For those that have companies or workers here in Costa Rica, this information is important, October 12th is a holiday in Costa Rica when the country celebrates “El Día de las Culturas”, Cultures Day also known as Columbus Day in the United States.

This holiday, however, has certain particularities, for instance, when the 12th falls on a Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday or Friday, as is the case this year, the celebration is moved to the following Monday; in this case it will be celebrated on Monday, October 16th.

There’s also some confusion on whether this is a paid holiday or not; in Costa Rica there are only two holidays that are not of “obligatory” payment, these are August 2nd (Día de la Virgen de los Angeles) and October 12th ; this, in reality only affects companies or employers that pay their employees in a weekly basis.

In order to clarify this point, those companies and employers who pay weekly will pay the regular amount on the week of October 9 through the 15th, and when it comes to the week of October 16th to October 21st ,if the workers enjoy the holiday on the 16th (they don’t work) the employer does NOT have to pay the salary for October 16th, instead the payment would include only the worked days. In the event the employees have to work that Monday, October 16, the salary received will be regular, (not double as is the case with other holidays), the employer will pay the amount of a normal week.

The workers who get paid on a weekly basis have a right to take the holiday, but in that case the company does not have to pay for this day.

For companies and employers that pay in a biweekly or monthly modality it works differently, because they already recognize the salary for every day in the month, if the holiday is enjoyed by the employees they get the normal regular payment; but, if the employee works on October 16th then the payment will have to be double for this day as with any other holiday.