Costa Rica 12-Hour Shifts: Salary Simulator & Checklist

Costa Rica 12-Hour Shifts (4×3 Workweek): Salary Simulator and Employer Compliance Checklist

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Legal Costa Rica 12-hour shifts are closer than ever, but they aren’t here yet. Bill No. 24,290 (file 24.290 in Costa Rica’s Legislative Assembly), which would allow a 4×3 workweek of four 12-hour shifts followed by three days off, passed its first vote on October 8, 2026. Four days later, a group of legislators sent it to the Constitutional Court for review, which put the final vote on hold. If you run a 24/7 operation in Costa Rica, whether a manufacturing plant, a medical device facility or a shared services center, now is the time to run the numbers and get your house in order. This guide to Costa Rica 12-hour shifts gives you a salary simulator, a checklist of every employer obligation in the final text, and our honest take on the risks.

What are Costa Rica 12-hour shifts and where does the bill stand?

Costa Rica 12-hour shifts, known locally as the “4×3” workweek, are a proposed “extended exceptional workday” that would let private 24/7 operations schedule employees for up to 12 hours a day, four days in a row, followed by three consecutive days off. Night shifts would run three days on and four off. The regular 8-hour workday stays in place; the 4×3 would be a special regime for the “highly qualified exceptional cases” that Article 58 of the Constitution allows the law to define.

One point that often gets lost: four 12-hour days add up to 48 hours a week, the same weekly cap that already applies to day shifts. The bill doesn’t lengthen the workweek. It changes how those hours are distributed and paid.

Until then, no company can run 12-hour shifts as a regular schedule based on this bill.

How Costa Rica’s work-hour rules differ from the U.S.

If your company is headquartered in the United States, a few differences explain why this bill matters so much:

• Daily limits, not just weekly ones. The federal Fair Labor Standards Act only triggers overtime after 40 hours in a workweek. Costa Rica caps the regular day itself: 8 hours for day shifts, 6 for night shifts, and up to 10 hours under the “cumulative” day schedule of Article 136 of the Labor Code, for work that isn’t hazardous or unhealthy, as long as the week stays at or under 48 hours.
• Overtime is limited and can’t be permanent. It’s paid at time and a half, and regular plus overtime hours can’t exceed 12 in a day. Courts and labor inspectors don’t accept overtime as a standing schedule.
• No at-will employment in the U.S. sense. Ending a contract without just cause triggers statutory severance (cesantía), which becomes relevant if a 4×3 transition doesn’t work out. Our Costa Rica severance calculator shows how it adds up.

A few terms you’ll see throughout: the MTSS is the Ministry of Labor; the Labor Inspectorate is its enforcement arm; the Sala IV is the Constitutional Chamber of the Supreme Court; and La Gaceta is the official gazette where laws are published.

Which companies qualify for 12-hour shifts?

The new Article 143 bis of the Labor Code sets a closed list. It applies only in the private sector, to employees who are “essential and strictly required” for continuous 24-hour operations, and only in these four activities:

• Advanced manufacturing: highly specialized production running 24/7 through successive teams, with machinery, intensive use of technology and the need to fix mechanical failures immediately.
• Medical device manufacturing for human and animal life sciences, in continuous operation.
• Support services the company needs to keep those two operations running without interruption.
• Corporate services that work across time zones and must operate around the clock.

The specific job profiles and company requirements will come from executive regulations, which the Ministry of Labor must propose within six months after the law takes effect. Until those exist, nobody can say with certainty which positions qualify.

The 4×3 cannot be used for: heavy, hazardous or unhealthy work; agriculture; construction; jobs with especially harmful exposure or health risks that can’t be eliminated or reduced; work requiring extraordinary physical effort or involving fatigue from heat or humidity, hands and feet in water or mud, or continuous operation of machinery or vehicles with a dangerous fatigue risk. Minors, pregnant or breastfeeding employees and public sector workers are also excluded. If the risk exists only in one area, the ban applies to that area for as long as the risk lasts, without cutting anyone’s pay.

