Chile offers a stable, skilled Latin American workforce with an individual-account pension system and low direct employer contributions. All-in employer cost runs around 1.05x the gross salary. Here is what to know before your first Chilean hire.
Employment runs under the Labour Code, with written contracts and mandatory enrolment. Pension and health are funded mainly from the employee's salary, while the employer pays unemployment, disability, and accident insurance.
The monthly minimum is about CLP 460,000 in 2024*, revised periodically.
Monthly payroll. There is no statutory 13th salary; bonuses (gratificación) are legally required in profitable firms, often capped.
Around 16 public-holiday days a year, several tied to the church calendar.
Written contracts are required. There is no formal probation; fixed-term contracts are often used at the start.
Direct employer contributions are low, around 5%, covering unemployment, disability and survivorship, and work-accident insurance; pension and health are employee-funded.
Pension (about 10%) and health (7%) are deducted from the employee, so the direct employer contribution is comparatively small. A reform is gradually adding an employer pension contribution.
Employees pay pension, health, and income tax, withheld at source. Withholding is the employer's responsibility, which under EOR means ours.
15 working days of paid leave a year after one year of service, rising with long tenure.
A long maternity and parental period of around 30 weeks combined, funded by the state up to a cap.
Paid through the health system after a short waiting period, with a medical licence.
Paid leave is provided for the birth of a child, marriage, and bereavement.
Termination must cite a legal ground. Dismissal for 'business needs' requires 30 days' notice or a month's pay in lieu.
Severance for business-needs dismissal is a month's pay per year of service, capped at 11 years (and at a salary ceiling).
There is no formal probation; fixed-term contracts are commonly used at the outset.
A worker on 'honorarios' who works like an employee can be reclassified, with back contributions and severance liability.
*All figures are estimates from public sources (2025-26), pending ops verification - same basis as the EOR cost calculator. Not tax or legal advice.
Compliant Chilean employment contract, payroll, and insurances, handled. One invoice, flat $399 per month.