Colombia's 42-Hour Workweek: What Changed on July 15, 2026

Colombia’s maximum ordinary workweek dropped from 44 to 42 hours on July 15, 2026, the final step in a phased cut that began in 2023 under Ley 2101 de 2021. The Colombia 42 hour workweek reform protects salaries and benefits from being cut — but most coverage has missed the bigger payroll story: the legal value of an hour’s work goes up automatically, the same week the hours go down. That lands on anyone who runs a business, employs staff, or works a local payroll contract here — expat business owners as much as Colombian ones.

What the Colombia 42 hour workweek changed on July 15

The law phased the cut over four years, in uneven steps rather than one hour at a time each year:

• 2022: 48 hours
• 2023: 47 hours
• 2024: 46 hours
• 2025: 44 hours
• 2026: 42 hours

(Colombia One)

Daily shifts can still run four to nine hours as long as the weekly total stays at or under 42 — a scheduling model known as weekly averaging (Colombia One). At 42 hours a week, Colombia now sits among the shorter legal workweeks in Latin America (Colombia One).

Here’s the number that actually moves money. Colombian payroll doesn’t price an hour by multiplying 42 by 52 weeks and dividing by 12 months — it uses a fixed legal monthly divisor: 220 hours through July 14, 2026, dropping to 210 hours from July 15 on (Portafolio). At the 2026 minimum wage of $1,750,905 COP, that moves the ordinary hourly rate from about $7,959 to about $8,338 COP — a roughly 4.76% rise that happens automatically, with no raise required from any employer (Portafolio). Ley 2101 bars the reform from cutting that rate; it doesn’t freeze it, and this month it went up.

July itself is a split month for payroll: hours worked July 1–14 still liquidate on the 220-hour basis, and hours from July 15–31 liquidate on the 210-hour basis (Actualícese). Anyone running July payroll needs both numbers, not just one.

Overtime and Sunday pay stack faster now

Because the ordinary week is shorter, hours that used to count as normal work now count as overtime sooner in the week. The Labor Ministry’s September 2025 guidance (External Circular 0101) caps overtime at two hours a day and 12 hours a week, and employers no longer need prior ministry authorization to schedule it — though they must keep records of hours, timing, and day/night classification for every shift (L&E Global).

That overtime is layering on top of a separate change: the Sunday and holiday surcharge (recargo dominical y festivo) rose to 90% of the base wage on July 1, 2026, up from 80%, under the 2025 reform, Ley 2466 de 2025 — a different, newer law than the one behind the hours cut. It’s scheduled to reach 100% in July 2027 (El Colombiano). We covered how that combination is already squeezing Medellín restaurants, where weekend shifts are routine.

Who’s covered — and who isn’t

The 42-hour cap applies to workers under Colombia’s private-sector labor code (the Código Sustantivo del Trabajo). A few groups sit outside the standard rule:

• Public servants and official government workers — their hours are set by separate public-sector rules (Decreto Ley 1042) that this law didn’t touch, so their workweek doesn’t automatically shrink (Portafolio).
• Management, trust, and supervisory positions, along with certain flexible, rotating, or surveillance schedules, which fall outside the standard 8-hour daily cap.
• Domestic workers get no such exemption — they keep full protection under the new limits (L&E Global).

If you employ staff in Colombia

For expats running a business, agency, or household payroll here, the compliance list is short but not optional:

• Update employment contracts and internal schedules to reflect 42 hours.
• Audit payroll and time-tracking systems against the new 210-hour divisor, so extra hours price as overtime and the July split month liquidates correctly.
• Confirm which roles genuinely qualify for the trust/management exemption rather than assuming they do.

Getting worker classification wrong is the most common way employers end up exposed to back-pay claims or labor disputes (RemoFirst). If your team includes hourly or shift staff — a common setup for restaurants, retail, and hospitality — expect the shorter week to complicate weekend and holiday coverage most.

If you work on a Colombian contract

If you’re an employee here rather than an employer, check your contract’s stated weekly hours and your latest pay stub. Your salary shouldn’t have dropped, and your ordinary hourly rate should actually have ticked up with the divisor change on July 15. If you’re now working more than 42 hours a week, ordinary practice says those extra hours should show up as paid overtime, not unpaid “extra effort.” The same minimum-wage protections that shaped January 2026’s wage increase apply here — pay is meant to move up with these reforms, never down.

Quick answers

Does my salary drop under the Colombia 42 hour workweek? No. Ley 2101 protects salaries and benefits from being reduced, and the payroll math means the ordinary hourly rate rises slightly instead, because the monthly divisor used to price an hour of work fell from 220 to 210.

When do my hours start counting as overtime? As soon as you pass 42 hours in a week (or the daily cap that applies to your schedule) — sooner than under the old 44-hour rule, since the ordinary week itself is shorter.

None of this is a one-time adjustment. Colombia’s labor calendar keeps moving — the Sunday surcharge climbs again next July, and lawmakers are already floating a 40-hour week (Colombia One) — so treat July 15, 2026 as the current rule, not the last one.