Your rights as a worker in Curaçao: minimum wage, holidays, overtime and dismissal
Your work permit depends on your employer, and that makes many people accept anything rather than lose it: unpaid overtime, holidays that never come, being dismissed from one day to the next. But Curaçao's labour law protects a foreign worker exactly as it protects a local one. Here are the minimums, with two real cases in which the court sided with the worker.
The minimum wage depends on your age
Since 1 January 2026 the minimum wage is XCG 11.93 per hour for anyone aged 21 or over. On a 40-hour week that is about XCG 2,066 a month. It also applies to domestic workers. From 16 to 20 a youth minimum applies, as a percentage of that figure:
| Age | Percentage | Hourly minimum (2026) |
|---|---|---|
| 21 or over | 100% | XCG 11.93 |
| 20 | 90% | XCG 10.74 |
| 19 | 85% | XCG 10.14 |
| 18 | 75% | XCG 8.95 |
| 16 and 17 | 65% | XCG 7.75 |
There is no separate minimum for foreigners: to get you a work permit, your employer has to pay you at least this. If your contract says one thing and your payslip another, keep both.
Holidays: at least three weeks' worth of working days
For every full year worked you are entitled to paid holidays of at least three times the number of days you work per week: 15 days if you work five days, 18 if you work six. Holidays you did not take are not lost when the contract ends: they are paid out. In one of the cases below, the court ordered 27 outstanding days to be paid.
Overtime and public holidays
According to the official information of the Labour Affairs Directorate, overtime is paid with a 50% surcharge on your wage, and work on your rest day or on a public holiday with a 100% surcharge. These rules come from the Arbeidsregeling 2000 and protect most workers: everyone earning below the ceiling of the health insurance scheme. Write down your hours every day; if you ever have to claim, that notebook is worth a lot.
Dismissal is not as easy as you are told
In Curaçao an employer cannot simply end a contract whenever it wants. Unless both sides agree or a judge decides, it needs a permit from the Director of Labour at the SOAW ministry. The exception is summary dismissal (ontslag op staande voet), and that must meet three conditions: an urgent and serious reason, acted on immediately and stated at the same time as the dismissal. If any of them is missing, the dismissal is void: the contract stays alive and your wage is still owed.
Two cases from Curaçao:
- The argument about holidays. A supervisor with five years at the company argued with the director because she was not being given her holiday days, and the next day she was dismissed on the spot. The court found there was no urgent reason: the dismissal was void. The company had to pay her wage until the day she found another job, plus a statutory increase of up to 20% for the late payment, and also 27 untaken holiday days. She went to court without paying costs, because she showed she could not afford the proceedings (
ECLI:NL:OGEAC:2024:299). - The brunch booking. A hotel suspended a reservations employee without pay "pending an investigation" and eleven days later dismissed her on the spot because, according to the hotel, she had let a possible booking of 60 people for an Easter brunch slip away. The court found this was not an urgent reason and declared the dismissal void. The hotel also had to pay her for the days of the suspension: suspending someone "without pay" during an investigation does not take away their wage (
ECLI:NL:OGEAC:2025:351). The same case is a lesson in reading your contract: she claimed 100% of her wage during sick leave, but her contract said 80% from the fourth day, and that is what counted.
In both cases the worker protested in writing against the dismissal. Do the same, and quickly: a letter or an email saying you do not accept the dismissal and that you are available to work.
Cessantia: what you are owed if you are dismissed through no fault of your own
If you lose your job for a reason that is not your fault, the employer owes you a one-off payment called cessantia, based on the years worked:
- years 1 to 10: one week's wage per year;
- years 11 to 20: one and a quarter weeks per year;
- from year 21: two weeks per year.
A week's wage is calculated as monthly wage × 12 ÷ 52. More than six months worked after the first year count as a full year. You have to claim it yourself, from the employer or from the SVB, within 12 months of the dismissal. After that deadline it is lost.
Your residence permit, if you lose your job
This is where you differ from a local worker: if your permit is for work, losing the job changes your immigration situation. What to do, how to inform Immigration and how to continue with another employer is covered in Changing employer or purpose and How a residence permit is lost. A void dismissal protects you here too: while the contract is alive, you still have an employer.
What to do if you are not paid or are dismissed
- Keep the contract, payslips, messages and your record of hours. Ask in writing for what you are owed.
- If you are dismissed, reply in writing that you do not accept the dismissal and that you are available to work.
- Go to the Ministry of Social Development, Labour and Welfare (SOAW): its staff can mediate between you and the employer.
- Talk to a union or to a lawyer from the official directory of the Orde van Advocaten. If you cannot pay for proceedings, ask to litigate without costs, as the worker in the first case did.
Sources: the SOAW ministry's announcement of the 2026 minimum wage (youth minimums of 65% to 90%); Labour Affairs Directorate information on holidays, overtime and public holidays (soaw.info); the Cessantia-landsverordening and the SVB cessantia page (svbcur.org); rulings ECLI:NL:OGEAC:2024:299 and ECLI:NL:OGEAC:2025:351 of the Court of First Instance of Curaçao, read in full. Public information, not legal advice: if you are dismissed, talk to a lawyer.