Costa Rica 12-hour shifts rules: breaks, rest days and overtime

Article 145 bis governs the schedule, whether the work is on-site or remote. In Costa Rica a day shift runs between 5 a.m. and 7 p.m., a night shift between 7 p.m. and 5 a.m., and a “mixed” shift spans both:

• Breaks during the shift: at least 90 minutes a day for meals and rest, paid as working time.
• Between shifts: at least 12 hours off.
• Full rest day: the day right after the workweek ends is a 24-hour rest day that can’t be worked, even voluntarily.
• Overtime: none after hour 12. If the agreed shift is shorter, extra hours are paid at time and a half, never exceeding 12 hours in a day.
• Working on days off: only as an exception, voluntary and justified by the company, at 50% extra and no more than 12 hours above the weekly limit.
• Switching between day, mixed and night shifts: requires the employee’s express consent, 48 hours’ notice and that they’ve already had their full rest day.

What a 4×3 employee costs in Costa Rica

The law sets a pay floor: the hourly minimum wage for the job classification plus 17% for day or mixed shifts, or plus 25.5% for night shifts. If an employee already earns more than that floor, you don’t have to raise their salary to move them to a 4×3. The same rule applies to employees who voluntarily move from a regular schedule.

The example the opposing legislators used in their own court filing shows the effect clearly. U.S. dollar figures are approximate, at an illustrative rate of ₡455 per US$:

Figures from the example in the constitutional review request. Excludes social security contributions. That same gap is the core argument of the bill’s opponents, so it could change depending on the Court’s opinion.

One important nuance: the example treats every hour past 8 as overtime. If your plant already uses the 10-hour cumulative schedule allowed by Article 136, only 8 hours a week would be overtime. In that case the current cost would be about ₡541,667 (≈ $1,190) and the gap with the 4×3 drops to roughly ₡41,667 (≈ $92) per employee. The simulator below lets you choose your starting point.

Salary isn’t the only line item. Budget for transportation when there’s no public transit at shift start or end, meal areas, semi-annual occupational health reviews, and the cost of keeping a standard shift for employees who don’t switch.

If you already run 12-hour shifts, pay close attention to the bill’s transition rule (Transitional Provision II): those employees keep their current salary, which can’t drop below the floor. Within the first month after the law takes effect, you must report to the Labor Inspectorate each employee’s average pay over the last six months, regular plus overtime. That’s a tight deadline, so have the numbers ready before publication.

4×3 salary simulator

Enter an employee’s salary and the minimum wage for their job classification to see what they’d cost on a day or mixed 4×3 schedule, compared with covering the same hours through overtime under current rules. Add an exchange rate if you want the results in U.S. dollars.

Costa Rica 12-hour shifts: employer compliance checklist

This is where companies either get it right or end up in litigation. Every item comes from the final text of the bill, and you can tick off the ones your company already has covered.

Employees will also have an anonymous complaint channel at the Ministry of Labor and can file claims through a dedicated labor court email address (amendment to Article 670). For your company, that means every addendum, roster and report needs to be in order from day one. Our recent guide on ILO Convention 190 for employers in Costa Rica covers related anti-harassment and anti-discrimination duties.

What your company gains from a 4×3 workweek

• Clear rules. Many companies cover long shifts today with arrangements that invite overtime claims. A specific law reduces that exposure.
• Fewer shift changes. Moving from three 8-hour shifts to two 12-hour shifts cuts handoffs, which is where errors, scrap and line stoppages tend to happen. That matters in regulated environments like medical device manufacturing.
• Predictable costs. A fixed premium over the minimum wage is easier to budget than overtime that changes every month.
• Investment case. Business chambers argue before the Court that the lack of this framework discourages investment. For free trade zone operations competing with other countries for new production lines, shift flexibility weighs on site-selection decisions.
• Talent retention. The same 48 hours with three straight days off means fewer commutes and more personal time. The bill’s statement of purpose cites a 2022 survey of 323 employees already working 4×3 schedules: 96% wanted to keep it.
• Legal footing. Article 4 of ILO Convention No. 1 allows the daily limit to be exceeded in continuous operations covered by successive teams, and Article 58 of the Constitution leaves it to the law to define those exceptions.

How other countries handle the four-day workweek

Several countries already let employers compress the week into four days. Almost all of them set a lower daily cap than Costa Rica’s bill or require some form of collective approval:

For a U.S.-based HR team, California is the closest reference point. Like the Costa Rican bill, it treats compressed schedules as something employees must buy into. The practical lesson travels well: where compressed weeks work best, employees had a real say. The Costa Rican bill requires individual consent, but companies that build support early will have a smoother rollout and a stronger file if anything is challenged.

