Choose your role below
Employer
Job Seeker
Hiring in Dominican Republic? Read on to find out the employment norms (like taxes, payroll and benefits) and EOR (Employer on Record) norms in Dominican Republic.
Employment Norms in the Dominican Republic
The employment norms in the Dominican Republic are governed by labor laws that protect the rights of employees and regulate various aspects of employment such as working hours, minimum wage, health and safety, and termination of employment. The Ministry of Labor is responsible for enforcing these laws and ensuring that both employers and employees are aware of their rights and obligations under the law.
General Information:
- The Dominican Republic's currency is the Dominican Peso (DOP).
- Santo Domingo is the capital of the Dominican Republic.
- Spanish is the official language of the Dominican Republic. Documentation can be in Spanish.
- As of 2022, the GDP of the Dominican Republic was reported to be $218 billion.
Employers must also follow strict hiring procedures and provide social security and other benefits to their employees.
Table of Contents
- Agreements
- Onboarding Process
- Visa
- Minimum Wage
- Payroll Cycle
- Annual Bonus
- Health Benefits
- Working Hours and Overtime
- Leaves
- Social Security
- Taxes for Employers
- Taxes for Employees
- Probation
- Termination
- Severance Pay
- Employees or Contractors
- Final Words
AgreementsOnboarding ProcessVisaMinimum WagePayroll CycleAnnual BonusHealth BenefitsWorking Hours and OvertimeLeavesSocial SecurityTaxes for EmployersTaxes for EmployeesProbationTerminationSeverance PayEmployees or ContractorsFinal Words
Agreements
Permanent job contracts do not require written employment agreements. The requirements for employment contracts are outlined in Article 24 of the Labour Code.
- Should include the parties' entire names, surnames, nationalities, ages, sexes, marital statuses, full addresses, and identification numbers.
- Service that the employee promises to render, as well as the time and location where it will be carried out.
- Salary and terms of payment.
- If the contract has a set end date, how long is it? (otherwise, it will be considered a contract of indeterminate duration).
- Any other clause that the parties have agreed upon, as well as their respective signatures.
Spanish is the Dominican Republic's official language, according to Article 90 of its Constitution. Hence, to be enforceable, all employment contracts must be written in Spanish or translated into Spanish.
Onboarding Process
Here is a glimpse into the onboarding process in the Dominican Republic:
- The Right to Work assessment (if applicable) will add three extra days to the overall time to onboard all non-citizens of the country of employment. If it becomes necessary to follow up on the right-to-work evaluation, more time might be needed.
- After being hired in the Dominican Republic employees need to show the following documents:
- National ID
- Bank Details or Bank Book
- If the employee is a foreigner they need to show their passport
- Following are the personal details that employees need to share with the employer:
- Name
- Place of Birth
- Date of Birth
- Address and Telephone Number
- Identification Number
Visa
The Dominican Republic has 2 types of Visas, which are discussed below:
Travel Visa:
- A tourist visa can be sponsored by friends or family and is required for non-US nationals. The initial window is 30 days long. For 30 days, US citizens do not need a visa.
Work Visa:
- You must apply for a business visa before beginning any work related to business. You can apply for business visas at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, which issues the visa after carefully reviewing your supporting documentation.
Tarmack helps you easily hire international talent as your full time employees without opening international subsidiaries. Find out more about our Employer of Record services
Learn More
Minimum Wage
The minimum wage in the Dominican Republic varies depending on the type of organization (private or public), how many employees there are, and how much money the organization makes each year. There is no set legal minimum wage. Still, the monthly minimum payment can range between DOP 11,900 to DOP 21,000.
Payroll Cycle
Workers in the Dominican Republic receive one monthly paycheck, typically on the last day of the month. But some companies are switching to bimonthly cycles, paying staff on the 15th and last day of each month.
Annual Bonus
Bonuses are paid during Christmas. They are often issued around December 20th and are equal to one additional month's pay (also called the 13th-month pay). Taxes are not payable for the bonuses. Employees can also get a profit-sharing bonus worth 10% of the company's net income.
Health Benefits
A three-tiered structure that governs the healthcare system in the Dominican Republic includes:
- The poor, needy and unemployed fall under the subsidized tier. They qualify for assistance from the Dominican Republic.
- Healthcare in the contributive category is paid for by both employers and employees.
- Technical personnel and independent contractors with salaries above the average yearly wage in the country contribute to the funding of the contributive subsidized tier.
Working Hours and Overtime
Check the details on working hours, breaks and overtime in the Dominican Republic:
- Work hours: 44 hours per week or 8 hours per day
- Break: All full-time employees are entitled to a weekly rest period of at least 36 continuous hours, while any employee working for more than 6 hours straight must take a mandatory one-hour meal break.
- Overtime: 3 hours per day of overtime is permitted. Each hour after 9:00 pm is counted towards the overtime pay. On weekends, overtime workers are required to take 36 hours off without interruption.
Leaves
Sick Leaves
There is no distinction between short-term and long-term sick leave under Dominican law. In any instance, and only if the absence due to sickness is longer than 4 days, the Social Security Treasury shall pay the employee a portion of the employee's payment.
Parental leaves
- Maternity leave is seven weeks before and seven weeks after the birth of the child. A total of 14 weeks of leave is granted as maternity leave.
- Paternity leave is granted to male employees for two days.
- There must be three 20-minute breaks every workday for nursing mothers.
Annual leaves
- In the Dominican Republic, annual leave is calculated based on the number of years and actual working days in a year.
- Employees can take a leave of 14 days annually after they have completed one year of employment with a particular employer. After completing five years with the same employer, employees are entitled to get leave of four additional days.
Other leaves
- Bereavement leaves: In case of the death of any family member, an employee can take three days of leave.
