Several minimum wages are regularly adjusted according to the size and sector of the company. The current minimum wages have been in effect since July 2021, following Resolution No. 01/2021 of the National Salary Committee. This document establishes a media of 24.2% increase in the minimum wage in the private sector.

This 24.2% rise represents an increase of 3,389.74 Dominican pesos for the higher minimum wage (large companies). For the other two wages, there was an increase of 7,142.92 Dominican pesos and 2,170.78 Dominican pesos, respectively.

While the employees are not transporting to the office, they are not entitled to, nor is it necessary, the payment of fuel allowance, vehicle maintenance, or lunch allowance since these benefits are to compensate them for the fact of traveling to the office.

This blog explains the steps needed to close a company operating in a Free Zone in the Dominican Republic.
There are two phases:
1. Process to obtain permission from the National Free Zones Council of the Dominican Republic (CNZFE) to close a Free Trade Company business.
2) Process to close the business.

The labor laws, and more precisely, article 147 of the Labor Code, establish a double limit according to which the regular working hours may not exceed eight hours a day or 44 hours a week. Even though the labor legislation refers to the eight hours a day and 44 hours a week as a starting point for the payment of overtime, the employer and the employee can agree on a shorter daily and weekly working time; for instance, six hours a day and 36 hours a week.

Article 147 of the Labor Code establishes that the employer and the worker cannot agree to a working shift exceeding 44 hours per week. If the employee works more than the normal working shift the employer has to pay overtime. But article 147 is not applicable unless otherwise agreed, to:

1. Workers who act as representatives or agents of the employer;

2. Workers who hold management or inspection positions.

A worker is compelled to work the overtime hours requested by his employer if the extension of the working hours is due to one of the emergencies stated in article 153 of the Labor Code. Those cases are:

• accidents that have occurred or are imminent;

• essential work that must be carried out on machinery or tools, and whose stoppage may cause serious damage;

• works whose interruption may alter raw material;

• fortuitous or force majeure cases.

In the Dominican Republic, the employer is allowed to enforce necessary changes to the employment agreement, as long as they do not imply an unreasonable exercise of this power, alter the essential conditions of the contract, or cause material or moral damage to the employee. That means that the change cannot negatively affect the employee by decreasing or eliminating any rights or benefits.

In Dominican Law exists the theory of abuse of rights, which consists in the execution of a damaging material or juridical act, which would otherwise be considered licit from an objective and formal point of view, but is considered illicit because the entitled with the right exerts it with the intention to harm a third party.