Working in Aruba as a French National: Permits, Minimum Wage, Taxes and Contributions

The Government of Aruba states that any foreigner who wants to work must first obtain a positive opinion from the labour department (DPL) before applying for the permit from DIMAS (the immigration service). A foreigner on a tourist stay may not take paid employment with an Aruban employer. Company directors (NV, VBA, AVV) and owners of sole proprietorships or general partnerships must also obtain a work permit when they do not meet the conditions to reside, work and set up a business in Aruba. An employer planning to hire a foreigner should expect to have to request this permit.

DIMAS specifies the content of the file in its document list for the paid employment permit: passport valid for at least three months, recent photograph, detailed curriculum vitae, personal statement and, for a first application, a certificate of good conduct from the country of residence covering the last five years, legalised or apostilled and dated less than six months ago. If the document is not in Dutch, English or Spanish, a sworn Aruban translation is attached. For a first application, the fee is 65 florins and the permit fee 1,200 florins; a guarantee deposit varying by nationality is added, and the amount applicable to a French national should be requested from DIMAS. Multi-year permits are limited to five years, with fees multiplied by the number of years.

The medical examination is a compulsory step in the process: DIMAS specifies that it cannot approve a permit until the results are complete in its system. The Government gives a rate of 75 florins for the screening consultation, excluding further tests. Once the permit is obtained, registration with the civil registry (Censo) requires a birth certificate legalised or apostilled and less than six months old. The conditions of entry and settlement are detailed in the page living in Aruba.

A minimum hourly wage, set by the Government and revised periodically, applies to all employees aged 18 and over, whatever the number of hours worked, including part-time; employees already paid more are not affected. Domestic workers living with their employer have a separate minimum hourly rate, since the housing and food provided count towards their pay. The conversion factor from monthly to weekly wage is 4.333 (52 weeks divided by 12 months).

The Government’s minimum wages page gives, for industry, construction and trade, a monthly minimum, a weekly minimum and hourly rates that vary with weekly working time. The applicable minimum should be checked with the Government. Work outside normal hours that is not on a rest day is paid at least 150%, and work on days treated as Sundays (New Year’s Day, Good Friday) at least 200%. The Government publishes no pay scale by occupation in the pages consulted.

Aruba applies the same table to income tax and wage tax. The exempt amount is 30,000 florins: taxable income is first reduced by this amount to obtain the “table income”. The scale then provides four brackets, at rates of 0%, 21%, 42% and 52%, whose thresholds are revised by the Government: the tax department (DIMP) confirms the scale in force.

No tax treaty between France and Aruba appears in the French administration’s list of treaties, and the 1973 France-Netherlands treaty defines the Netherlands as the European part of the Kingdom. Only a tax information exchange agreement, signed in The Hague on 14 November 2011 as regards Aruba, has been published in France: it does not allocate taxing rights and does not remove double taxation. An employee who keeps French-source income, or whose tax domicile remains in France, must therefore review their situation with the French tax administration before departure.

• Old-age and survivors’ insurance (AOV/AWW): 13.5% of annual income, that is 4% for the employee and 9.5% for the employer, with an annual income ceiling; the employer pays the contribution over by the 15th of the following month at the latest.
• General health insurance (AZV): 11.5% of annual income, of which 8.9% for the employer and 2.6% for the employee, up to 85,000 florins of annual income.
• Sickness allowance insurance (ziekteverzekering): 2.65% of salary, entirely paid by the employer, for employees earning up to 54,600 florins a year.
• Work accident insurance: due for each employee; the employer pays between 0.25% and 2.5% of salary depending on the sector, up to 54,600 florins of annual income.
• Compulsory occupational pension: since 1 January 2012, all private-sector employees acquire a pension entitlement. The minimum premium is 6%, split equally between employer and employee (3% each), and the maximum premium 25% of the pensionable salary (30% in case of a deficit).

The Government specifies that employers withhold the AZV premium from salary. The contribution is collected by the tax administration for the AZV and the AOV/AWW, and by the Social Insurance Bank (SVb) for accidents. The care that the AZV does not cover, such as glasses, adult dental care and hospitalisation in a higher class, justifies supplementary expat health insurance.

No social security agreement between France and Aruba appears in the CLEISS list of agreements (CLEISS is the French Centre for European and International Social Security Liaison), which publishes no Aruba page, and the European Health Insurance Card is not valid there (France Diplomatie). For a local contract, the employee is attached to the local scheme: they are registered with the civil registry and contribute to the AZV and the AOV. The Assurance Maladie (French national health insurance) states that an expatriate worker outside an agreement falls under the scheme of the country of work, must declare their departure within one month and can join the CFE (Caisse des Français de l’Étranger, the French overseas nationals’ health fund) to remain insured in France and avoid waiting periods on return.

For a seconded employee, the Assurance Maladie presents continuation on the French scheme in countries without an agreement, with the employer informing the Urssaf before departure and care reimbursed on paid invoices, at French tariffs. The maximum duration and conditions of extension should be checked with the Urssaf and CLEISS. See seconded or expatriate.

The Government of Aruba publishes business procedures on its digital counter: setting up a company under Aruban law or a foreign-law company, a sole proprietorship or a general partnership, with a licence for certain directors. Business owners must meet conditions to obtain a residence permit, and a work permit is required when these conditions are not met.

For the self-employed, the AOV/AWW contribution is 13.5% with a maximum annual contribution of 8,782 florins. The Government gives, in the pages consulted, no AZV scale specific to the self-employed: it is better to ask the AZV and the tax administration how the premium is calculated. No stay category reserved for remote workers or digital nomads was read in the official sources: DIMAS is the point of contact for finding out whether remote activity for a foreign employer requires a permit. Nomads can compare digital nomad insurance offers.

The labour force survey carried out by the Central Bureau of Statistics, the labour department and the Central Bank of Aruba measures the employment rate, the unemployment rate and the share of people economically inactive, among them students, retirees and people at home. Updates on growth, inflation and exchange rates appear in the “Economic indicators” block of this page.

In its economic outlook, the Government calls tourism the main driver of growth, stresses the island’s heavy dependence on imports and says it wants to diversify the economy. As tourism structures the economy, related services are a natural opening; the Government publishes public job offers on its website. The currency is the Aruban florin (Government of the Netherlands).