163,000 public servants will receive ‘school bonus’

QCOSTARICA — Government employees will receive the ‘salario escolar’ (school bonus), equal to one month’s salary (same as the ‘aguinaldo’ last month) on January 22.

In total, the annual bonus for the 163,000 civil servants will cost the taxpayers some ¢152 billion colones, and is exempt from income tax, as confirmed the Ministry of Finance.

The governent employees eligible to receive the school bonus work in the Central Government (ministries and deconcentrated bodies), Legislative Assembly (does not include legislators), Ombudsman’s Office, Comptroller General, Supreme Court of Elections and the Judiciary, among others.

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The amount is all gross salaries earned (including bonuses) from January 1 to December 31 of the previous year and by 8.33%, which is approximately equivalent to one monthly salary.

While then bonus is exempt from income tax, it is subject to withholdings for workers’ fees in favor of the Caja, embargoes, alimony payments and deductions for affiliations, such as unions, cooperatives and associations, among others.

At this time last year, the government of Rodrigo Chaves said 2023 would most likely be the last year for the ‘salario escolar’, announcing it was analyzing the relevance of eliminating that payment when implementing the new public employment law starting in March (2023).

“We are dealing with a series of issues that we have not landed on, such as the treatment of the school salary with the entry into force of the public employment law, which says that there is a single and global salary. There, there is a very interesting and delicate topic,” said Chaves last January.

Despite the govenrment’s intentions, the regulations of the Ley Marco de Empleo Público (Public Employment Framework Law) state that the school salary should be viewed as an integral part of the overall salary. This is due to the fact that it is a portion of the salary that is paid at a later date, rather than being a specific salary incentive.

A kind of “mandatory savings”

The salario escolar was created by decree (N°23495- MTSS) on July 20, 1994, during the administration of José María Figueres Olsen, as a result of a salary negotiation between the Government and the union organizations.

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The bonus is a deferred payment that is withheld from the worker, accumulated and paid in the month of January. Some people describe it as a kind of mandatory savings for the working person.

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