Employment in Paraguay

The Paraguayan labour market contains formal employment, partially documented work and mainly informal work. In 2025, about 60.1% of non-agricultural occupations were informal, representing approximately 1,663,000 people. Informality affected roughly seven in ten rural workers and six in ten urban workers. It was especially common in domestic work, where about nine in ten positions were informal, among own-account workers, where about eight in ten were informal, in microenterprises, which accounted for 73.5% informal employment, and in construction, with 81.7%. About 79.8% of workers earning less than one minimum wage were informal. Formal public employment had substantially higher coverage, reported at 81.4%. These figures show why a legal entitlement does not by itself prove that a worker has an active contract, employer registration or social-insurance coverage. The Ministry of Labour, Employment and Social Security, called MTESS, sets employment policy, conducts labour inspections, supports mediation and receives complaints. Its Directorate General of Employment, or DGE, provides public employment intermediation, job fairs and local employment guidance. EmpleaPY is the official employment portal. A worker can access it with a Paraguayan identity card or Identidad Electrónica, upload a résumé, create a profile, complete a psychological test and occupational assessment, and apply for vacancies. These services are free, but registration or an application does not guarantee a job offer. Paraguay Concursa publishes public-sector competitions online without charge; its competitions are open to citizens and to people who are not already civil servants when the published requirements allow them. The National Professional Promotion Service, known as SNPP, and SINAFOCAL provide professional training. SINAFOCAL's Evaluation and Certification of Competences can formally recognize skills learned through previous work or practice. The certification service is free. In 2025, SINAFOCAL reported 602 courses, 13,343 beneficiaries and 1,429 competency certifications. Training or certification can improve access to work, but it does not replace the employer's duty to register a dependent employment relationship. Foreign workers need a residence status and work authorization from the National Directorate of Migration, DNM, before carrying out paid work. A temporary resident may work only in the activity authorized by the residence status. Permanent residents generally have broader access to employment. A non-resident may not perform paid work unless a specific authorization applies. The employer should verify a Paraguayan identity document showing valid residence and work authorization. The MERCOSUR temporary-residence pathway covers citizens of Argentina, Brazil, Uruguay, Bolivia, Chile, Peru and Colombia; the supplied national rule gives it a two-year, non-renewable validity and a fee of Gs. 2,341,540. Foreign documents may require an apostille or legalization and a Spanish translation. An adolescent who works in Paraguay uses the Registro del Adolescente Trabajador, or RAT, issued through CODENI. The employer must provide the required documentation and communicate the employment information through the applicable registration system. The Código del Trabajo and Ley 1680/01 impose special age, working-time and safety limits. The precise conditions depend on the adolescent's age and the work performed, so an employer cannot treat adolescent work like ordinary adult employment. The Código del Trabajo, Ley 213/93, covers remunerated work performed under an employer's direction by Paraguayan and foreign workers. An employment contract should identify the role, workplace, schedule, pay, payment method, duration and probation terms. Official MTESS models include individual, part-time, special fixed-term and MIPYME contracts. A worker should keep the contract or other evidence of the agreement even when the employer uses a digital process. A probation period is paid. Its maximum is generally 30 working days for domestic or unskilled work, 60 working days for skilled work or apprenticeships, and a period agreed for highly specialized work. During probation, the worker receives the applicable employment benefits except the ordinary notice and dismissal indemnity rules. A fixed-term contract requires a lawful, evidenced special basis; an employer cannot use a fixed term simply to avoid the rules for ongoing employment. The employer registers its employment activity with the Registro Obrero Patronal, or REOP, and records the worker's entry and exit, salary, hours, leave, vacation, annual bonus, accidents and occupational illnesses. Employer registration is due within a maximum of 60 days from the start of the activity, while worker entry and exit communications have a maximum of 30 business days. REOP is primarily an employer-side system, so the worker should also retain the contract, salary receipts, proof of Instituto de Previsión Social registration, time records and the employment certificate issued at the end. From 1 July 2026, the general private-sector minimum wage is Gs. 3,044,000 per month. The corresponding general daily rate is Gs. 117,077, the daily rate for a monthly-paid worker is Gs. 101,467, and the hourly rate is Gs. 12,683. The night minimum wage is Gs. 3,957,200 per month or Gs. 18,844 per hour. Part-time hourly rates are Gs. 14,635 for daytime work and Gs. 21,743 for night work. The apprenticeship monthly minimum is Gs. 1,826,400. A sector-specific minimum may be higher. The employer must display the applicable minimum wage. A salary receipt should itemize the payment and