Hire Employees in the Dominican Republic

Your own entity is normally an SRL. Registration is workable, and free zone status offers corporate tax and import duty relief, though not, as is often assumed, relief from social security.

An Employer of Record inverts the sequence: the Dominican entity signs the Spanish contract and registers it with the Ministry of Labour, registers the employee with the TSS, applies three separate contribution ceilings correctly and provisions the regalía pascual, while you direct the day-to-day work.

The Dominican Republic is a substantial manufacturing and nearshore services destination, and its free zone regime is the structure most foreign operations adopt.

The Dominican Republic runs three separate contribution ceilings for three insurances, and applying a single cap is the most common calculation error here. For 2026 occupational risk caps at RD$92,892, health at RD$232,230 and pensions at RD$464,460, four, ten and twenty minimum wages respectively.

Direct employer cost is about 16.3%: TSS at 15.29% to 15.49% plus 1% INFOTEP, which is a separate obligation paid alongside rather than part of the TSS payment. Adding the regalía pascual at 8.33% and vacation provision at 4.17% takes the real figure to roughly 29%.

Free zone status does not exempt an employer from TSS. Law 8-90 covers corporate income tax and import duties only, and manufacturers who assume otherwise face substantial back contributions. That misunderstanding is common enough to be worth stating explicitly.

The minimum wage used to set the ceilings, RD$23,223, exists solely for that purpose and is not the sectoral minimum an employee must be paid. Confusing the two is a frequent mistake in both directions.

Break-even rule of thumb: EOR fees begin to exceed the running cost of a small Dominican entity somewhere between 15 and 20 employees. Model both before committing, see EOR vs Entity for the full comparison, and plan any later migration so employees keep seniority.

Three separate contribution ceilings apply to three insurances, and using one cap is the most common calculation error here. For 2026 occupational risk caps at RD$92,892, health at RD$232,230 and pensions at RD$464,460, four, ten and twenty minimum wages respectively.

Direct employer cost is about 16.3%: TSS at 15.29% to 15.49% plus 1% INFOTEP, which is a separate obligation paid alongside rather than part of the TSS payment. Adding the regalía pascual at 8.33% and vacation provision at 4.17% takes the real figure to roughly 29%.

The minimum wage used to set the ceilings, RD$23,223, exists solely for that purpose and is not the sectoral minimum an employee must be paid. Confusing the two is a frequent mistake in both directions.

Three contributions, three different ceilings, all derived from the same base at different multiples, and all three moved on 1 February 2026. Labour risks cap at RD$92,892 (four minimum wages), health at RD$232,230 (ten), and pensions at RD$464,460 (twenty). On a salary of RD$300,000 the health contribution runs on RD$232,230 while pensions run on the full amount, applying one ceiling across all three, or none at all, is the most common local payroll error. INFOTEP’s 1% has no ceiling and falls due on the 10th rather than with the TSS payment. A second trap sits alongside it: the RD$23,223 national minimum wage used to derive those ceilings is not the sectoral minimum an employee is actually paid. Sectoral minimums depend on employer size, from RD$16,993.20 for employers of ten or fewer up to RD$29,988 for those with 151 or more, and rose 8% in February 2026.

Four representative profiles, costed with the 2026 contribution rates above. Salaries are illustrative market midpoints, not GX operating data, use them to see how the on-cost percentage behaves as pay rises, not as a salary benchmark for a specific role. For real market data on your roles, ask for a costing.

Watch the on-cost percentage rather than the absolute figure. 5 of the charges here are capped and 3 are not, so the effective employer rate falls as salary rises, but it flattens rather than disappearing. The senior rows below show where it settles.

Four representative profiles costed on 2026 statutory rates. Salaries are illustrative market midpoints, not GX operating data.

Payroll runs monthly in Dominican pesos. TSS contributions are due before the fifteenth of the following month, and new hires and departures must be reported no later than the next business day after they take effect, a reporting window tighter than the payment deadline and the one more often missed.

The regalía pascual is a genuine thirteenth month under Articles 219 to 221 of the Labour Code, payable by 20 December and not subject to TSS contributions, though a 0.5% INFOTEP retention applies to annual bonuses.

Several payments fall outside the contributable base entirely: tips, bonuses, the regalía itself, profit participation, justified expenses and indemnities. Treating them as contributable overstates cost.

Thresholds and ceilings are uprated periodically, so a figure correct in January may not hold later in the year. Where a row below is flagged, published sources disagreed and the conflict is recorded rather than resolved.

Thresholds move on a local cycle that does not always fall in January, so a figure correct at the start of the year may not hold through it. Where a row below carries a flag, published sources disagreed and the conflict is recorded rather than resolved, there are 2 such rows on this page.

