Employer of Record in Austria: 18 Providers Compared (2026)

Employing someone in Austria: key facts

Rules below apply across Austria unless noted; employer costs vary slightly by state (the DZ levy) and are shown for Vienna. All figures are for 2026.

Minimum wage

The applicable KV depends on the employer’s trade and the job; we tracked only the agency-work KV.

Employer contributions

WIFO puts the total at 29.56% of running gross outside Vienna, 29.81% in Vienna and 29.06% on special payments.

Working hours and overtime

• Normal working time is 8 hours a day and 40 hours a week; the maximum is 12 hours a day and 60 hours a week (ris.bka.gv.at, checked 2026-10-07).
• Overtime is paid with a 50% surcharge or compensated by time off (ris.bka.gv.at, checked 2026-10-07).

Annual leave and public holidays

• 30 Werktage per work year (working days counted Monday to Saturday, so 5 weeks), 36 Werktage after 25 years of service; entitlement builds pro rata in the first six months (ris.bka.gv.at, checked 2026-10-07).
• 13 statutory public holidays, the same in all nine federal states; Good Friday is not one (wien.gv.at, checked 2026-10-07).

Probation

• Up to one month, only if agreed (in the contract, by KV or by law); either side can end employment at any time during it without notice or reasons (ams.at, checked 2026-10-07).

Notice and severance

Source: ams.at, checked 2026-10-07. The scale is the same for salaried staff and workers since 2021-10-01. The default end date is a calendar quarter-end unless the parties agree on the 15th or last day of a month. The employee gives one month, extendable by agreement up to 6 months.

• No lump-sum severance for contracts from 2003-01-01. Under Abfertigung neu the employer pays 1.53% of monthly pay into the employee’s BV-Kasse from the second month; the capital can be claimed after 3 years of contributions on employer termination, termination without fault or mutual agreement, but not after a resignation without valid cause (usp.gv.at, checked 2026-10-07).

13th salary and bonuses

• Not statutory but near-universal: the 13th and 14th payments come from collective agreements, works agreements or contracts, pro rata to the work year, so annual pay under most KVs is 14 payments (oesterreich.gv.at, checked 2026-10-07).

Mandatory benefits

Source: wien.arbeiterkammer.at, checked 2026-10-07. Half pay for 4 more weeks follows. Social insurance and Abfertigung neu are in the tables above.

Work permits

• EU/EEA/Swiss citizens move and work freely (migration.gv.at, checked 2026-10-07).
• Rot-Weiß-Rot-Karte for key workers: at least EUR 3,465 gross a month plus special payments, 55 of 90 points and an AMS labour-market test; the prospective employer can apply. Highly qualified applicants need 70 of 100 points (migration.gv.at, checked 2026-10-07).
• EU Blue Card: at least EUR 55,678 gross a year, a degree of at least 3 years, a binding offer of at least 6 months and AMS approval (migration.gv.at, checked 2026-10-07).
• The official pages do not say whether an EOR acting as lessor can sponsor.

Currency and payroll

• Euro (EUR), paid monthly. §15 AngG requires salaried staff’s pay by the 15th and the last day of the month, but payment at month-end may be agreed, which is the usual practice (ris.bka.gv.at, checked 2026-10-07).

Is Employer of Record legal in Austria?

Allowed, with limits. Austria has no EOR-specific statute. An employer that places its own employees at a third party’s disposal is a lessor under the AÜG, which judges by economic substance, not by label (§4). The law firm fwp wrote in 2024 that case law on the EOR model does not yet exist and that AÜG applicability needs case-by-case review (fwp.at, checked 2026-10-07).

• Trade licence. Leasing workers needs a Gewerbeberechtigung, a regulated trade with proof of competence (§94 Z 72 and §135 GewO). The exceptions, such as group-internal leasing, do not describe a commercial EOR.
• Seat of the holder. A legal person must have its seat or head office in an EEA state to be granted the licence (§135 Abs 3 Z 2 GewO), so an EOR with no EEA seat cannot hold it (ris.bka.gv.at, checked 2026-10-07).
• Cross-border leasing, §16 AÜG. Leasing from Austria abroad needs a permit (Bewilligung) from the trade authority (ris.bka.gv.at, checked 2026-10-07). The WKO and the law firm Dorda read VwGH 29.4.2025, Ro 2024/11/0002, as covering staff who stay in Austria and work only remotely for a company in a third country; per the WKO, leasing within Austria or into the EEA needs no permit (wko.at, checked 2026-10-07). We did not retrieve the judgment, so this rests on those two secondary sources.
• Pay and paperwork. A leased worker is entitled to “angemessenes, ortsübliches Entgelt”, with regard to the collectively agreed pay of comparable employees at the client (§10); how this works for a client with no Austrian workforce was not found. A written leasing agreement with a service ticket (Dienstzettel) is required (§11) (ris.bka.gv.at, checked 2026-10-07).

