🇨🇷 Americas ·OECD member

Costa Rica

An ILO EPLex composite of 0.179 places Costa Rica among light-protection jurisdictions on the 0-1 scale.

ILO EPLex B-READY 2025 OECD EPL
0.179 ILO EPLex composite (0–1) Light protection
OECD EPL →

Costa Rica's statutory protection against unfair dismissal is light - an ILO EPLex composite of 0.179 on the 0–1 scale, more flexible than 99% of the 95 rated countries.

EPLex 0.179 · #95/95 · OECD 0.85/6 · B-READY 64.0. ILO EPLex · World Bank B-READY 2025 · OECD EPL.

Employment Protection Composite

F 17/100

One composite verdict from 3 of 3 independent sources, each percentile-benchmarked against every rated country. A missing source never lowers the score -- its weight redistributes to the sources this country actually has.

ILO EPLex F
0.18
Statutory dismissal-protection composite (0-1 scale)
World Bank B-READY F
64.0
Labor-market regulatory quality (0-100 scale)
OECD EPL F
0.85
Employment protection legislation strictness (0-6 scale)

Benchmarked against p10-p90 of every country rated by that source. See our methodology for the exact benchmark table and weights.

Where Costa Rica sits on ILO EPLex protection

Every rated country's dismissal-protection composite, 95 countries

0.18 1st percentile higher than 1% of 95 rated countries

0.00–0.10: 0 rated countries (0%). Below this entry. 0.10–0.20: 1 rated countries (1%). This entry sits in this band. 0.20–0.30: 8 rated countries (8%). Above this entry. 0.30–0.40: 26 rated countries (27%). Above this entry. 0.40–0.50: 39 rated countries (41%). Above this entry. 0.50–0.60: 15 rated countries (16%). Above this entry. 0.60–0.70: 6 rated countries (6%). Above this entry. 0.70–0.80: 0 rated countries (0%). Above this entry. 0.80–0.90: 0 rated countries (0%). Above this entry. 0.90–1.00: 0 rated countries (0%). Above this entry. Costa Rica 0.00 1.00 every rated country, bucketed by value

Each bar is a band; taller bars hold more rated countries. The dashed line + filled bar mark this entry. Hover or tap any bar for its full count, share, and where it sits relative to this entry.

Source ILO EPLex · 2019

Legal strictness doesn't predict dismissal speed

Across the 58 countries with both an ILO EPLex composite and a World Bank B-READY weeks-to-dismiss figure, the two barely move together (Pearson r ≈ -0.24). Some of the strictest-on-paper countries -- Czech Republic and Slovenia among them -- report close to 0 weeks to dismiss in practice, while more flexible-on-paper countries like the United States and Canada report among the longest practical timelines. Costa Rica sits at 0.179 EPLex (1st percentile) and 8.2 weeks to dismiss in practice.

EPLex composite vs. weeks to dismiss in practice

EPLex composite vs. weeks to dismiss in practice 2×2 strategic matrix plotting 30 entities by Weeks to dismiss in practice (B-READY) (X) and ILO EPLex composite (0-1, higher = stricter law) (Y), with a crosshair dividing the plot into four quadrants. Strict & slowStrict on paper, fast in practiceFlexible on paper, slow in practiceFlexible & fast 0246810 00.20.40.60.8 Weeks to dismiss in practice (B-READY) ILO EPLex composite (0-1, higher = stricter law) EPLex composite vs. weeks to dismiss in practice

Each point is one of the 58 countries with both scores (30 shown, an even cross-section by weeks-to-dismiss). Costa Rica is the highlighted point.

What the Data Shows for Costa Rica

Americas. Covered by 3/3 tracked datasets. As an OECD member, it is included in the OECD's long-running historical EPL series. The most recent ILO EPLex composite score is 0.179 out of 1.0 (2019), summarizing statutory termination rules into a single index. B-READY 2025 labor score: 64.0/100, moderate. The OECD EPL overall strictness index is 0.85/6.0, where higher values indicate stricter rules on individual and collective dismissal.

Statutory notice periods in Costa Rica scale with tenure across 7 tiers, reaching 1 month at 20 years of service. Severance pay can reach 13.33333 months of salary at 20 years, while redundancy-specific pay is 0 months. The maximum probation period allowed by law is 25 months, defining how long employers can assess workers under reduced protection. Dismissal process: slow, ~8.2 weeks. No 3rd-party approval required for individual dismissal.

