Employment Offer Letter Chile (Carta de Oferta de Empleo)

Employment Offer Letter Chile (Carta de Oferta de Empleo) is a pre-contractual written communication governed by Article 9 of the Código del Trabajo de Chile (CT) and the general good-faith principles of the Código Civil (CC) Article 1546, by which an employer (empleador) formally extends an offer of employment to a selected candidate, specifying the essential terms and conditions of the proposed employment relationship before the execution of a formal written employment contract (contrato individual de trabajo). Article 9 of the Código del Trabajo requires that the individual employment contract be in writing and signed by both parties within fifteen calendar days of the worker commencing services — or within five calendar days when the contract is for work lasting fewer than thirty days — making the carta de oferta de empleo the critical document that bridges the hiring decision and the formal contractual execution.

The Dirección del Trabajo (DT) — the Chilean government agency under the Ministerio del Trabajo y Previsión Social responsible for supervising compliance with labour legislation — considers the carta de oferta de empleo relevant evidence of the agreed terms when a dispute arises regarding the content of the subsequent employment contract. DT Dictamen No. 2.210/035 (2019) confirms that terms agreed in pre-contractual communications may be incorporated into the employment contract and that employers cannot unilaterally reduce benefits offered in writing prior to contracting.

The carta de oferta de empleo must identify the offered position (cargo) with the specific duties and responsibilities, the agreed remuneration (remuneración pactada) expressed as a fixed monthly salary (sueldo base) in Chilean pesos (CLP) or Unidades de Fomento (UF), which is updated daily by the Banco Central de Chile. The sueldo base cannot be less than the ingreso mínimo mensual (minimum monthly wage) established annually by the Ministerio del Trabajo y Previsión Social through the annual Ley de Reajuste — for 2025, the minimum monthly wage is CLP 500,000 under Ley N° 21.708.

The offer letter should specify the tipo de contrato (employment contract type): indefinido (open-ended), plazo fijo (fixed-term, maximum two years under CT Article 159 No. 4), or por obra o faena (project-based, for a specific work completion under CT Article 159 No. 5). For fixed-term contracts, the CT establishes that a worker employed on two consecutive fixed-term contracts lasting more than one year becomes entitled to the rights of an indefinite-term worker.

In addition to the mandatory minimum wage, the carta de oferta de empleo should detail any additional remuneration components: gratificación (profit-sharing under CT Articles 47–52, which Chilean employers commonly pay as 25% of annual earnings capped at 4.75 IMM or through monthly provision of gratificación legal), bonos de desempeño (performance bonuses), asignaciones (allowances for transportation, meals, or housing), and beneficios no remuneracionales (non-remuneratory benefits such as health insurance top-ups, corporate parking, or company vehicle use that do not form part of the remuneration base for social security calculations).

The Juzgados de Letras del Trabajo, established by Ley N° 20.087, have jurisdiction over disputes arising from pre-contractual representations in employment offer letters. Courts have held — following Corte Suprema precedents applying CT Article 5 inciso 1 and CC Article 1546 — that written pre-contractual commitments create binding obligations enforceable through the acción ordinaria laboral or, in cases of bad-faith withdrawal of an offer, through the acción de responsabilidad precontractual under Código Civil Article 2314.

An Employment Offer Letter Chile is needed whenever a Chilean employer selects a candidate for a position and wishes to formalize the hiring decision in writing before the employment contract is executed under Código del Trabajo Article 9.

The carta de oferta de empleo is essential when hiring skilled professionals — engineers, lawyers, accountants, IT specialists, or medical staff — whose recruitment may involve salary negotiations, relocation packages, or start dates weeks or months in the future. Major Chilean employers including Banco de Chile, Banco Santander Chile, Falabella, Cencosud, LATAM Airlines, Enel Chile, Codelco, and SQM use formal offer letters as part of their human resources onboarding processes to lock in agreed terms before competitors can counter-offer.

The letter is needed when a company is recruiting candidates from abroad under the régimen de residencia temporal por motivos laborales established by the Ley de Migración y Extranjería (Ley N° 21.325/2021) — the candidate must present a written job offer approved by the Ministerio del Trabajo y Previsión Social or the Servicio Nacional de Migraciones (SERMIG) when applying for a work visa (visa de trabajo).

A written offer letter is necessary when the employer is offering above-minimum compensation including variable components such as commissions, target bonuses, or profit-sharing under CT Article 42, so that both parties have written documentation of the agreed remuneration structure before the employment relationship begins and before the formal contract is signed before a Notario Público or registered with the Inspección del Trabajo.