The sections that follow set out contracts and probation, working time, leave, termination and immigration in that order. Where an entitlement comes from a collective agreement rather than statute it is marked as such, because that distinction determines whether it is negotiable.

Written contracts in Spanish are standard and registered with the Ministry of Labour.

Probation is three months, during which the contract may be ended without preaviso or cesantía. After that the full regime applies, which makes the three-month point a genuine decision marker rather than a formality.

The IDOPPRIL risk classification assigned at registration sets the occupational risk rate between 1.10% and 1.30%, so the declared activity has a direct cost consequence and should be accurate rather than approximate.

Forty-four hours a week, usually across five and a half days, with the working day ending at noon on Saturday. Overtime is paid at 135% up to 68 hours a week and 200% beyond, with night work carrying a further supplement.

Overtime is where payroll disputes usually start. Record hours from day one even where the role is salaried and the expectation is that overtime will not arise, reconstructing records after a complaint is far harder than keeping them.

Overtime is where payroll disputes usually begin, and the burden of proving hours worked generally sits with the employer. Record hours from the first day even for salaried roles where overtime is not expected, reconstructing a record after a complaint is considerably harder than keeping one.

Public holidays sit on top of the annual leave entitlement. Where a holiday falls at a weekend, practice varies, some markets move it, some grant a substitute day and some do neither, so check the position before assuming a day in lieu.

The 12 dates below are the statutory position. Employers in many markets grant more by policy or collective agreement, and sector agreements sometimes add local or patronal days that do not appear in a national list.

Dominican Republic observes 12 paid public holidays in 2026. Dates that fall at a weekend and any substitution rules are set out below; entitlement is separate from annual leave.

Maternity: 14 weeks, 6 before and 8 after the birth, Shared between the employer and the social security system. Paternity: 2 days. Employer-paid. Marriage leave: 5 days. Paid. Bereavement: 3 days for a close family member. Paid.

Sick leave: On a medical certificate. Covered by the SFS subject to a contribution record.

The question that matters for budgeting is who funds each entitlement. Where the state or a social insurance fund pays, the employer carries administration but not cost; where the employer pays, it is a direct charge that headcount models routinely omit. Both patterns appear above.

Two separate payments apply on employer termination without just cause, and they are cumulative. Preaviso under Article 76 is notice by length of service, seven, fourteen or twenty-eight days, or payment in lieu. Cesantía under Article 80 is an additional indemnity that scales with service, from six days' pay at three months to twenty-three days per year beyond five years.

Both are irrenunciable. An employee cannot validly waive them, and any contractual term purporting to limit them is void as a matter of law. That means they must be provisioned from the outset rather than negotiated at exit, and a settlement built on a waiver will not hold.

Probation is three months, during which the contract may be ended without preaviso or cesantía. After that the full regime applies, which makes the three-month point a genuine decision marker.

The final settlement also includes proportional regalía pascual and accrued vacation.

A foreign national needs a residence permit with work rights, sponsored by the employer. Allow three to six months.

At least 80% of an employer’s workforce must be Dominican nationals, and at least 80% of payroll must be paid to them. Both tests apply, so a small number of highly paid expatriates can breach the payroll test even where the headcount test is satisfied.

Free zone employers operate under the same immigration rules, with the zone status affecting tax rather than labour market access.

Preaviso and cesantía are both irrenunciable. An employee cannot validly waive them, and any contractual term purporting to limit them is void as a matter of law, so a settlement built on a waiver will not hold, and both must be provisioned from the outset rather than negotiated at exit.

Cesantía scales with service from six days’ pay at three months to twenty-three days per year beyond five, and preaviso runs seven, fourteen or twenty-eight days by service. They are cumulative rather than alternative.

Practical controls: configure three separate ceilings, contribute to the TSS regardless of free zone status, pay INFOTEP as a distinct 1% obligation, report hires and departures by the next business day, and provision both exit payments from day one.

Work backwards from the start date. For a Dominican national through an EOR, one to two weeks is realistic. A foreign national needs a residence permit with work rights, adding three to six months, and at least 80% of the workforce and 80% of payroll must go to Dominican nationals.

Confirm before making an offer: the IDOPPRIL risk classification, since it sets the SRL rate between 1.10% and 1.30%; that all three ceilings are configured separately; and that INFOTEP has been budgeted as a distinct 1% obligation.

TSS contributions are due before the 15th of the following month, and new hires and departures must be reported no later than the next business day after they take effect. That reporting window is tighter than the payment deadline and is the one more often missed.