Labor disputes here resolve relatively quickly, averaging 0.0 months through formal channels. Labor disputes are rare in practice, with only 0.9% of firms surveyed by the World Bank reporting one. Employer social contributions run to a moderate 5.7% of salary on top of wages. The EPLex redress/reinstatement sub-indicator is 0.375/1.0, reflecting how strong remedies are when a dismissal is ruled unlawful. Historically, Costa Rica's OECD EPL score moved from 0.85 in 2014 to 0.85 in 2019, showing the direction of reform over time. 6 peer comparisons below.

ILO EPLex (2019)
0.179
out of 1.0 · Rank #95
B-READY 2025
64.0
out of 100 · Rank #64
OECD EPL
0.85
out of 6.0 · Rank #72
ILO EPLex

Termination Protection Breakdown (2019)

Prohibited Grounds for Dismissal
0.500
Probation Period
0.000
Procedural Requirements
0.000
Notice Periods
0.159
Severance Pay
0.200
Redundancy Pay
0.000
Redress / Reinstatement
0.375

Scale: 0 = no protection · 1 = maximum protection. Source: ILO EPLex 2019.

Max probation period: 25 months

Notice Periods by Tenure

Tenure Notice Period
6 months 0.5 months
9 months 0.5 months
2 years 1 month
4 years 1 month
5 years 1 month
10 years 1 month
20 years 1 month

Source: ILO EPLex Notice period is the legally mandated advance notice before termination

Severance and Redundancy Pay by Tenure

Tenure Severance Redundancy
6 months 0.4666667 mo 0 mo
9 months 0.4666667 mo 0 mo
2 years 1.333333 mo 0 mo
4 years 2.8 mo 0 mo
5 years 3.533333 mo 0 mo
10 years 7.166667 mo 0 mo
20 years 13.33333 mo 0 mo

Values in salary-months. Source: ILO EPLex. Severance = individual dismissal. Redundancy = collective/economic dismissal.

B-READY 2025

Labor Regulation Quality

Regulation Quality
75.1
out of 100
Public Services
73.5
out of 100
Efficiency
43.4
out of 100
Notice Required
Yes
Severance Required
Yes
Weeks to Dismiss
8.2
Weeks Severance
4.7
Firms in Disputes
0.9%
Months to Resolve
0.0
Social Contributions
5.7%
3rd Party for Dismissal
Not required

Source: World Bank Business Ready 2025 Pillar scores are 0-100 (higher = better regulation quality)

OECD EPL

Historical Protection Score

Year Overall Score Visual
2014 0.85
2015 0.85
2016 0.85
2017 0.85
2018 0.85
2019 0.85

Scale: 0-6 (higher = more protective). Source: OECD Employment Protection Legislation database.

Compare Costa Rica With...

🇹🇯 Tajikistan 🇨🇿 Czech Republic 🇮🇩 Indonesia 🇹🇲 Turkmenistan 🇲🇪 Montenegro 🇵🇭 Philippines

Countries with similar labor-regulation profiles

Two peer sets for Costa Rica on metrics that vary across the full country corpus, not regional containment. The nearest EPLex block below stays on the ILO composite; these neighborhoods use B-READY, OECD, or statutory-duration axes.

Nearest EPLex peers

Closest ILO EPLex composite scores to Costa Rica (0.179), not the global top of the list.

🇺🇸 United States 0.222 · Δ 0.043 🇧🇷 Brazil 0.225 · Δ 0.046 🇸🇬 Singapore 0.234 · Δ 0.055 🇦🇪 United Arab Emirates 0.239 · Δ 0.060

Read with this Costa Rica page

Understanding EPL Scores How Costa Rica's 3/3 source mix maps onto EPLex, OECD, and B-READY. Termination Laws by Country Notice, severance, and dismissal rules that feed Costa Rica's EPLex composite. Hiring Internationally Cross-border hiring context next to Costa Rica's B-READY labor score. Reading Employment Statistics How to read OECD EPL strictness next to Costa Rica's historical series.

Read with this Costa Rica roster

United States →Brazil →EPLex composite ranking →Americas region →
Data sourced from official OECD, ILO, and World Bank employment-protection datasets. See our methodology for details. Retrieved and formatted by PlainEmploy

Disclaimer: This information is provided for informational purposes only and does not constitute professional advice. Data is sourced from OECD, ILO, and World Bank labor market databases. Consult a qualified professional before making decisions based on this data.

Read our methodology - how this data is sourced, computed, and verified.

Primary sources: ILO EPLex, World Bank B-READY, OECD EPL.

PlainEmploy is rendered directly from the OECD Employment Protection Legislation indicators, the ILO EPLex database, and the World Bank B-READY labor pillar, no number is typed in by an editor. This country's composite scores and comparisons are computed directly from the underlying OECD/EPLex/B-READY tables, no figure is typed in by an editor. See our editorial standards & corrections policy, the methodology behind these numbers, or report a data error. Data current as of 2026-08-30.