Observation (CEACR) - adopted 2011, published 101st ILC session (2012)

Minimum Wage Fixing Convention, 1970 (No. 131) - Costa Rica (Ratification: 1979)

Articles 3 and 5 of the Convention. Criteria for determining minimum wage levels – Adequate inspection. The Committee notes the comments of the Confederation of Workers Rerum Novarum (CTRN), which were received on 31 August 2011 and transmitted to the Government on 22 September 2011, concerning the application of this Convention. The CTRN denounces the low number of labour inspectors resulting in poor compliance with the minimum wage legislation. The CTRN indicates, in this regard, that practically one third of the active population receives wages inferior to the applicable minimum wage rates. In addition, the CTRN draws attention to the need to bring up to date the structure and value of the family basket of goods (rural and urban), to strengthen the National Wages Council and to create within the Ministry of Labour a Technical Unit on Productivity. The Committee requests the Government to transmit any comments it may wish to make in response to the observations of the CTRN.

In addition, the Committee understands that in October 2011, the National Wages Council adopted unanimously changes in the methodology for the annual readjustment of the minimum wage. Whereas since 1998, minimum wage rates were reviewed only on the basis of the recorded inflation rate, in the future they will be adjusted by reference to national productivity levels and the expected inflation rate. The Committee requests the Government to provide in its next report additional explanations on the new methodology and its impact on minimum wage rates.