What an employer of record is, and what it costs

Advertised prices, verified

How hiring through an EOR works

1. You pick the person and the package. You recruit as normal and agree the role, salary and start date. The EOR does not choose your people; it employs the person you chose.
2. The EOR issues a compliant local contract. The vendor drafts an employment contract that satisfies the hire's local labour law, in the local language where required, and signs it as the legal employer.
3. Payroll, taxes and benefits run locally. Each month the EOR pays the employee in local currency, withholds and files employer and employee taxes, and administers statutory and agreed benefits. You receive one invoice: salary costs plus the fee.
4. You manage the work, the EOR manages the employment. Day-to-day direction stays with you. Terminations, leave rules and disputes run through the EOR because it is the legal employer, which is exactly the risk you are paying it to carry.

When an EOR is the right tool

An EOR fits when you want a small number of employees in a country where opening an entity is not worth it yet: testing a market, keeping a key hire who is relocating, or building a distributed team a few people at a time. The fee, typically a few hundred dollars per employee per month at the advertised tier, is far below the cost of incorporating, registering for payroll and retaining local counsel in a country you may leave.

It stops fitting when headcount in one country grows. At tens of employees the monthly fees pass what running your own entity would cost, and several vendors sell exactly that transition. It is also the wrong tool where your work needs a licence the EOR cannot hold, or where a regulator requires the operating company itself to employ the staff.

Common questions

Is an EOR the same as a PEO?

No. A PEO co-employs staff you already legally employ through your own entity, mostly a United States product sold per employee per month. An EOR is the sole legal employer where you have no entity at all. Several vendors in the index sell both, at different prices.

What does an EOR cost?

The vendors in this index that publish a price advertise between the minimum and maximum shown in the table above, per employee per month, with a median of {median}. Advertised prices are starting tiers; deposits, currency handling and benefits administration can add to the invoice, so read the vendor's own page, linked beside every figure.

Who actually employs my hire?

The EOR, or a local entity it owns or partners with, holds the employment contract. You direct the work. That split is the whole product: the legal employer duties sit with a company built to carry them in that country.

Is hiring through an EOR legal everywhere?

Most major hiring markets allow it, some cap how long an EOR arrangement can run, and a few restrict it. The vendors' own country guides, linked from every country page here, set out their position per market; verify the current rule for your country before relying on it.

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