Exploring Panama's Legal Framework On Employment For People With Disabilities

• Published date: 14 May 2025
• Law Firm: Icaza Gonzalez-Ruiz & Aleman
• Author: Mr Javier José Vallarino

When we speak of disability in the Republic of Panama, we refer to the situation in which a person suffers from a physical, motor, mental, intellectual and/or sensory impairment or disability, whether permanent or temporary in nature, which limits his or her ability to perform one or more essential activities of daily living, that is, in the manner or within the range considered standard for a human being.

Unfortunately, disability is also associated with the concept of discrimination, since persons with disabilities are often excluded or restricted from enjoying or exercising, under equal conditions, their most basic rights as persons, including the right to work.

Within this context, the Panamanian State has enacted (since the early nineties) a series of legal provisions, many of them scarcely publicized, which establish employer obligations, labor rights, tax incentives for both employers and employees and even labor privileges, all with the intention of minimizing labor discrimination based on disability and, simultaneously, promoting the labor market insertion of persons with disabilities.

Employer's obligation to hire employees with disabilities

The Hiring of employees with disabilities constitutes an obligation for employers, as established by Article 44 of Law 42 of August 27^th, 1999, "whereby equal opportunities for persons with disabilities are established", amended by Article 51 of Law 15 of May 31^st, 2016, which literally reads as follows:

ARTICLE 44: All private companies with twenty-five to fifty employees must have a minimum of one person with disability in their workforce. A company with more than fifty employees shall have in its workforce a proportion of not less than 2% of employees with disabilities.

These employees with disabilities, duly qualified to work, shall receive a salary equal to that of any other employee who performs the same task within the company. The Executive Branch may increase the proportion of employees with disabilities, according to the economic growth conditions of the country.

The Ministry of Labor and Labor Development shall ensure that this obligation is complied with and shall deal with the complaints and claims formulated for the contravention of this article.

The aforementioned provision obliges all employers with twenty-five (25) employees on their payroll to hire at least one (1) employee with disability; and those companies or employers with fifty (50) or more employees on their payroll must maintain employees with disabilities in a proportion of at least 2% of their personnel.

We understand that the inspectors of the Ministry of Labor and Labor Development, within the inventory of issues that they verify in each Inspection Diligence (hiring of foreigners, Internal Labor Regulations, Unemployment Fund, registration of labor contracts, among others), including the effective verification of compliance by employers regarding their obligation to hire employees with disabilities.

Sanction applicable to those who do not comply with the percentage of employees with disabilities

Article 45 of Law 42 of 1999, as amended by Article 53 of Law 15 of 2016, expressly provides that:

ARTICLE 45: Private companies which refuse to hire and/or maintain 2% of the personnel with disabilities, duly qualified to work, shall be under the...