Employer of Record in Australia: 20 Providers Compared (2026)

Employing someone in Australia: key facts

Most figures below are national; payroll tax, public holidays and long service leave are set by each state.

Minimum wage

The National Minimum Wage covers only employees without an award or enterprise agreement. We did not research award coverage by role.

Employer contributions

• Payday Super: from 2026-07-01 super must reach the fund within 7 business days of each payday (20 business days for a new employee’s first contribution) (ato.gov.au, checked 2026-10-05).
• Payroll tax rates and thresholds differ by state; only NSW is modelled here.

Working hours and overtime

• Up to 38 ordinary hours a week plus reasonable additional hours; awards and agreements set the pattern (fairwork.gov.au, checked 2026-10-05).
• No statutory overtime rate: it depends on the applicable award or agreement. Employees may refuse unreasonable contact outside working hours (same source).

Annual leave and public holidays

• Annual leave: 4 weeks a year for full-time and part-time staff, pro rata, accruing from day one including probation; unused leave rolls over (fairwork.gov.au, checked 2026-10-05).
• Personal/carer’s leave: 10 days a year, pro rata, carried over. Long service leave is state law (NSW: 2 months after 10 years).
• Public holidays are set by state and territory and follow where the employee works. NSW dates left in 2026: 5 October, 25, 26 and 28 December (fairwork.gov.au, checked 2026-10-05).

Probation

• No statutory probation. The practical equivalent is the minimum employment period for an unfair dismissal claim: 6 months, or 12 months for a small business; the claim must be lodged within 21 days of dismissal (fairwork.gov.au, checked 2026-10-05).
• The employee must also be covered by an award or agreement or earn under the high income threshold, reported as AUD 190,100 from 2026-07-01 (allens.com.au, checked 2026-10-05).

Notice and severance

• Employer notice: up to 1 year of service 1 week; over 1 to 3 years 2 weeks; over 3 to 5 years 3 weeks; over 5 years 4 weeks; plus 1 week for employees over 45 with 2+ years.

Sources: notice and redundancy pages of the Fair Work Ombudsman, checked 2026-10-05. The 12 weeks above 10 years is lower than the 16 for 9 to 10 years, as the Ombudsman’s table shows. Accrued annual and long service leave is paid out on top.

13th salary and bonuses

• Not mandatory: a 13th or 14th month is not among the ten National Employment Standards entitlements (fairwork.gov.au, checked 2026-10-05).

Mandatory benefits

• National Employment Standards: annual and personal/carer’s leave, compassionate, family and domestic violence and community service leave, long service leave (state law), public holidays, parental leave (up to 12 months unpaid), notice and redundancy pay (fairwork.gov.au, checked 2026-10-05).
• Superannuation at 12% and workers’ compensation insurance, priced by state and industry.
• No mandatory private health, dental or life insurance.

Work permits

• Citizens, permanent residents and New Zealand citizens work without sponsorship; others need a visa. The main employer-sponsored route is the Skills in Demand visa (subclass 482), in place since 2024-12-07.
• A standard sponsor must be lawfully operating and the direct employer of the sponsored worker, and cannot generally supply that worker to an unrelated business (Hall & Wilcox, checked 2026-10-05). This comes from a law firm, not a Home Affairs page, so take migration advice before relying on it.
• The on-hire labour agreement route has its own conditions, including that the on-hire company pays the worker (Home Affairs, checked 2026-10-05).

Currency and payroll

• Currency is the Australian dollar (AUD). The RBA rate for 2026-10-02 was 1 AUD = 0.6933 USD (rba.gov.au, checked 2026-10-05).
• Pay at least monthly; the pay slip is due within 1 working day of payment (fairwork.gov.au, checked 2026-10-05).

Is Employer of Record legal in Australia?

Allowed, with limits. In the sources we read, no federal law licenses or bans an EOR. An EOR that is the real employer must meet the Fair Work Act standards, the modern award, superannuation and state payroll tax. The limit is state labour hire licensing, and the tests turn on the substance of the arrangement.