- Marriage leave: Couples tying the knot get marriage leave of five days.
Public Holidays (for the Calendar year 2023)
- New Year's Day (1st January)
- New Year Holiday (2nd January)
- Epiphany Holiday ( 9th January)
- Lady of Altagracia Day (21st January)
- Duarte Day ( 30th January)
- Independence Day (27th February)
- Good Friday (7th April)
- Labor Day (1st May)
- Corpus Christi (8th June)
- Restoration Day (16th August)
- Our Lady of Mercedes Day (24th September)
- Constitution Day (6th November)
- Christmas Day (25th December)
If you structure your global talent acquisition strategy well, you will definitely enhance your talent quality and availability through a distributed workforce. Tarmack offers end to end recruiting services to help you achieve this.
Schedule Consultation
Taxes for Employers
- 7.10% is contributed to Pension Funds
- 7.09% is contributed to Family Healthcare/Health Insurance
- 1.2% is contributed to Labor Risk Insurance
- 1% is contributed to Technical Education
Did you know that as a part of the Employer of Record service, Tarmack offers global payroll across 100+ countries? Not just that, we even offer this global payroll service on a standalone basis. So if you're looking for a payroll provider for one or more countries, you're at the right place.
Learn More
Taxes for Employees
- 2.87% is contributed to the Pension Funds
- 3.04% is contributed to the Family Healthcare/Health Insurance
- 0.5% is contributed to the Technical Education
Income tax payable by employees is as follows:
- 0% for the income upto DOP 416,220
- 15% to be paid for income ranging between 416,220 - 624,329 DOP
- 20% for the income range 624,329 - 867,123 DOP
- 25% for the income above 867,123 DOP
Probation
There are no probationary periods as per the law of the Dominican Republic.
Ready to convert your contractor to a full time employee?
Every now and then, that contractor you hired does such a good job that you want to hire them as a full time employee. Convert such contractors into your full time employees by using Tarmack's Employer of Record service. Doesn't matter where the contractor is. Our service covers 150+ countries around the globe!
Talk To Us
Termination
In the Dominican Republic, terminations might be difficult. Contracts can be broken either responsibly or carelessly.
- Terminations made without cause:
- Mutual consent
- By the time the contract expires
- Inability to carry out the duties
- Termination on account of negligence
- An employer acting unilaterally based on: Disciplinary dismissal and performance-based
- Employee's voluntary participation
Severance Pay
Employees in the Dominican Republic might be eligible for severance pay. Service duration, bonuses, and vacation time will all be factored into the severance package.
The standard payment structure is:
- 6 days of severance pay after three to six months of employment
- 13 days of severance pay after six to twelve months of employment
- 21 days of severance pay for employees with 1 to 5 years of service
- 13 days of severance pay after more than five years of employment
Employees or Contractors
- Full-time employees are people engaged by the company and who put in a set number of hours each week. They are paid a set salary, and the company is responsible for covering their social and other benefits while supervising their daily operations. If an employer wants to stop the working relationship with a full-time employee, a termination notice is a must.
- Contractors are independent workers that work on a freelance basis. They are compensated on a project-by-project basis and do tasks as assigned. The company does not demand payment of any benefits. Work can be terminated at any time or with little advance notice.
Final Words
Given that the Dominican Republic has one of the world's fastest-growing economies, expanding there is a great decision for your company. The ideal answer for the company's expansion aspirations is EOR. It functions as a unified employment platform that offers digital signatures, automated workflows, employee payment, contractor compensation, and many compliance solutions. In short, it manages all the tasks and takes away the burden from your shoulders.
Explore Hiring & Payroll In Other Countries
Hiring & Payroll in United StatesHiring & Payroll in SingaporeHiring & Payroll in IsraelHiring & Payroll in PortugalHiring & Payroll in LatviaHiring & Payroll in CanadaHiring & Payroll in FinlandHiring & Payroll in United Arab EmiratesHiring & Payroll in MaltaHiring & Payroll in ChileHiring & Payroll in AustraliaHiring & Payroll in New ZealandHiring & Payroll in QatarHiring & Payroll in GreeceHiring & Payroll in MalaysiaHiring & Payroll in GermanyHiring & Payroll in IrelandHiring & Payroll in Saudi ArabiaHiring & Payroll in EstoniaHiring & Payroll in South AfricaHiring & Payroll in United KingdomHiring & Payroll in LuxembourgHiring & Payroll in Hong KongHiring & Payroll in Czech RepublicHiring & Payroll in BrazilHiring & Payroll in SwitzerlandHiring & Payroll in FranceHiring & Payroll in TaiwanHiring & Payroll in PolandHiring & Payroll in MexicoHiring & Payroll in SwedenHiring & Payroll in BelgiumHiring & Payroll in PhilippinesHiring & Payroll in ArgentinaHiring & Payroll in NorwayHiring & Payroll in AustriaHiring & Payroll in CyprusHiring & Payroll in HungaryHiring & Payroll in ThailandHiring & Payroll in DenmarkHiring & Payroll in JapanHiring & Payroll in SpainHiring & Payroll in SlovakiaHiring & Payroll in ChinaHiring & Payroll in NetherlandsHiring & Payroll in South KoreaHiring & Payroll in ItalyHiring & Payroll in Lithuania
+ 38 moreA truly global HR platform with everything you need to build, grow & manage a global team.
- Identifying & recruiting the best talent
- Payroll with full compliance across 100+ countries
- Employment agreements as per local laws
- Contractor invoices & time management
- Smooth remote onboarding of employees
- Immigration & mobility services around the world
Hold up! Please tell us how to contact you and we'll get in touch with you, most likely within an hour.
Copyright © 2024 Tarmack Inc. All rights reserved.
Social Security