Costa Rica Minimum wage (lowest generic monthly rate)
Costa Rica Minimum wage (lowest generic monthly rate) is 373092.3 CRC/month, in force since 1 Jan 2026. It was 367108.55 CRC/month before that. Last checked against the official source on 16 Jul 2026.
Costa Rica has no single national minimum wage. The Consejo Nacional de Salarios (tripartite body under Ley N.º 832 de 1949) fixes a MATRIX of statutory minimums by OCCUPATION/SKILL CATEGORY each year (resolution by 1 Nov, officialized by MTSS executive decree effective 1 Jan). This series carries the lowest generic monthly rate: Trabajador en Ocupación No Calificada, ocupaciones genéricas por mes.
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| Current value | 373092.3 CRC/month (Trabajador en Ocupación No Calificada, genérico por mes — lowest generic monthly rate; see notes for full schedule) |
|---|---|
| In force from | 2026-01-01 |
| Official source | Decreto Ejecutivo N.º 45303-MTSS del 08/11/2025, 'Fijación de salarios mínimos para el sector privado que regirán a partir del 1° de enero del 2026' (La Gaceta N.º 229, Alcance 156, 05/12/2025) — texto completo en SCIJ |
| Last verified | 2026-07-16 |
| Verification | primary — No verification limitation recorded — read from the official source cited. |
| Provenance | source fingerprint |
What this value means
Costa Rica's minimum wage is an OCCUPATIONAL matrix (no geographic zones). Decreto 45303-MTSS Art. 1 sets: (a) DAILY rates — Ocupación No Calificada ₡12,436.41; Semicalificada ₡13,523.69; Calificada ₡13,991.86; Especializada ₡16,244.50; (b) GENERIC MONTHLY rates — No Calificada ₡373,092.30 (the value shown); Semicalificada ₡405,710.70; Calificada ₡419,755.80; Especializada ₡487,335.00; Técnicos Medios de Educación Diversificada ₡496,838.17; Técnicos de Educación Superior ₡542,096.58; Diplomados ₡585,484.58; Bachilleres Universitarios ₡664,078.07; Licenciados Universitarios ₡796,921.00 (top of matrix); (c) SPECIFIC fixings — Trabajo doméstico ₡268,731.31/month (the absolute lowest monthly figure, but a special category on a 15-year catch-up path of +2.33962%/yr extra), coffee pickers ₡1,184.10/cajuela, estibadores per kilo/tonne/movement, trabajadores de especialización superior ₡25,209.80/day. Art. 2 makes the No Calificada DAILY rate the fallback floor for any work not otherwise covered — the 'salario mínimo minimorum'; the monthly No Calificada figure is shown here as the clearest monthly floor. 2026 fixing = general increase of 1.63% over 2025 (CNS sesión ordinaria N.º 5886, 27 Oct 2025) plus pre-agreed extra increments: Trabajo Doméstico +2.33962%, Especializada genérico mensual +0.5562880%, Técnico Medio Ed. Diversificada +0.88768%. Fixings are annual but MID-YEAR revisions occur (e.g., Resolución RG-MTSS-CNS-1-2025 raised the TMED category to ₡484,568.18 from 1 Jul 2025), hence the ~200-day update cycle. MTSS pages (mtss.go.cr) were Cloudflare-blocked at confirmation; figures verified against the decree text on SCIJ (official PGR legal-information system). Next annual fixing expected effective 1 Jan 2027.
Earlier values
| From | Value | Source |
|---|---|---|
| 2025-01-01 | 367108.55 | Decreto Ejecutivo N.º 44756-MTSS del 07/11/2024 (La Gaceta… |
Get it programmatically
curl https://usaref.dev/v1/cr/minimum-wage
# $0.005 per call — x402 on Base (USDC). No key, no signup.
# History: curl https://usaref.dev/v1/cr/minimum-wage/history?from=2020-01-01
# Provenance: curl https://usaref.dev/provenance/cr/minimum-wageOther Costa Rica series: BCCR monetary policy rate (TPM) · IVA standard rate · VAT registration threshold · Public holidays · CPI inflation (year-on-year) · Corporate income tax rate · Withholding tax rates · Statutory legal interest (interés legal) · Personal income tax brackets · Statutory social-insurance contributions
The same figure elsewhere: Dominican Republic · El Salvador · Guatemala · Honduras · Mexico · all 10