Finding a job in Panama can be relatively easy, but finding a job in Panama that pays is something all together more difficult. My biggest complaint about living in Latin America over the last 13 years is that people just don’t pay you anything for your work. And if prices go up, you can be sure that your pay won’t go up. So if you are thinking of working in Panama, or any Latin American country, then you need to realize that you won’t be paid much for your efforts. Not only will you not be paid much, you will also find that if you are given a job that there will be very little room for upward mobility. If you are a foreigner you might get a job, but it will be very hard to advance after you get hired – the work environment is generally not very dynamic in Latin America, especially for foreigners.

The only way to make real money in Panama as a foreigner is to start your own business. For operating a business, Panama is better than most Latin American countries because the country uses the U.S. dollar as its currency, so you don’t have to worry about all kinds of price fluctuations caused by a chaotic currency. On the down side, Panama has all kinds of labor laws that make it very difficult and expensive to fire a worker. The labor laws in Panama are part of the military legacy: the very progressive labor code was part of the leftist military dictatorship that came to power in 1968; it was the dictatorship that wrote the 1972 constitution, which is still more or less the constitution that is in place today in Panama.

But if you have a business idea, and if that business idea is connected to tourism, real estate or expat living, then you might do very well for yourself in Panama. One rule of doing business in Panama is that the bigger your business idea the more you will need a local partner to cut the red tape. Almost all the large American franchises in Panama are connected to a local business partner: this makes the whole process of setting up a business much more hassle free.

But what if you don’t want to start a business. Let’s say you just want to come to Panama to work. In this case you need to take advantage of your English skills and there are many ways in which you can do that. Here are a few:

1. Teaching in Panama is one way to make money. If you really worked at it you could make somewhere between $1500 to $2000 a month teaching English. You would teach classes from seven in the morning to ten in the morning, then tutor for a few hours and come back and teach classes from five-thirty to nine or ten at night. The most money you can make teaching English is somewhere between $20 to $25 an hour. Remember, people will pay to educate their kids, especially the better off families. Like most things in Panama, education has slowly moved from the public to the private sphere. The catch here might be working papers: can you get them? That could be very difficult. One way to get a work visa is to get a carta de trabajo , but to get a carta de trabajo, you need to have your employer sponsor you, so the place where you plan to teach needs to agree to sponsoring you as a guest worker. This might be difficult, but all together possible if you have a willing employer.

2. Another way you might be able to use your English to make money in Panama is to become involved in Real Estate sales. There are a lot of foreigners who are helping Panamanian real estate companies sell real estate to foreigners who want to live in Panama. I’ve heard of people making something like a $100,000 a year or more in real estate sales. What about a work permit? Many foreigners who are involved in real estate sales work as professional service providers – not directly for any Panamanian company. How do they become professional service providers? They normally create a Panamanian shell company that has a bank account. On paper the shell company is paid the real estate commissions; the commission monies are put into the corporation’s bank account. The key here is can you get a bank account? Also, the real estate market is getting tougher in Panama so don’t think you can just come in and make reams of money. That train has left and it won’t be coming back around for a very long time.

3. Another possible route would be as an English translator. There are many companies that need translators. If you speak Spanish and English, then you will have little problem finding a translating job in Panama. There are many, many call centers now locating in Panama, and almost all of them are starving for English speakers. How much will you earn at a call center? Well, you could earn somewhere between $600 to $900 a month; again, remember you will never make it in Panama or Latin America if you are planning on being solely a wage-earner; have a wage as your base, but you will need some sort of business to generate money for fun.

In closing, I would say that the opportunities for foreigners to work in Panama have increased over the last five years, but there are still two problems for the foreign worker: getting a wage that will sustain you, and laying your hands on working papers. More and more companies in Panama want people to have working papers; if you don’t, employers won’t hire you. If you want to work and live in Panama, and you don’t have working papers, you will have to start by working off the books, doing jobs for people on the side or under the table. I can tell you from experience that the first year in Panama will be one of the most difficult you’ll ever experience, but after you establish yourself, things will ease up and you can live and breath more comfortably in your new home.

Panama Country Profile

Real Estate in Panama