Client risks:

• Fine. §22 AÜG fines a client taking part in an inadmissible cross-border leasing EUR 1,000-5,000, repeat offences EUR 2,000-10,000; a missing service ticket carries up to EUR 1,000 (ris.bka.gv.at, checked 2026-10-07).
• Guarantor liability. The client is liable as guarantor (§1355 ABGB) for the worker’s pay and social insurance contributions, unless IESG insolvency pay covers the worker’s claims on the lessor’s insolvency (§14 AÜG) (ris.bka.gv.at, checked 2026-10-07).
• Unlicensed provider. Operating the trade without a licence is an offence with a fine up to EUR 3,600 (§366 GewO), and per the law firm Brandauer, AÜG and KV pay claims can be asserted retroactively where a “service contract” is leasing in substance (brandauer-rechtsanwaelte.at, checked 2026-10-07).

We found no Austrian source on whether the client can be treated as the real employer or acquire a taxable presence.

Who actually employs your hire in Austria

A company that leases workers needs the Gewerbe “Überlassung von Arbeitskräften”, and the WKO Firmen A-Z listing shows it with a GISA number. We searched the Firmenbuch (through North Data) and WKO Firmen A-Z for each of the 18 vendors by brand name; “Not checked” means no Austrian entity was found under that name. Entities are linked to a vendor by name unless its own document names them.

All checked 2026-10-07. Remote, Deel and G-P quote Austria-specific prices; for the rest the figure is a global list price or none.

Nine of the 18 do not say whether an Austrian entity of their own or a partner employs your hire, and one says it uses a partner it does not name. Six providers show the leasing Gewerbe in the WKO listing; Safeguard’s is limited to salaried employees, so ask it about blue-collar roles. Multiplier’s Gewerbe was not found, which reflects the limit of our search. Deel’s Gewerbe is dated 2026-06-19, and which entity Deel used before that is not established. Justworks, with a Firmenbuch entity but no confirmed Austrian EOR launch, is not listed.

Before signing, ask: “Which Austrian company employs my hire, what is its GISA number for Überlassung von Arbeitskräften, and, if my company is outside the EEA, does it hold a §16 AÜG permit?”

How to choose an EOR in Austria

Is your company seated outside the EEA? Then the §16 permit question applies to you, as the WKO and Dorda read the VwGH ruling. We did not establish which providers hold such a permit, so ask for it in writing; the fine on your side is EUR 1,000-5,000 if the leasing turns out to be inadmissible.

Do you want the licence evidenced by a public listing? Remote, Deel, G-P, Pebl and Rippling show the Gewerbe in the WKO listing; Deel’s and Rippling’s dates are recent (2026-06-19 and 2025-10-17), so ask which entity employed earlier hires.

Weighing price against evidence? Three vendors quote an Austria-specific price: Deel and G-P from $599 a month, Remote $699. Skuad, RemoFirst and Boundless list from $199 globally and show no Austrian entity.

Is the hire a non-EU national or a senior role? The official pages do not say whether an EOR can sponsor a Rot-Weiß-Rot-Karte or Blue Card, so ask before committing. Oyster says only that it “can support right-to-work compliance checks”, and RemoFirst lists C-level executives and solicitors as restricted roles under its Austrian EOR model (remofirst.com, checked 2026-10-07).

What it costs to employ someone in Austria through an EOR

Statutory employer costs come to about 29.9% of gross at both salary levels below, with Vienna as the reference location. Basis: employer add-ons only, with no EOR fee, sick pay, leave or severance cost; pay in 14 equal instalments (12 monthly and 2 special payments), a salaried employee under 60, and nothing capped at these salaries.

Source: computed from the rates in the employer contributions table above (wifo.ac.at, checked 2026-10-07). The salary is paid as 12 x 3,214.29 plus 2 x 3,214.29 (EUR 45,000) or 12 x 6,428.57 plus 2 x 6,428.57 (EUR 90,000). Abfertigung neu is applied for all 12 months, although the first month is exempt, and the Kommunalsteuer allowance for small payrolls is not applied because an EOR has a large one. At EUR 1 = $1.1269 (ECB, 2026-10-06) the salaries are about $50.7k and $101.4k. Employer costs for the same EUR 45,000 salary in Vienna stood at EUR 13,589.86 in 2021 and EUR 13,474.79 in 2026, a change under 1%.

