Overview
- Colombia completed the phased reduction on July 15, 2026, setting a 42-hour legal cap for covered private-sector workers while excluding supervisory, management and trust positions.
- The implementing rules let employers and workers agree flexible daily schedules across up to six days, set a four- to nine-hour daily range without extra pay when the 42-hour weekly average holds, and require employers to record diurnal and nocturnal supplemental hours.
- The reform forbids cuts to salaries and benefits, which raises the value of the ordinary hourly wage and reduces annual workable hours to about 2,236, yielding an effective average workweek close to 40 hours when holidays are counted.
- Employers face higher per-hour labor costs, limits on overtime (no more than two extra hours per day and commonly cited weekly bounds), and rising holiday and Sunday surcharges that reach 90% now and are scheduled to hit 100% by July 2027, creating pressure to hire, pay more overtime or invest in automation.
- Regionally, Colombia now ranks among Latin American countries with the shortest statutory workweeks, a shift that may reshape formal employment, social contributions and business investment in productivity and technology.