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Paid holiday in Costa Rica: how many days, and how they are paid

Two weeks per fifty weeks worked. But whether that is twelve days or fourteen depends on how the employee is paid — and that is what decides the amount.

7 min readTicuenta
The entitlement: two weeks of holiday for every fifty weeks of continuous work with the same employer — that is, twelve working days plus two rest days. And it applies whatever the hours: full time, part time or one day a week.

How many days are paid, by pay frequency

Here is the detail that decides the amount, and that almost nobody has in mind: the number of days paid depends on whether the pay frequency already includes the rest day.

PaidDaysThe formula
Weekly12Weekly pay ÷ 6 × 12
Monthly or fortnightly14Monthly pay ÷ 30 × 14
Retail, paid weekly14Weekly pay ÷ 7 × 14
Why twelve in one case and fourteen in the other. Weekly pay does not include the rest day, so the twelve working days are paid. Monthly and fortnightly pay do include it — they cover all thirty days of the month — which is why they go to fourteen. It is not a different benefit: it is the same fortnight counted two ways.
The case · one salary, the three formulas
Monthly salary
₡600,000
Weekly equivalent
₡138,462
Weekly: ₡138,462 ÷ 6 × 12
₡276,923
Monthly or fortnightly: ₡600,000 ÷ 30 × 14
₡280,000
Retail weekly: ₡138,462 ÷ 7 × 14
₡276,923

Which salary it is calculated on

On the average of ordinary and extraordinary pay over the last fifty weeks, counted from when the entitlement arose. In agricultural and livestock operations, the average of the last week.

“Ordinary and extraordinary” means overtime counts in the average. Someone who worked a lot of overtime during the year is not paid their holiday at base salary: they are paid at the average, which is higher.

When it is taken, and who decides

  • The employer sets the dates

    That is the employer's prerogative, taking care not to disrupt the workplace or to defeat the purpose of the rest.

  • But within a deadline

    It must be done within the fifteen weeks following the day the fifty weeks of continuous service are completed — about 11.5 months.

  • And without interruptions

    It is taken continuously. It can be split into two parts at most, by agreement and only where the work is of a special nature that does not allow a long absence.

Rolling holiday over year after year is not a policy: it is a breach. The fifteen-week deadline exists precisely so that it does not accumulate. And the debt does not go away: it grows, and it turns up in full on the day of the final settlement. What a settlement contains.

When it can be paid instead of taken

Holiday is absolutely non-commutable, with three exceptions: when employment ends; when the work is casual or piece-work; and when, for a justified reason, it was not taken.

That third case has its own limits: payment can be agreed for the excess over the minimum of two weeks per fifty, up to the equivalent of three accumulated periods, and it does not apply if the employee already received that benefit in the previous two years.

What does not break continuity

These do not interrupt the count of fifty weeks: unpaid leave, the rest periods the Labour Code grants, justified illness, and immediate extension or renewal of the contract.

In the payroll and in the accounts

Holiday is accrued month by month, normally at 4.16 % of gross pay — roughly one twelfth of the annual entitlement. When the employee takes it, that salary is not a new expense: it draws down the accumulated provision.

And a tax detail: the holiday provision is not deductible until it is paid. It is one of the adjustments that appears in almost every Costa Rican income tax reconciliation. Which expenses do not deduct.

From Ticuenta

The provision accrues and draws down on its own

Holiday is set aside with each payroll, and the days taken are charged against that provision instead of hitting the expense a second time.

See how it works

About this article. The entitlement is article 153 of the Labour Code; the calculation salary, article 157; the exceptions to non-commutability, article 156. The formulas by pay frequency come from the Ministry of Labour's holiday booklet. 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

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