๐Ÿ‡ต๐Ÿ‡ฆ Americas

Panama

An ILO EPLex composite of 0.445 places Panama among moderate-protection jurisdictions on the 0-1 scale.

ILO EPLex OECD EPL
0.445 ILO EPLex composite (0โ€“1) Moderate protection
OECD EPL โ†’

Panama's statutory protection against unfair dismissal is moderate - an ILO EPLex composite of 0.445 on the 0โ€“1 scale, stronger than 55% of the 95 rated countries.

EPLex 0.445 ยท #44/95 ยท OECD 2.35/6. ILO EPLex ยท OECD EPL.

Employment Protection Composite

C- 54/100

One composite verdict from 2 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 C
0.45
Statutory dismissal-protection composite (0-1 scale)
World Bank B-READY N/A
N/A
Labor-market regulatory quality
OECD EPL C-
2.35
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 Panama sits on ILO EPLex protection

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

0.45 Top 45% higher than 55% of 95 rated countries

0.00โ€“0.10: 0 rated countries (0%). Below this entry. 0.10โ€“0.20: 1 rated countries (1%). Below this entry. 0.20โ€“0.30: 8 rated countries (8%). Below this entry. 0.30โ€“0.40: 26 rated countries (27%). Below this entry. 0.40โ€“0.50: 39 rated countries (41%). This entry sits in this band. 0.50โ€“0.60: 15 rated countries (16%). Above this entry. 0.60โ€“0.70: 6 rated countries (6%). Above this entry. 0.70โ€“0.80: 0 rated countries (0%). Above this entry. 0.80โ€“0.90: 0 rated countries (0%). Above this entry. 0.90โ€“1.00: 0 rated countries (0%). Above this entry. Panama 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 ยท 2018

What the Data Shows for Panama

Americas. Covered by 2/3 tracked datasets. The most recent ILO EPLex composite score is 0.445 out of 1.0 (2018), summarizing statutory termination rules into a single index. The OECD EPL overall strictness index is 2.35/6.0, where higher values indicate stricter rules on individual and collective dismissal.

Statutory notice periods in Panama scale with tenure across 7 tiers, reaching 0 months at 20 years of service. Severance pay can reach 0 months of salary at 20 years, while redundancy-specific pay is 14.8 months. The maximum probation period allowed by law is 3 months, defining how long employers can assess workers under reduced protection.

The EPLex redress/reinstatement sub-indicator is 0.500/1.0, reflecting how strong remedies are when a dismissal is ruled unlawful. 6 peer comparisons below.

ILO EPLex (2018)
0.445
out of 1.0 ยท Rank #44
B-READY 2025
-
No data available
OECD EPL
2.35
out of 6.0 ยท Rank #33
ILO EPLex

Termination Protection Breakdown (2018)

Prohibited Grounds for Dismissal
0.500
Probation Period
0.880
Procedural Requirements
0.500
Notice Periods
0.000
Severance Pay
0.000
Redundancy Pay
0.378
Redress / Reinstatement
0.500

Scale: 0 = no protection · 1 = maximum protection. Source: ILO EPLex 2018.

Max probation period: 3 months

Notice Periods by Tenure

Tenure Notice Period
6 months 0 months
9 months 0 months
2 years 0 months
4 years 0 months
5 years 0 months
10 years 0 months
20 years 0 months

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 mo 0.5 mo
9 months 0 mo 0.75 mo
2 years 0 mo 3 mo
4 years 0 mo 4.5 mo
5 years 0 mo 5.2 mo
10 years 0 mo 9.75 mo
20 years 0 mo 14.8 mo

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

Compare Panama With...

๐Ÿ‡จ๐Ÿ‡ท Costa Rica ๐Ÿ‡บ๐Ÿ‡ธ United States ๐Ÿ‡ง๐Ÿ‡ท Brazil ๐Ÿ‡น๐Ÿ‡ฏ Tajikistan ๐Ÿ‡ธ๐Ÿ‡ฌ Singapore ๐Ÿ‡ฆ๐Ÿ‡ช United Arab Emirates

Countries with similar labor-regulation profiles

Two peer sets for Panama 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 Panama (0.445), not the global top of the list.

๐Ÿ‡ท๐Ÿ‡ด Romania 0.446 ยท ฮ” 0.001 ๐Ÿ‡ญ๐Ÿ‡บ Hungary 0.447 ยท ฮ” 0.002 ๐Ÿ‡ง๐Ÿ‡ซ Burkina Faso 0.448 ยท ฮ” 0.002 ๐Ÿ‡ท๐Ÿ‡ธ Serbia 0.443 ยท ฮ” 0.002

Read with this Panama page

Understanding EPL Scores How Panama's 2/3 source mix maps onto EPLex, OECD, and B-READY. Termination Laws by Country Notice, severance, and dismissal rules that feed Panama's EPLex composite. Reading Employment Statistics How to read OECD EPL strictness next to Panama's historical series.

Read with this Panama roster

Romania โ†’Hungary โ†’Venezuela (Americas) โ†’Mexico (Americas) โ†’EPLex composite ranking โ†’Americas region โ†’
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.