How to prepare for Costa Rica 12-hour shifts now

Companies that do the groundwork now can file for approval as soon as the law and regulations take effect. This is the order we recommend:

1. Map positions and processes. Identify which areas truly run 24/7 and which fit the four permitted activities, ruling out the excluded ones.
2. Model the cost. Compare the 4×3 floor with your payroll and current overtime spend, adding transportation, meals and occupational health.
3. Listen to your team. An anonymous internal survey will tell you how many people would accept the change and how many will need the standard shift.
4. Prepare the documents. Consent addendum, non-retaliation policy, accommodations protocol and occupational health plan, in Spanish.
5. Build the application. Justification, occupational health assessment and compliance plan for the Labor Inspectorate, or a draft collective agreement.
6. Calculate the initial report. If you already run equivalent shifts, prepare each employee’s six-month average pay for the transition rule.
7. Track the Constitutional Court. Adjust the plan if its opinion requires changes to the text.

The Constitutional Court review of the 4×3 bill

The review request was signed by 16 legislators from three opposition parties. Across 181 pages it raises four procedural defects and eleven substantive objections. The ones most likely to affect employers are:

• That the 17% premium is calculated on the minimum wage rather than each employee’s actual salary.
• That 12-hour night shifts are allowed when the Constitution sets six hours as the regular night limit.
• That the text conflicts with ILO Convention No. 1 and leaves too much to the regulations.
• That requiring medical certificates from employees intrudes on their privacy.

The Court has one month to respond from the time it receives the legislative file. Its findings on procedure are binding on the Assembly; its comments on substance are not binding at this stage, though they signal how it might rule if the law is challenged after it takes effect. There’s a precedent: in November 2023 the Court struck down an earlier 4×3 bill over a procedural error without ruling on the merits.

For planning purposes, think in three scenarios:

• No defects: final vote, publication and six months for the regulations. This is the scenario to be ready for.
• Changes required: the Assembly fixes what the Court flags, which could move premiums, sectors or night-shift rules. Leave room in your numbers.
• Fatal defect: as in 2023, the bill dies and the process starts over.

Risks of 12-hour shifts every employer should weigh

We believe Costa Rica needs modern rules for 24/7 industry, but it pays to go in with eyes open:

• Long-term constitutional risk. Even if the bill clears review, the law can be challenged later. An investment shouldn’t depend on the 4×3 alone.
• The salary savings are the weakest link. They’re what makes the schedule attractive and also the objection with the most legal weight. If that changes, so do the savings.
• More administration. A parallel standard shift, transportation, semi-annual reports, rosters and addendums carry costs that can eat into the benefit for mid-size operations.
• Terminations during the trial period. If someone can’t adapt and there’s no standard-shift opening, the company pays the severance.
• Medical data. Certificates supporting accommodations must be handled with strict confidentiality to avoid discrimination claims.
• Government capacity. The Inspectorate has three months to respond, but according to the review request it had 87 inspectors for more than 1.6 million salaried workers in 2024. Expect early approvals to take the full three months.
• Employee relations. The bill has been politically divisive in Costa Rica. Rolling it out without good internal communication can hurt your employer brand, even if you comply with the law.

How we help companies implement 12-hour shifts

The difference between a 4×3 that saves money and one that ends in litigation usually comes down to implementation. AG Legal’s corporate labor law team works with local and multinational companies on:

• Assessing which positions and processes qualify.
• Modeling labor costs across your headcount, with scenarios based on the Court’s opinion.
• Bilingual addendums, internal policies and accommodation protocols.
• Filing for approval with the Ministry of Labor or negotiating a collective agreement.
• Representation in labor inspections and employee claims.

If your 4×3 plan involves bringing in foreign technical staff, our corporate immigration team can handle work permits in parallel.

Costa Rica 12-hour shifts FAQ

Are 12-hour shifts legal in Costa Rica?

Not yet. Bill No. 24,290 passed its first vote on October 8, 2026, but the final vote is on hold because of a constitutional review request filed on October 12. It will apply only after a final vote, publication in La Gaceta and implementing regulations from the Ministry of Labor.