The EOR’s own fee is on top. Published prices run from $199 to $699 per employee per month. Austria-specific figures: Remote $699, Deel from $599 (management fee) and G-P from $599 (flat). Global list prices: Skuad and RemoFirst from $199, Boundless from EUR 175 or $199, Pebl $399, Playroll from $399, Multiplier Core $459, Borderless AI $579, Atlas HXM from $599, Rivermate $319-$639. Safeguard Global, Rippling and Native Teams publish none, and Oyster’s and Papaya Global’s could not be confirmed. Atlas HXM’s and Remote People’s Austria pages cite $299-$699 and $300-$600 as typical market ranges, which are not their own quotes.

Vendors’ own estimates of the employer-cost layer are close to ours: Deel puts it at 30.37% of salary, Playroll about 29.6%, and Oyster 29-31% (their Austria pages, checked 2026-10-07).

Hidden costs. No vendor publishes an Austria-specific setup fee, deposit or minimum term. Oyster says it charges no termination fee when an Austrian employment ends (oysterhr.com, checked 2026-10-07); Borderless AI says globally it requires no salary pre-funding; Multiplier lists an “implementation fee as applicable” with no amount. The sick-pay cost is not in the figures above.

When you don’t need an EOR

• A genuinely independent contractor. See how to pay contractors in Austria and our hiring guide. The label does not protect you: under §4 AÜG, leasing exists where workers make no distinguishable product, do not mainly use the contractor’s tools, are integrated in the client’s organisation under its supervision, or the contractor is not liable for success (ris.bka.gv.at, checked 2026-10-07).
• Your own Austrian entity. The alternative to the leasing structure, and the route if your company is outside the EEA and no provider can show a §16 permit.
• A PEO. Co-employment alongside an entity you already have, rather than an EOR as sole employer; see the PEO glossary entry and EOR vs PEO. Pebl’s Austria page calls its service “PEO” while saying it becomes your Employer of Record.

What changed in 2026

• 2026-01-01: the social insurance ceiling rises to EUR 6,930 a month (from EUR 6,450), and the annual ceiling on special payments to EUR 13,860 (from EUR 12,900).
• 2026-01-01: Vienna raises the employer share of the housing subsidy from 0.5% to 0.75%, adding 0.25 percentage points to employer labour costs there.
• 2026-01-01: KV Arbeitskräfteüberlassung wages rise 2.30%; groups A and B reach EUR 13.90 an hour.
• 2026-01-01: Rot-Weiß-Rot-Karte pay threshold for key workers is EUR 3,465 gross a month plus special payments; EU Blue Card EUR 55,678 a year.
• 2026-01-01: DB (3.70%), Kommunalsteuer (3.00%), Abfertigung neu (1.53%) and the IESG surcharge (0.10%) are unchanged.
• 2025-04-29: the VwGH ruling on remote work for third-country companies, which the WKO explained on 2025-10-03. It predates 2026 but is the key legal development for EORs.
• 2027-01-01 (announced): the IESG surcharge is expected to rise in 2027 or 2028, with no rate set (Rechnungshof, 2026-09-04); reliefs for employees over 60 are to be phased out.
• 2028-01-01 (planned): the DB falls by 1 percentage point to 2.7%, partly offset by reintroducing it for employees over 60.

Source: usp.gv.at, forvismazars.com, wko.at, migration.gv.at, wifo.ac.at, rechnungshof.gv.at, checked 2026-10-07.

Numbers vendors haven’t updated

• Boundless gives a minimum salary of “EUR 1,776/month” in its Austria guide. Austria has no statutory minimum wage; floors come from collective agreements, and most set at least EUR 1,700 gross a month paid 14 times a year (sozialministerium.gv.at, checked 2026-10-07).

How we built this page

Data was collected and checked on 2026-10-07 against Austrian primary sources (ris.bka.gv.at, the Sozialministerium, migration.gv.at and WKO) and WIFO for employer costs, plus law-firm commentary for the AÜG picture. Vendor entities were checked in the Firmenbuch through North Data and in the WKO Firmen A-Z listing, which shows the trade licence data from GISA; we did not query GISA directly, and a missing record does not prove a missing licence. Registry records are matched to vendors by name unless the vendor’s own document names the entity. The order puts providers with an own Austrian entity first, then a partner, then those that do not say. Nobody pays for placement on this page.