Costa Rica News – Nearly a third of the money spent by public universities goes to incentives for employees. The UCR and ITCR spend more on bonuses than on base salaries.
A professor from the University of Costa Rica gets a base salary of around ¢700,000 plus an added 3.75% for each year he works. There is a whole incentive ladder that recognizes antiquity and annuities.
The employee would get 30% more salary for “exclusive dedication” and up to another 30% for academic merit. Then there’s another 4% for each academic step taken and up to 39% if he or she needs to travel to another zone to teach.
ITCR has a similar system but with up to 56% for academic degrees. There, for every ¢1 allocated to a basic salary, ¢1.5 is dedicated for incentives. This university pays a higher percentage in bonuses than any other university.
The total budget for public universities this year is ¢714,000 million, much of which comes from taxes. 80% of that is for salaries.
