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Tables and Figures for: Salaried Labor Costs in Latin America and the Caribbean: A Ten - Year Update

By Social Protection and Labor Markets Division (VPS/SCL/SPL)

The tension between productivity and labor costs in Latin America and the Caribbean remains one of the greatest challenges to creating formal employment. This note estimates the cost of salaried formal labor in 19 Latin American and Caribbean countries for 2023, updating two key indicators previously calculated by the IDB: the average non-wage cost of salaried labor (NWC) and the minimum cost of salaried labor (MCSL) and introducing a new measure: the cost of formalizing informal labor (CFIL). Results show that labor costs have risen since 2013, with increasing divergence across countries. In 2023, the regional average NWC reached 51.1% of formal wages, while the MCSL represented 43.1% of GDP per worker. The CFIL indicates that formalizing a worker costs, on average, 88% more than the informal wage. The note includes projections for 2025 to incorporate recent reforms in 6 countries.

This dataset includes the country-level tables and figures for the three indicators of the cost of salaried labor presented in the technical note for 2013 and 2023, as well as projections for 2025 reflecting recent reforms in six countries.

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Metadata & use

Identifier https://doi.org/10.60966/qasbx3a4
License Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International
Related Knowledge Product
Published date 2026-02-27
Modified date 2026-02-27
Tags/Keywords Labor Force · Formal Labor · Informal Labor · Wage · Labor Legislation · Minimum Wage · Gross Domestic Product · Job Stability · Rating · Labor Cost
Language
  1. English
Temporal coverage 2013-2025
Country
Honduras
Guatemala
Bolivia
Ecuador
Costa Rica
Peru
El Salvador
Panama
Jamaica
Colombia
Venezuela
Argentina
Brazil
Chile
Uruguay
Dominican Republic
Trinidad and Tobago
Mexico
Publisher
Inter-American Development Bank
Author
Minaya, Auri
Data collection type Observational Data
Data structure Semistructured Data
Data notes

This dataset updates the labor costs of salaried formal labor between 2013 and 2023 and estimates projections for 2025 by country. Additionally, this dataset includes one sheet per country, detailing the parameters used to estimate the labor costs of salaried formal employment in 2025. It contains data on GDP per capita and the average formal and informal wage for 2024, as well as institutional parameters for salaried labor as of August 1, 2025, including the minimum wage, social security contributions, other payroll taxes, bonus payments, paid leave and job security provisions.

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