Hire Remote Staff in Costa Rica

Costa Rica suits a small business that wants a remote team in a single, stable time zone. The country uses UTC-6, and the IANA time zone database lists no daylight saving rules for it after 1992. On the EF English Proficiency Index 2025 it ranks 55th of 123 countries and sits in the moderate band. This guide covers working hours, English, the three ways to hire, the main points of the Código de Trabajo and what to put in a budget.

Time zone and overlap

Costa Rica is on UTC-6 (IANA time zone database). The database shows daylight saving rules only for 1979 to 1980 and 1991 to 1992, so the database gives Costa Rica a fixed offset. Because other countries change their clocks on their own dates, the gap to your own city can change during the year.

For a daily call or a shared support rota, check your own city pair on a specific date with our time-zone overlap tool before you fix meeting times. A team member who can start at 8 am in San José and finish at 5 pm covers a full local working day, and the tool shows how much of it falls inside your business hours.

English and language

The EF English Proficiency Index measures adults who chose to take the EF test, so it describes a national average and not any individual candidate. In the 2025 edition Costa Rica is 55th of 123 countries and regions with a score of 516, in the moderate proficiency band (EF EPI 2025). A moderate national band means you should test spoken and written English in every interview for customer-facing, sales and management roles.

A live conversation and a short written task will tell you more than a CV line. If the job needs fluent English in writing, ask for a sample reply to a realistic customer message and read it yourself. Employment documents in Costa Rica are normally written in Spanish, so plan for a Spanish contract with an English reference copy if your managers work in English, and have a Costa Rican adviser review both.

Roles listed in the salary table

The salary table on this page lists ranges for software developers at three levels, QA engineers, customer support, digital marketing and other roles, each with a named source and a year. Several rows come from salary-site listings and are marked as estimates, so treat them as starting points for a conversation and not as offers. The salary benchmark explorer lets you compare roles side by side, and the Remote Hiring Cost Calculator adds the employer costs described below.

Role guides on this site explain what each job involves and how to screen for it: software developer, QA engineer, customer support agent and digital marketer.

Three ways to hire

Independent contractor

A Costa Rican professional can invoice a foreign client, but the label on the agreement does not decide the legal position. Article 18 of the Código de Trabajo defines an employment contract as an agreement to provide services under the permanent dependence and direct or delegated direction of another person for pay of any kind, and it presumes that such a contract exists between the person who works and the person who receives the work (Código de Trabajo, Ministry of Labour). The Ministry's own guidance lists three elements: personal service, pay and subordination (MTSS labour topics).

If you set the hours, direct the daily work and expect the person to work only for you, treat the arrangement as employment. Our misclassification risk checker and the EOR versus contractor comparison explain the difference in plain terms.

Employer of record

An employer of record becomes the legal employer in Costa Rica, runs payroll and issues the employment contract, while you direct the daily work. Ask for an itemised quote that separates salary, the year-end aguinaldo, social-security contributions, the work-risk insurance policy and the provider's own fee, and ask how the provider handles notice and severance if the role ends. The Ministry states that the employer must hold a work-risk insurance policy at its own cost, so that line should appear in any quote.

Your own Costa Rican entity

A local company gives you direct control but adds registration, payroll, accounting and filing work. Obtain written estimates of formation cost and timing from a Costa Rican lawyer and accountant before deciding, and compare them with a quote from an employer of record for the number of people you expect to hire in the first year.

What the law sets for employees

The points below are the ones that most often change a budget or a contract. Article references are to the Código de Trabajo as published by the Ministry of Labour and Social Security, and the compliance section after this guide sets them out in full.

• Working week. The ordinary day is eight hours in daytime, six at night and 48 hours a week (Article 136). Overtime is paid at 50 percent more (Article 139).
• Vacation. A minimum of two weeks of paid vacation for each 50 weeks of continuous work for the same employer (Article 153).
• Aguinaldo. A year-end payment under Ley 2412 that the Ministry describes as an additional salary, paid in the first twenty days of December.
• Notice and severance. Notice for ending an open-ended contract without just cause depends on length of service (Article 28), and severance pay accrues by years worked up to the last eight years (Article 29).

Hours matter for a remote team because the legal week sets what you can ask for without extra pay. The ordinary day is eight hours and the ordinary week 48, and anything beyond the agreed ordinary hours must be paid at the overtime rate. If your business runs a late shift or a weekend rota, put the pattern in the contract from the start and confirm with your adviser how the rest-day rule in Article 152 applies to it.

Our 13th-month pay guide compares year-end payments across countries, and the glossary explains severance pay and notice periods.

How to budget

Start from the salary table and then add what the law and your provider add. The Ministry explains the aguinaldo as the total of ordinary and extraordinary wages earned between 1 December of the previous year and 30 November, divided by twelve. For a steady monthly salary that works out to one month of pay each year, so reserve about one twelfth of salary every month. Add the work-risk insurance policy, any social-security contributions your adviser or provider confirms, any provider fee and a reserve for severance.

Ask your adviser or provider for the current social-security contribution rates in writing, because rates can change. The Remote Hiring Cost Calculator lets you test different salary levels and employment routes.

Practical tips

• Put working hours, overtime rules, vacation and the aguinaldo date in the contract, and have a Costa Rican adviser review a Spanish version.
• Test English in the interview with a live call and a written task, whatever the national band.
• Keep contractor engagements project-based and independent. If you direct the work every day, consider employment.
• Ask any provider to name the legal employer, the insurance policy and who pays severance if the role ends.
• Plan your meeting times with the time-zone overlap tool for the dates when your own clocks change.
• Keep a written record of the dates when each person started, because notice and severance depend on continuous service.

For how Costa Rica compares with other nearshore options for US teams, see the nearshore countries list.

Sources

• EF English Proficiency Index 2025, ranking of 123 countries and regions
• IANA time zone database, North America file, Costa Rica zone and daylight saving rules
• Código de Trabajo de Costa Rica (Ley 2 and reforms), Ministry of Labour and Social Security
• MTSS labour topics, Ministry guidance on the aguinaldo, work-risk insurance and the employment contract
• PRODHAB legislation page and PRODHAB about page, data protection agency

References checked on 13 October 2026. This page is general information, not legal or tax advice.