The carta de oferta is needed for public sector hiring at entities regulated by the Estatuto Administrativo (Ley N° 18.834) or the Estatuto Administrativo para Funcionarios Municipales (Ley N° 18.883), where formal appointment letters (decretos de nombramiento) must be issued before the official can begin duties. Private sector employers supplying labour services through empresas de servicios transitorios (ESTs) authorized by the Dirección del Trabajo under CT Articles 183-A through 183-AB also use offer letters to define the terms of the supply agreement.

Small and medium enterprises (PYMEs) registered with the SERCOTEC (Servicio de Cooperación Técnica) or benefiting from CORFO financing programs frequently need formal offer letters when expanding their workforce to satisfy loan conditions requiring evidence of stable employment commitments.

A valid Employment Offer Letter Chile must contain the following essential elements to set out the agreed terms clearly and provide the legal foundation for the subsequent employment contract under Código del Trabajo Article 9:

Employer Identification: Full legal name or razón social, RUT (Rol Único Tributario issued by the Servicio de Impuestos Internos — SII), registered address (domicilio), and the name, title, and authority of the signatory (typically the gerente general, gerente de recursos humanos, or jefe de contrataciones). For SpA, SRL, S.A., or EIRL entities, include the corporate type and the basis of the representative's authority in the escritura de constitución.

Candidate Identification: Full legal name, RUN/RUT, cédula de identidad number (issued by the Servicio de Registro Civil e Identificación), and domicile of the candidate. If the candidate is a foreign national, include passport number and nationality, noting that work authorization from the Servicio Nacional de Migraciones (SERMIG) under Ley N° 21.325 must be obtained before employment commences.

Position and Duties (Cargo y Funciones): The specific job title (cargo), a description of the main duties and responsibilities (funciones), the organizational unit or department, the place of work (lugar de prestación de servicios) including the specific commune (comuna) and region (región), and whether the role involves travel, remote work (teletrabajo under CT Article 152 quáter A), or work at multiple locations.

Remuneration Structure (Remuneración): The agreed monthly gross salary (sueldo base bruto) expressed in Chilean pesos (CLP) or Unidades de Fomento (UF), which must be at or above the ingreso mínimo mensual (CLP 500,000 for 2025 under Ley N° 21.708). Detail all variable remuneration components — commissions (comisiones), performance bonuses (bonos de desempeño), and production incentives (incentivos de producción) — under CT Article 42. Specify whether gratificación will be paid as 25% of annual remuneration capped at 4.75 IMM or through monthly provisioning under CT Articles 47–52.

Benefits and Allowances (Beneficios y Asignaciones): Non-remuneratory benefits that do not form part of the remuneration base for social security purposes — including transportation allowance (asignación de movilización), meal allowance (asignación de colación), housing allowance (asignación de vivienda), supplemental health insurance (seguro complementario de salud), dental insurance, life insurance, corporate parking, company vehicle, and childcare subsidy (sala cuna) for workers with children under two years under CT Article 203.

Start Date and Contract Type (Fecha de Inicio y Tipo de Contrato): The proposed start date (fecha de inicio de funciones) and the type of employment contract to be executed — indefinido, plazo fijo (specifying the end date, with a maximum of two years under CT Article 159 No. 4), or por obra o faena. Per CT Article 9, the written contract must be executed within fifteen calendar days of the start date.

Workday and Working Hours (Jornada Laboral): The standard workday schedule — specifying whether the worker will be subject to the ordinary 45-hour weekly limit under CT Article 22, the modified 40-hour week introduced by Ley N° 21.561 (effective from April 2024, with phased reductions to 40 hours by 2028), or an exempt executive regime (jornada excluida de limitación de jornada) for managerial or senior professional roles.

Conditions and Contingencies (Condiciones y Contingencias): Any conditions to which the offer is subject, including satisfactory completion of a background check (verificación de antecedentes), health examination (examen preocupacional) conducted by a Mutualidad de Empleadores such as ACHS, Mutual de Seguridad, or IST under Ley N° 16.744, credential verification (acreditación de títulos profesionales registered with the Ministerio de Educación), and probationary period arrangements if applicable.

Confidentiality and Non-Competition Pre-Contractual Undertakings: Any pre-contractual confidentiality obligations regarding proprietary information shared during the recruitment process, noting that Chilean law does not recognize enforceable post-employment non-competition clauses beyond the duration of the employment contract without specific compensation arrangements.

Forms-legal.com provides this Employment Offer Letter Chile template as a reference for employers formalizing hiring decisions under Chilean labour law. Given that the carta de oferta creates binding pre-contractual obligations, employers should have an abogado laboralista (labour attorney) review the letter before issuance to ensure compliance with Código del Trabajo requirements and avoid inadvertent commitments. Los usuarios de forms-legal.com pueden descargar este documento de forma gratuita en formato PDF o DOCX, completar los campos del formulario guiado y obtener un documento listo para firma.