for.

The key phrase is “that do not generate profit”. If the same tasks are performed in a business — a café, a hotel, an office — it is no longer domestic work: it is an ordinary employment relationship, with the general shifts and entitlements. The general rules.

Pay, in cash and in kind

It is paid in cash and cannot be below the legal minimum. Where there is also lodging and food, that is pay in kind: its percentage can be agreed, and if it was not agreed at the start of the contract it counts as 50 % of the cash pay.

And this is the expensive one to ignore. Both the cash pay and the pay in kind count towards the Christmas bonus, holiday, public holidays, notice and severance. With unagreed lodging and food, the base for every entitlement is 150 % of the cash, not 100 %.

The case · with lodging and food, not agreed in the contract

Cash pay: ₡320,000
Pay in kind (50 %): ₡160,000
Base for every entitlement: ₡480,000
Annual Christmas bonus: ₡480,000
If it were calculated on cash alone: ₡320,000 — ₡160,000 short

Deductions from pay

Item	Percentage
Social security — health and pension	8.17 %
Banco Popular	1 %

Those are the employee's contributions. The employer's run separately and are on the person hiring, exactly as in any payroll. What an employee costs.

Working hours

Shift	Per day	Per week
Day	8 h	48 h
Day, extended	up to 10 h	48 h
Mixed	up to 8 h	48 h
Night	6 h	36 h
Overtime	4 h maximum	12 h cap including the ordinary shift

Overtime cannot be permanent, is paid at time and a half, and is paid with the next salary payment — it is not carried forward.

The breaks, which are longer

On an eight-hour shift the minimum break is one hour, twice the general half hour. On shifts shorter than eight hours but longer than three, the break is proportional.

And the weekly rest day has a rule of its own. It is a full day, set by agreement, but at least twice a month that day must be a Sunday. Sunday cannot always be a working day.

Fifteen days of holiday, not two weeks

A domestic worker is entitled to fifteen days of paid annual holiday — a longer period than the general minimum.

Paid	The formula
Monthly	Average monthly pay ÷ 30 × 15
Weekly	Average weekly pay ÷ 7 × 15
By day or by hour	Average weekly pay ÷ 7 × 15

The average is taken over ordinary and extraordinary pay for the fifty weeks before the holiday is taken.

The case · if the contract ends before a year

Holiday days per year: 15
Per month worked: 15 ÷ 12: 1.25 days
After five months worked: 6.25 days

That 1.25 a month is domestic work's own rule. Under the general regime, someone who does not reach fifty weeks gets one day per month.

If the work is by the day, fifteen days is still fifteen days. What changes is the pay they are paid at, not the number. Someone working two days a fortnight has the same fifteen days of holiday, paid at the rate their hours earn.

And everything else applies too

Even when the work is by the hour or by the day: holiday, the Christmas bonus, public holidays, weekly rest, overtime, social security, workplace risk insurance, and notice and severance where they are due. For work by the hour or day, all of it is calculated in proportion to the time worked.

The workplace risk policy is not optional. It is a policy separate from social security, and it is the responsibility of the person hiring. It is forgotten often in domestic work, precisely because there is no formal payroll behind it.

Work by the hour, and its rate

The minimum wage decree sets domestic pay by month, so work by the hour or by the day is contractual pay: the parties agree it. As a reference, the Ministry of Labour itself suggests dividing the monthly figure by 30 for a day, and the day by eight for an hour.

From Ticuenta

A one-person payroll still leaves an entry

The contributions, the provisions and the month's figures come out the same whether you have one employee or twenty.

See how it works

About this article. The rules specific to domestic work — pay in kind, shifts, breaks, fifteen days of holiday and its proportional calculation — are set out in the Ministry of Labour's domestic work booklet and develop the Labour Code. The deduction percentages and the minimum wage are updated by decree: confirm the ones in force before applying them. This is not employment law advice.

Verified as of 24 September 2026. Rules change. This is information, not legal or tax advice.

Sources: Labour Code Ministry of Labour Costa Rican Social Security Fund

Hiring domestic help in Costa Rica: the rules almost nobody applies right