When will the Constitutional Court rule on the 4×3 bill?

The Court has one month from the time it receives the legislative file. No official date has been announced.

Which companies can use 12-hour shifts in Costa Rica?

Private companies with continuous 24/7 operations in advanced manufacturing, medical device manufacturing, their essential support services, and corporate services covering multiple time zones. The regulations will define the specific job profiles.

How much must employers pay for 12-hour shifts?

At least the hourly minimum wage for the job classification plus 17% for day or mixed shifts, or plus 25.5% for night shifts. Employees who already earn more keep their salary, and those already working equivalent shifts can’t have their pay reduced.

What are the employer’s obligations under the 4×3 workweek?

Get approval from the Labor Inspectorate or an approved collective agreement, sign a voluntary addendum with each employee, keep a standard shift, pay the wage floor, provide 90 minutes of paid breaks and 12 hours between shifts, run semi-annual health checks and reports, provide transportation when there’s no public transit and keep weekly shift records.

Can an employer require employees to switch to 12-hour shifts?

No. The change must be voluntary and documented in a signed addendum. Firing or retaliating against an employee who refuses is treated as discrimination under the amended Article 404 of the Labor Code.

How long does government approval take?

The Labor Inspectorate has a maximum of three months from receiving the application. The application must include a reasoned justification, an occupational health assessment and a compliance plan.

Is overtime allowed on 12-hour shifts?

Not after hour 12. If the agreed shift is shorter, extra hours are paid at time and a half without exceeding 12 hours in a day. Working on a day off is allowed only as a voluntary exception, also at 50% extra.

What happens if an employee can’t adapt to the 4×3?

Employees who were on a regular schedule get a three-month trial period. If they can’t adapt, they return to their previous schedule; if that’s impossible, the company must treat it as a termination without cause and pay full severance.

Who is excluded from 12-hour shifts?

Minors, pregnant or breastfeeding employees, public sector workers, and anyone doing heavy, hazardous, unhealthy, agricultural, construction or physically extreme work, among other exclusions in Article 143 bis.

Can my company run 12-hour shifts in Costa Rica today, before the law passes?

Not as a regular schedule. Today the regular day shift is capped at 8 hours, or 10 hours under the cumulative schedule of Article 136 for non-hazardous work, always within 48 hours a week. Anything beyond that is overtime, paid at time and a half, and it can’t become permanent.

How are Costa Rica 12-hour shifts different from a 4×10 schedule in the U.S.?

Under the federal FLSA, a 4×10 schedule needs no approval because overtime is based only on weekly hours. Costa Rica has daily limits, so 12-hour days require this specific law, government approval and each employee’s written consent.

Where can I download the 4×3 bill text?

The official final wording of Bill No. 24,290, signed on October 12, 2026, is available in Spanish as a Word file from this AG Legal guide.

Sources

• Legislative Assembly of Costa Rica, final wording of Bill No. 24,290 (Oct 12, 2026, Spanish) and original bill filed April 25, 2024.
• El Financiero, first-round approval (Oct 8, 2026) and business chambers before the Constitutional Court (Oct 21, 2026), in Spanish.
• Monumental, Court confirms receipt of the review request (Oct 12, 2026), in Spanish.
• SINALEVI (Office of the Attorney General), Political Constitution of Costa Rica and Labor Code.
• International Labour Organization, Hours of Work (Industry) Convention, 1919 (No. 1).
• U.S. Department of Labor, overtime pay under the FLSA.
• California Labor Code, section 511.
• Chile’s Labor Directorate, Guidance Opinion No. 101 of 2026 on Law 21.561, in Spanish.
• Osborne Clarke, summary of Belgium’s Labour Deal.
• EUR-Lex, summary of Directive 2003/88/EC.

Recommended reading

• Costa Rica Severance Calculator
• ILO Convention 190 in Costa Rica: What Changes for Employers
• Corporate Labor Law in Costa Rica
• Corporate Immigration in Costa Rica

This article is for informational purposes and reflects the status of Bill No. 24,290 as of October 22, 2026. The text may change depending on the Constitutional Court’s opinion. U.S. dollar figures are approximate. It is not a substitute for legal advice on your specific situation.