Employer of record costs

Advertised prices, verified

How an EOR invoice is built

1. Gross salary is agreed. You set the hire's gross salary in local currency. This is the anchor for everything else: statutory contributions are calculated from it, and percentage-based EOR fees scale with it, which is a reason to prefer flat fees for senior salaries.
2. Employer costs are added. The employer-side statutory stack of the hire's country goes on top: social insurance, pension, payroll taxes and mandatory benefits. These are published, non-negotiable rates; a good vendor itemizes each line against its source so you can check the arithmetic.
3. The EOR fee is applied. The vendor adds its service fee, either a flat monthly amount per employee or a share of payroll. Advertised prices are starting tiers for straightforward cases; complex countries, extra benefits and currency handling can move the effective figure.
4. One invoice arrives, monthly. You receive salary plus employer costs plus fee in one invoice, usually in your billing currency with the conversion applied by the vendor. The exchange-rate margin on that conversion is itself a cost worth measuring across a quarter of invoices.

The fee layer: what the market actually charges

Advertised EOR fees at the entry tier cluster in the low hundreds of dollars per employee per month, and this site verifies each vendor's figure against its published pricing page rather than quoting sales decks; across the vendors in the index that publish a price, the median advertised fee is $499 per month. Flat fees and percentage fees suit different buyers: a flat fee is predictable and favours higher salaries, while a percentage fee scales down for modest salaries but silently grows with every raise.

The fee buys the employment infrastructure: the local entity, the compliant contract, payroll operation, filings and offboarding. It follows that the fee should not vary much with salary for the same country and the same work, which is exactly why percentage pricing deserves scrutiny at senior pay levels. Where a vendor quotes only through sales conversations, treat the opacity as data; the vendors that publish prices are listed with links to the page each figure was verified against.

The extras that surface after signature

The recurring surprises are predictable enough to check for in advance. Deposits: some vendors hold one or more months of employment cost as security, which is cash flow, not cost, but stings if unplanned. Currency: the exchange-rate margin between the invoice currency and the salary currency is a per-invoice cost that compounds monthly. Benefits administration: statutory benefits are pass-throughs, but supplemental plans often carry their own admin fee. Onboarding and offboarding: some vendors charge setup fees, and termination costs in the hire's country, notice, severance, accrued leave, land on your invoice because the EOR is the legal employer and must pay them.

The honest comparison across vendors is therefore total cost of a specific hire: same country, same salary, same benefits, modelled from first invoice through a hypothetical exit. Ask each finalist for exactly that model in writing. Vendors that produce it quickly tend to be the ones whose invoices match it later, and the pattern repeats often enough to work as a selection signal. Employment contracts and each country's law control the statutory lines; nothing on this page is legal or tax advice.

Common questions

What does an employer of record cost per month?

The vendors in this index that publish pricing advertise entry-tier fees with a median of $499 per employee per month, on top of salary and the employer taxes and contributions of the hire's country. Advertised tiers are starting points; complex countries and added benefits raise the effective figure.

Is a flat fee or a percentage of payroll better?

Flat fees favour predictability and higher salaries; percentage fees can start cheaper for modest salaries but grow with every raise while the vendor's work stays the same. For senior hires, model both against the actual salary before choosing.

Why do EOR invoices exceed the advertised price?

The advertised figure is only the fee layer. Salary, employer contributions, benefits, deposits, currency conversion margins and any setup or offboarding charges complete the invoice. An itemized quote for your specific hire is the only number worth comparing.

Who pays severance when an EOR employment ends?

The EOR pays the departing employee whatever local law requires, notice, severance, accrued entitlements, and passes the cost to you under the service agreement. Ask how termination costs are estimated and invoiced before you sign, not at the exit.

Coverage by country

• Employer of record vendors covering Singapore
• Employer of record vendors covering Mexico
• Employer of record vendors covering Spain
• Employer of record vendors covering Colombia
• Employer of record vendors covering United Kingdom
• Employer of record vendors covering France
• Employer of record vendors covering Hungary
• Employer of record vendors covering New Zealand