deductions. Non-payment can lead to a fine of 10 to 30 daily wages for each affected worker, in addition to the wage difference. The annual bonus, called aguinaldo, equals one-twelfth of total remuneration received during the year, including overtime and commissions. The employer must pay it by 31 December or on the employment end date. A worker should compare the calculation with salary receipts and the final settlement rather than checking only the basic monthly salary. The Instituto de Previsión Social, or IPS, provides health, sickness and maternity benefits and pension insurance under the general dependent-worker system. The worker contribution is 9% of payroll, while the employer contribution is 14% plus an additional 2.5% for SENEPA, SNPP and SINAFOCAL. A part-time dependent worker is subject to IPS according to the employment relationship. An independently insured person may contribute voluntarily at 13%, but that arrangement mainly builds pension coverage and does not provide immediate health coverage. A worker should verify the actual IPS record because the legal right to registration and the existence of a contribution record are not the same. Ordinary working time is limited to eight hours per day and 48 hours per week for daytime work, seven hours per day and 42 hours per week for night work, and 7.5 hours per day and 45 hours per week for mixed work. Daytime work runs from 06:00 to 20:00 and night work from 20:00 to 06:00. Overtime is generally paid at 50% above the ordinary rate during the day and 100% above it at night. Work on a public holiday is paid at 100% above the ordinary rate. Weekly rest and paid public holidays also apply, subject to sector-specific rules. Time records, messages, schedules and salary receipts help establish unpaid overtime or holiday work. Paid annual vacation becomes due after one continuous year of employment. The entitlement is 12 working days for up to five years of service, 18 working days for more than five and up to ten years, and 30 working days after more than ten years. Vacation normally begins on a Monday or the next business day. Maternity leave lasts 18 uninterrupted weeks, or 24 weeks in the stated premature or low-birth-weight cases, with an IPS subsidy equal to 100% of remuneration. Paid paternity leave lasts two weeks. Lactation breaks are 90 minutes per day during the first six months and 60 minutes per day from the seventh to the twenty-fourth month, with a possible medical extension. Establishments with more than ten women must provide a breastfeeding room. Ley 5508 establishes special protection during pregnancy, maternity and lactation, including a special dismissal and notice regime that differs from ordinary employment termination rules. Employment may end through lawful expiry of a fixed term, resignation, a justified worker withdrawal, a justified dismissal, or an unjustified dismissal. The final settlement can include unpaid salary, proportional aguinaldo, accrued or proportional vacation, notice pay and dismissal indemnity where applicable. The employer must issue a free employment certificate stating the start and end dates. For an indefinite contract after probation, the notice period is 30 working days after employment of up to one year, 45 days after more than one and up to five years, 60 days after more than five and up to ten years, and 90 days after ten or more years. During notice, the worker receives two hours per day or one working day per week to look for another job. Unjustified dismissal indemnity is generally calculated at 15 daily salaries for each completed year of service or fraction of at least six months, using the average remuneration of the last six months. A justified worker withdrawal can produce an equivalent notice and indemnity claim. An unjustified worker departure can create liability, so the reason and evidence should be documented. The MTESS provides online labour complaints, individual-conflict mediation, regional offices and channels for matters involving women workers and children. Reports may be anonymous or identified according to the available channel. Its public calculators cover salary, aguinaldo, liquidation and part-time work. Complaints, mediation, calculators and public employment intermediation are free. The strongest evidence usually combines the contract, salary receipts, IPS and REOP information, messages, schedules and time records. Common risks include non-registration, payment below the applicable minimum, missing receipts, unpaid overtime or holiday work, delayed IPS contributions and undocumented termination. These risks are particularly significant in domestic work, own-account work, microenterprises, low-paid work and rural employment. IPS retirement generally requires both a minimum age and verified contributions, together with labour inactivation. The principal stated paths are age 55 with 30 years of contributions and an 80% pension, age 60 with 25 years of contributions and a 100% pension, and a proportional pension at age 65 with 15 years of contributions. Under Ley 7446/2024, the pension calculation base moves progressively from 36 to 120 months, increasing by one month per month during the transition, with older salaries adjusted by the consumer price index. After dependent work ends, IPS Continuidad en el Beneficio can preserve pension participation before retirement through a contribution of 12.5% of the average of the previous 36 contributory salaries, subject to at least the minimum wage. It provides pension continuity but no health coverage during the continuation period. Social-security conventions may affect cross-border records where an applicable agreement exists.