• Victoria. A labour hire provider’s arrangement is “wholly or principally for the supply of labour”. Signs the Authority lists: filling roles rather than delivering a defined scope, hourly or daily rates, work under the host’s direction and control, the host bearing the risk. From 2026-10-01 the definition also covers “bare intermediary” companies. Penalties exceed AUD 660,000 per breach for a company (Labour Hire Authority, checked 2026-10-05)..
• Queensland. Under s.7 of the Labour Hire Licensing Act 2017, supplying a worker to another person to do work is labour hire “regardless of” whether the worker is the provider’s employee or who controls the work. Recruitment and placement sit outside the scheme (legislation.qld.gov.au, checked 2026-10-05).
• South Australia. Since 2026-01-29 the licence covers all industries; providers newly caught had until 2026-07-29 (cbs.sa.gov.au, checked 2026-10-05).
• ACT. Supplying a worker to another person to do work needs a licence, including for providers based outside the ACT (legislation.act.gov.au, checked 2026-10-05).
• Same job, same pay. Read from the Fair Work Act (Part 2-7A, since 2023-12-15): if an employer supplies employees to a host that is not a small business, and the host’s enterprise agreement would cover them if employed directly, the Commission must order the supplier to pay at least the host agreement’s rate, unless that is not fair and reasonable. It does not apply to a service rather than a supply of labour (fwc.gov.au, checked 2026-10-05). We did not check whether any order involving an EOR has been made.
• NSW payroll tax. An agent that obtains a worker for a client for a fee is the employer for payroll tax (revenue.nsw.gov.au, checked 2026-10-05).

None of the regulator pages we read says in terms that an EOR is, or is not, labour hire. Put that question to your provider in writing: does it treat the arrangement as labour hire, and which licences does it hold in the state where your hire works?

Risks for you as the client:

• In Victoria, Queensland, South Australia and the ACT, using an unlicensed provider exposes the host: Victoria warns of “substantial penalties”, South Australia says hosts “risk penalties”.
• If a Fair Work Commission order applies, the supplied employee can be entitled to the host agreement’s full rate, and the cost lands on the client.
• Late super triggers the superannuation guarantee charge (shortfall, interest, a 60% uplift, further penalties). It falls on the employer, so the EOR’s record flows into your cost through the service agreement (Clayton Utz, checked 2026-10-05).
• Starting work before a valid visa is in place is the client’s and worker’s exposure, not removed by an EOR contract.

Who actually employs your hire in Australia

We searched the Labour Hire Authority’s public Victorian register by name for each of the 20 providers on 2026-10-05. A licence record shows the company, its ABN and the term, not the owner or which group entity signs your hire’s contract. A missing record proves little: a licence is needed only for labour hire.

All checked 2026-10-05; register at register.labourhireauthority.vic.gov.au. “Name match” means the licence holder bears the vendor’s name, but the vendor’s own Australian pages do not name it as the employer.

Eight providers do not say who employs your hire in Australia and two name a partner. Before signing, ask for the legal name and ABN of the entity that will sign the contract, and which labour hire licences it holds for the state where the person will work.

How to choose an EOR in Australia

Want the entity on a public register? Deel, Remote, G-P, Skuad, Boundless, Pebl and Rippling each have a Victorian licence record. Deel and Boundless also point to the company in their own words; for the other five the match rests on the name.

Weighing price against fee clarity? G-P quotes a flat USD 599/month on its Australia page; Skuad’s $249/month needs a 12-month commitment. Rivermate, RemoFirst, Playroll and Boundless state no setup or onboarding fees; Oyster requires a refundable deposit, amount not stated. Most other prices are global lists.

Does your hire need a sponsored work visa? Do not assume any provider here can sponsor for you: the direct-employer rule, as a law firm reads it, points to your own Australian entity. Rivermate’s guide estimates immigration costs at A$7,000 to A$15,000.

How fast do you need to start? Vendor claims: Deel 1 business day, Playroll 1-5 days, Rivermate 1-3 days for a local employee, Remote 2.3 days on average (plus 3 if a Right to Work check applies), Remote People 5-10 business days, Safeguard Global a week or two.

What it costs to employ someone in Australia through an EOR

The EOR is the employer, so it pays statutory employer cost on top of salary. The figures below model a New South Wales employee in 2026-27 on an EOR with a large payroll, so NSW’s AUD 1,200,000 payroll tax threshold is treated as used up and 5.45% applies from the first dollar (revenue.nsw.gov.au, checked 2026-10-05). The two salaries are roughly USD 50,000 and USD 100,000 at 1 AUD = 0.6933 USD (RBA, 2026-10-02).

Super stays well under the AUD 270,830 maximum contribution base at both salaries. Not included: workers’ compensation (state and industry rated, no fixed percentage), annual and long service leave accruals, any award leave loading, other states’ payroll tax, and the EOR’s fee.

The same AUD 72,000 salary cost AUD 11,041.20 in statutory employer cost in 2021 and costs AUD 13,034.88 now, 18.1% more.

