Wednesday May 1st 2024 will be the Day of the Workers (Día de los Trabajadores) Statutory Holiday in Nicaragua and is one of two holidays in May, the second being Mother’s Day on Thursday the 30th.
The May 1st holiday is a mandatory national day off which gives employees (state and private sector) the right to a day of rest with pay.
Nicaragua celebrates their worker day with about 80 other countries as International Worker’s Day (or May Day) as a celebration of the successes of the labor movement. In particular, it honors the “Martyrs of Chicago” who died after protests that initiated on May 1st, 1886. They were fighting for a basic working day of eight hours under their slogan “eight hours for work, eight hours for sleep and eight hours for the house”.
Although the USA has strong ties to origin of Labor Day being on the 1st of May, they choose to celebrate the day on the first Monday of September.
Our neighbors, Costa Rica to the south and Honduras to the north both also celebrate Labor Day on the same day, Wednesday 1st May 2024.
In accordance with Article 69 of the Labor Code, essential services (e.g. government departments that due to the nature of their work, or services provided, can’t be interrupted) will remain open.
Under the Labor Code, employees that are required to work on those days “must be paid an additional 100% of the usual day’s pay”. This includes; “businesses affected by the agricultural cycle, different economic activities and the social and security of the country”.
Also under the same code, when an employer requests that an employee works on a statutory holiday, the employee may choose to be compensated with another day off instead of the additional pay stated above. Note; if they are then subsequently asked to work on that agreed day of in lieu, they will be paid as if it was a worked statutory holiday.
Nicaragua now has a total of ten (10) statutory holidays per year when workers will be entitled to “The right to rest and salary”. They are;
1st January, New Year’s Day.
Thursday and Friday of Easter Week.
May 1st, International Workers’ Day.
May 30th, Mother’s Day.
July 19th, Day of the Revolution.
September 14th, Battle of San Jacinto.
September 15th, Independence Day.
December 8th, La Purísima and,
December 25th, Christmas Day.
