Labor reform: Questions and answers to understand the changes for domestic workers in Colombia.

The labor reform signed by President Gustavo Petro on June 25 included several adjustments that will benefit domestic workers in the country.

To better understand these changes and their implications, Symplifica CEO Salua García-Fakih answered several questions you may have.

According to Symplifica, a platform specializing in formalizing the employment of domestic workers, there are nearly 700,000 people in Colombia dedicated to these tasks.

The labor reform is giving priority to written contracts, but verbal contracts will not be invalidated. In both cases, the contract must be registered.

The Ministry of Telecommunications has 12 months, until June 25, 2026, to create an information system that will allow the registration of these employment contracts.

The verbal contract continues to exist in the Substantive Labor Code and is considered an open-ended contract. It will apply to any worker as long as the conditions of a contract are met.

However, it's always best to have a written contract because it allows you to see all the agreed-upon conditions, establish a trial period, and set work schedules.

The possibility of working and contributing to social security by the day already existed in the country, but it was not included in the Substantive Labor Code. In that sense, the labor reform allowed this issue to be formalized, giving it greater legitimacy.

If a person doesn't work even 21 days a month, the employer can formalize that employment relationship through weekly contributions.

This makes it possible for a worker to continue receiving health services through Sisbén and receive proportional pension payments, membership in a Family Compensation Fund, and the ARL (Occupational Risk Administrator).

First, you must take the minimum wage as a base, which is 1,423,500 pesos in 2025, and divide it by four, which is the number of weeks in a month. This gives 355,875 pesos.

Social security is paid for each day worked. For example, for a person who works only one day a week, the employer must pay 64,000 pesos, which is much cheaper than if an employer had to pay the full minimum wage. For two or three days, it's 121,000 pesos.

However, social benefits (bonuses, vacation time, and severance pay) are not paid for each day worked, but rather based on the monthly salary received, regardless of the number of days worked.

If a person works by the day, they can remain affiliated with Sisbén . Only domestic workers who are health beneficiaries or have Sisbén are eligible for daily social security contributions.

If a domestic worker is enrolled in the contributory system, they must contribute based on the monthly minimum wage. Although it's more expensive, making this contribution has a significant advantage: disability benefits are covered by the EPS (Social Security Insurance System), which doesn't apply to the subsidized system (Sisbén).

There was no change; this option only applies to live-in employees, and it remains optional for the employer to agree on it with their domestic worker.

Payment in kind must be a maximum of 30 percent of salary and only applies to full-time employees.

The labor reform made no changes to transportation assistance. Therefore, it continues to apply only to external domestic workers who work on a daily or full-time basis.

If the domestic worker works by the day, to calculate how much she is entitled to for each day worked, she must take the total value, which for 2025 is 200,000 pesos, and divide it by 30. Therefore, this year the daily transportation allowance is 6,666 pesos.

Yes. The labor reform established that daytime work is between 6:00 a.m. and 7:00 p.m., while nighttime work is between 7:00 p.m. and 6:00 a.m. Currently, the night shift begins at 9:00 p.m.

Additionally, surcharges for working on a holiday or Sunday will increase to 100 percent (currently 75 percent), but their implementation will be gradual:

Every employer must pay their domestic worker social security for the days she visits their home. This does not represent any additional costs for either party.

Part-time domestic workers can have several written contracts, but full-time workers can only have one because social security only allows them to have one contract.