Costa Rica has a well-established framework of labour laws designed to safeguard workers’ rights and promote fair treatment in the workplace. Employers operating in the country need to be aware of these rules to ensure compliance and to provide a safe, respectful working environment for their teams.
In this section, we look at the main employee protections in Costa Rica, including whistleblowing provisions, data protection requirements, and rules on equal treatment for temporary agency workers. We also cover anti-discrimination laws, protections from harassment, and the principles of pay equity. Understanding these obligations is essential for employers to meet their legal responsibilities and support workplace fairness.
Whistleblowers play an important role in society by calling out corruption or wrongdoing witnessed in the workplace. For this reason, many countries have introduced specific laws to protect whistleblowers and prevent employers from retaliating against them — and Costa Rica is no exception. Read on to learn what you need to know about whistleblowing in Costa Rica.
In February 2025, Costa Rica passed a law to facilitate whistleblowing and protect whistleblowers from retaliation. This law requires all private-sector employers with more than 50 employees to set up a reporting channel for whistleblowers, enabling them file reports anonymously by electronic means. The law also requires companies to keep corruption complaints confidential. Public-sector employers are already covered by other legislation.
Costa Rica’s whistleblowing law also prohibits any form of retaliation against whistleblowers and introduces significant fines and other penalties for employers who breach this rule. Examples of retaliation include:
Legal protections for whistleblowers in Costa Rica are also extended to individuals who are named as witnesses in administrative or criminal procedures.
During the course of the employment relationship, employers are expected to collect and process personal data from their employees. And, as in all countries, there are certain rules that apply to this process in Costa Rica, which employers must be aware of. Read on to learn what you need to know about data privacy in Costa Rica.
The main law on data privacy in Costa Rica is the Law on the Protection of Persons Regarding the Processing of their Personal Data No. 8968 of 2011. This law has been in force since July 2012 and governs how personal data must be handled by both public and private entities.
The body responsible for enforcing the law is the Agency for the Protection of Personal Data (PRODHAB). While there have been several attempts to modernise Costa Rica’s data protection laws and bring them in line with the EU’s General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), these have thus far been unsuccessful.
Employers in Costa Rica are required to implement certain best practices to protect their employees’ data. These include:
There are also certain rules that apply to the monitoring of employees in the workplace in Costa Rica. For example, employers may monitor computers or telephones, but only if:
Monitoring is not permitted in sensitive areas like changing rooms or toilets.
Temporary agency workers are workers hired through labour agencies on a short-term basis to cover temporary needs. For example, an employer may hire a temporary agency worker to cover for the absence of another employee, or to meet a short-term increase in demand. In Costa Rica, there are no specific conditions that need to be met to justify the use of temporary agency workers.
Certain countries have specific laws in place to grant temporary agency workers the right to equal treatment with their permanently employed counterparts. Costa Rica’s labour framework strongly upholds principles of non-discrimination and equal pay for equal work. This is guaranteed by the Costa Rican Constitution, the Labour Code, and other labour regulations. However, there is currently no specific law on the equal treatment of temporary agency workers in Costa Rica.
Employees in Costa Rica have the right to be free from discrimination and harassment in the workplace. Read on to learn what you need to know about anti-discrimination laws and protection against harassment in Costa Rica.
Costa Rican law contains strong anti-discrimination provisions. First, the Costa Rican Constitution establishes the principle that everyone is equal before the law. This applies in an employment context as well as in other spheres.
The Costa Rican Labour code also explicitly prohibits discrimination in the workplace on grounds such as gender, race, religion, disability, and other personal characteristics. This means employers cannot treat one person or group less favourably than others as a result of one of these characteristics. Significant modifications to the law in 2020 strengthened existing protections.
Costa Rica specifically prohibits sexual harassment in the workplace under Law No. 7476 on Sexual Harassment in Employment and Teaching. This law applies to both the public and private sectors and requires employers to:
Sexual harassment is defined broadly, covering verbal, physical, and non-verbal conduct of a sexual nature that affects employment conditions or creates a hostile environment.
There is currently no dedicated law in Costa Rica addressing general workplace harassment or bullying. However, such conduct may still be challenged under other labour and constitutional protections, particularly where it involves discrimination or infringes on employees’ fundamental rights.
The Costa Rican Labour Code grants employees the right to equal pay and working conditions for the same work, regardless of their gender, race, or other factors. This is reinforced by the Constitution of Costa Rica and other laws, including the 2017 Labour Procedure Reform and the Protection of Equal Pay for Women and Men Act (Act No. 9677 of 2019). This latter piece of legislation amends the Law of Social Equality of Women (Act No. 7142 of 1990) to explicitly guarantee equal pay for women and men in both public and private sectors, for work of equal value, even if roles differ.
The 2017 reform requires employers with 20 or more employees and no collective agreement to establish a remuneration system that ensures non-discriminatory equal pay for work of equal value, regardless of gender and other grounds. In addition, under Act No. 9677, the Inter-agency Commission on Equal Pay supports integrating equal-pay indicators into labour statistics—indirectly promoting transparency and accountability.
Understanding what you can and can’t do as an employer is one of the biggest challenges of hiring in Costa Rica. Get it wrong, and you could face legal action and damage to your reputation.
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