The EOR’s own fee comes on top. The 20 providers list $99 to $699 per employee per month, mostly as global list prices. Australia-specific figures are rarer: G-P quotes a flat USD 599/month, Skuad $249/month promotional (listed at $399; the discounted monthly rate needs a 12-month commitment), and Deel’s Australia page shows an EOR fee of 11,065 per worker per year without naming the currency, so we do not convert it. Remote People’s Australia page cites a market range of $300-600 per month, not its own quote.

Hidden costs, where published: RemoFirst states no setup, onboarding or termination fees, no annual contracts and no minimums. Rivermate states no onboarding or offboarding costs, Playroll zero onboarding or offboarding fees, and Boundless no EOR setup fees. Deel says it has no hidden onboarding or termination charges. Oyster requires a refundable deposit, amount not stated; Remote collects reserve payments “in rare, high risk circumstances”; Atlas says final payroll and statutory offboarding costs may still apply. Where a field is blank, treat it as unpublished, not zero.

When you don’t need an EOR

• A genuinely independent contractor. If the person does not work under your direction like staff, engage them as a contractor. Relabelling an employee-like role is the problem described in contractor misclassification.
• Your own Australian entity. The likelier route for a hire who needs a sponsored visa, since a standard sponsor must generally be the direct employer (Hall & Wilcox, checked 2026-10-05). Confirm with a migration adviser: Home Affairs pages could not be read, and no source we found shows an EOR sponsoring for a client.
• A PEO. Papaya Global calls its Australian product a PEO, “also known as an Employer of Record”, and it is not co-employment in the US sense (papayaglobal.com, checked 2026-10-05). See the PEO glossary entry and EOR vs PEO.

Our EOR overview and Employer of Record glossary entry cover the model itself.

What changed in 2026

• 2026-01-29: South Australia extends labour hire licensing to all industries; providers newly caught had until 2026-07-29 (cbs.sa.gov.au, checked 2026-10-05).
• 2026-06-01: Victoria adds a stronger fit-and-proper test for decision-makers and a financial viability declaration for all labour hire licence holders and applicants (Labour Hire Authority, checked 2026-10-05).
• 2026-07-01: the National Minimum Wage rises 5.97% to AUD 26.44/hour; modern award minimums rise 4.75% (fwc.gov.au, checked 2026-10-05). The Commission is phasing out the C13 classification in three stages, the first this year.
• 2026-07-01: Payday Super starts: super reaches the fund within 7 business days of payday (20 for a new employee’s first contribution), on qualifying earnings with an annual cap of AUD 270,830; the late-payment charge is redesigned (ato.gov.au, checked 2026-10-05).
• 2026-07-01: the high income threshold for unfair dismissal is reported as AUD 190,100 (allens.com.au, checked 2026-10-05).
• 2026-10-01: Victoria amends the definition of labour hire to focus on whether the arrangement has the character of labour supply, including “bare intermediary” companies; further changes for construction are expected later in October (Labour Hire Authority, checked 2026-10-05).
• Draft, not law: an exposure draft published 2026-09-07 would ban non-compete clauses for employees at or below the high income threshold and co-worker non-solicitation for all national system employees, and treat no-poach and wage-fixing as cartel conduct. Consultation closed 2026-10-02; the draft proposes commencement within three months of Royal Assent (allens.com.au, checked 2026-10-05).

Numbers vendors haven’t updated

• Superannuation. The rate has been 12% since 2025-07-01 (ato.gov.au, checked 2026-10-05). Oyster’s Australia page shows 9.5%. Rippling’s guide shows 11% (rising to 11.5% from July 2024), Pebl 11%, and Deel’s cost calculation 11%. Remote shows 11% rising to 12% by 2027-07-01 and a payroll tax note that ends at 2023-06-30.
• Minimum wage. The National Minimum Wage is AUD 26.44/hour from 2026-07-01. Pebl shows A$23.23, the rate before 2024-07-01. Deel, Boundless and Borderless AI show AUD 24.95, the rate until 2026-06-30.

How we built this page

Data was collected and checked on 2026-10-05 against Australian government sources (Fair Work Commission and Ombudsman, ATO, NSW Revenue, state labour hire regulators) and, where noted, law-firm reports. Provider entities were checked against the Victorian Labour Hire Authority register: seven providers have a licence record, which shows the company and ABN but not its owner. The ABR, ASIC and Queensland registers did not open for us, so for the rest we rely on each provider’s own statements. Providers are ordered with confirmed own entities first, then partners, then those that do not disclose, and nobody pays for placement on this page.