Colombia
3.3 Colombia Manual Labour
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In Colombia, labor is directly related to the costs of producing a product or providing a service, which can have a positive or negative impact on profits, cost-effectiveness and cash flow of companies. Labor is highly concentrated in developing main industries, commerce, transport, tourism, residential construction and highway megaprojects in the country. However, the country is experiencing an unskilled labor shortage and, to a lesser extent, workers without technical and professional training.

In Colombia, the minimum wage increased 6% in 2020 and 3.5% in 2021. At present, the minimum wage includes several components, such as basic wage, transportation allowance, subsidies, bonuses and all others constituting ordinary, fixed or variable remuneration received by workers as direct compensation for their services.

The National Government, through the Ministry of Labor, regulates the labor market in Colombia aimed to formulate and adopt policies, master plans, projects and programs on labor matters nationwide.

According to the information provided by DANE (National Administrative Department of Statistics), 53.36% of workers in Colombia are self-employed, 45.2% are private-sector employees, 4.14% are public servants, 3.43% are female domestic workers, 3.36% are farmworkers and 4.75% are workers that do not receive or report any remuneration. Self-employment is prevalent in the Colombian labor market.

https://www.dane.gov.co/index.php

Labor rates in Colombia for 2021 (Note 1)

 Description

Cost (in local currency and USD)

Monthly rate

General labor (unskilled labor (*) per day)

COP $30,284

USD $8.46

COP $908,526

USD $ 254.06

General labor (semi-skilled labor (**) per day)

COP $ 90,000

USD $ 25.16

COP $2,700,000

USD $ 755.03

General labor (skilled labor (***) per day)

COP $433,333

USD $ 121.17

COP $13,000,000

USD $ 3635.34

Source: https://www.mintrabajo.gov.co/web/guest/inicio

Note 1. UN exchange rate in March, 2021: COP $3,576

(*) Workers that are not required to have any prior studies or experience, e.g., farmworkers, assistants, etc.

(**) Workers that are not required to have prior studies but their qualification is given by their fieldwork experience.

 (***) Workers that are required to have prior professional or technical studies or specialized workers to perform an activity.


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