Guyana

• New Year's Day
• New Year Holiday
• Republic Day
• Holi
• Good Friday
• Easter Monday
• Labour Day
• Arrival Day
• Independence Day
• Eid al-Adha
• Caricom Day
• Emancipation Day
• Youman Nabi
• Deepavali
• Deepavali Holiday
• Christmas Day
• Boxing Day

Working Hours

Employees' working hours depend on the sector of employment. The law considers 7 hours and a quarter of overtime. However, in practice in many industries, overtime is over 8 hours. An employee is entitled to a 1-hour break for lunch or dinner and 15 minutes for every 4 hours of overtime.

Overtime pay is at 1.5 times the employee's hourly rate.

Minimum Wage

The current minimum wage for the private sector is GYD 60,147 per month. This wage was last updated in 2022 and remains unchanged to date.

Employee Tax

Annual income	Tax rate
Up to GYD 780,000	0%
GYD 780,000 - 1,560,000	28%
More than GYD 1,560,000	40%
Social security contribution	5.6%

Bonuses

Companies may provide discretionary benefits such as working from home, meal vouchers, paternity leave, and private health insurance.

Employment contracts in Guyana are either written or oral agreements. Terms and conditions of the contract are agreed between the employer and employee, without any particular requirement except for defining its type, parameters, and salary.

The law requires a probation period of three months, unless otherwise agreed between the contracting parties.

Background checks by the employer take place with the consent of the applicant.

Annual Leave

Leave entitlement is one day for every month worked. Employees working hourly or daily are entitled to 1 day for every 20 days worked or 160 hours. Employees working half days are entitled to 1-day leave.

Sick Leave

Sick leave is paid from the 4th day to a maximum of 26 continuance weeks, by the government with evidence of a medical certificate from a medical practitioner.

Parental Leave

• Maternity leave: 13 weeks that can be scheduled six weeks before delivery. In specific cases, such as pregnancy or delivery complications, maternity leave can be extended for another 13 weeks.
• Employees are paid at 70% of their insurable earning from the National Insurance and are entitled to a grant worth 2000 dollars.
• Paternity leave in the private sector: none

Termination Process

In Guyana, employees can terminate an indefinite-term contract with written notice depending on the employee's length of service.

Employees with more than 12 months of service give a month's notice.  Employees with less than 12 months need to provide two weeks' notice.

Indefinite-term contracts may be terminated, as indicated below:

• Redundancy
• Mutual consent
• Sufficient cause
• The providing of notice

An employee with a written warning who commits a similar offense within 6 months can be terminated immediately without further notice.

Severance Pay

Severance pay depends on the employee's length of service.

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