Employer of Record in Ecuador: 13 Providers Compared (2026)

Employing someone in Ecuador: key facts

Ecuador is dollarised, so every amount is in US dollars. SBU is the salario básico unificado, the national minimum wage. Official Ecuadorian sites did not open from our network; the Código del Trabajo was read in reproductions.

Minimum wage

One national rate. Sectoral scales (tablas sectoriales) are set separately above it; we did not look up the IT or office scale.

Employer contributions

Employer rates on monthly remuneration for private-sector employees; the employee pays 9.45% on top.

• The IESS 11.15% splits into pensions 0.10, health 9.06, work risk 0.20, unemployment 1.00, campesino insurance 0.35 and administration 0.44.
• IESS, IECE and SECAP total 12.15%, paid through the monthly IESS return. The 13th and 14th salaries are outside the IESS base.
• We did not open the statute behind IECE and SECAP; two 2026 bills would redirect the SECAP half, and none had taken effect.

Working hours and overtime

• Maximum 8 hours a day and 40 a week (art. 47) (Código del Trabajo, checked 2026-10-26).
• Overtime only by written agreement with labour-inspector authorisation, at most 4 hours a day and 12 a week (art. 55): plus 50% up to 24:00, plus 100% from 24:00 to 06:00 and on weekends.
• Two 2026 ministerial agreements (MDT-2026-046, MDT-2026-059) on special shifts let the 40 hours be spread over longer days; their legal status is disputed.

Annual leave and public holidays

• 15 uninterrupted days a year, non-working days included (art. 69). After more than five years with the same employer, one extra day per further year, up to 15 extra (art. 70).
• 11 statutory rest days a year besides weekends (art. 65): 1 January, Good Friday, 1 May, 24 May, 10 August, 9 October, 2 and 3 November, 25 December, and Carnival Monday and Tuesday. Some move to a Monday or Friday; local holidays apply in addition (Código del Trabajo, checked 2026-10-26).

Probation

• Up to 90 days, only in an indefinite-term contract signed for the first time between the parties; either side may end it freely (art. 15).
• At most 15% of an employer’s workforce may be on probation at once.
• The indefinite-term contract is the standard form (art. 14); fixed-term forms are limited to defined cases (Código del Trabajo, checked 2026-10-26).

Notice and severance

• No notice period for an employer-initiated dismissal. The employer can end the contract for listed causes only after a visto bueno (labour-authority approval, art. 172), by mutual agreement, or by dismissing without cause and paying the indemnity.
• Dismissal without cause (art. 188): up to three years of service, three months of remuneration; over three years, one month per year, capped at 25 months. A fraction of a year counts as a full year.
• Desahucio bonus (art. 185): 25% of the last monthly remuneration per year of service, when the contract ends by the worker’s notice or by agreement. The worker’s resignation needs 15 days’ written notice (art. 184).
• Employer-paid retirement pension (jubilación patronal) after 25 years of service (art. 216) (Código del Trabajo, checked 2026-10-26).

13th salary and bonuses

Two extra salaries are mandatory.

Mandatory benefits

• IESS affiliation from day one: pensions, health, work risk, unemployment.
• Fondo de reserva after the first year (art. 196), paid monthly with the salary or deposited at IESS on request.
• Profit sharing: 15% of the employer’s net profit (art. 97); an employer with no profit owes nothing.
• Maternity leave 12 weeks on full pay, plus 10 days for multiple births (art. 152) (Código del Trabajo, checked 2026-10-26).

Work permits

• A foreigner needs a residence visa that allows paid work: temporary residence for dependent work, valid two years (Reglamento de la Ley Orgánica de Movilidad Humana, art. 62).
• Requirements: proof of lawful means of support, an employment contract, its registration certificate from the labour ministry, and an employer certificate of no pending obligations with the SRI, the IESS and the Superintendencia de Compañías; filed through e-VISAS (gob.ec, checked 2026-10-26; read through a search excerpt, as the page did not open).
• The employer is a company registered in Ecuador, so a foreign client without an Ecuadorian entity cannot issue that contract. Whether an EOR entity can act as sponsor is not stated.

Currency and payroll

US dollar. Salaries are paid at least monthly, wages weekly (art. 83) (Código del Trabajo, checked 2026-10-26).

Is Employer of Record legal in Ecuador?

Grey area. Ecuador has no EOR statute and no EOR licence, and we found no authority or court text on EOR. Whether an EOR that employs a worker in its own Ecuadorian entity, while a foreign client directs the work, counts as prohibited intermediation is untested. Our position is an inference from the texts, not from any ruling. See the Employer of Record glossary entry.

The rules that matter to a client (Código del Trabajo, Andina ed., checked 2026-10-26):

• Mandato Constituyente 8 (Registro Oficial Suplemento 330, 2008-05-06) eliminates and prohibits outsourcing and labour intermediation in the activities of the company.
• Decreto Ejecutivo 1121, art. 1 (2008-06-05): the provider and the user company are each fined 20 SBU per worker, imposed by the regional labour directors. At the 2026 SBU that is USD 9,640 for each side. The user company must take the worker on “en forma estable e indefinida, bajo una relación laboral bilateral y directa”.
• Decreto 1121, arts. 2-5: the exception is “actividades complementarias” (security, catering, messaging, cleaning), with an authorisation from the regional labour directorates. An EOR or PEO activity is not on the list.
• Código del Trabajo, art. 41: employers interested in the same enterprise are jointly liable for every obligation to the worker.

Risks the client carries:

• The fine: USD 9,640 per worker at the 2026 SBU, on the user company separately from the provider.
• Treated as the direct employer, with severance under art. 188 and the desahucio bonus from the start of service. How this works for a client with no Ecuadorian presence is not addressed by any source we found.
• Joint liability for the worker’s claims under art. 41.
• No authority either way. A Constitutional Court ruling quoted in search results says only that Mandato 8 does not oblige permanent hiring of previously outsourced workers.

See also co-employment.

Who actually employs your hire in Ecuador

We read the vendor pages of the 13 providers that operate in Ecuador. The Superintendencia de Compañías and the SRI could not be searched by name, so no vendor entity was checked in an Ecuadorian registry.

All checked 2026-10-26. “Own entity” rests on the vendor’s own statement, not on a registry record. Prices marked global are site-wide list prices, not Ecuadorian ones. Oyster, Papaya Global, Rippling, Native Teams, RemotePass, Rise, Kleos, Remozo, Boundless and Justworks are not in the table: we could not confirm that they offer EOR in Ecuador.

Eleven of the 13 don’t name the Ecuadorian company that employs, Deel included. In a grey area your exposure runs through the employer on the contract. Before signing, ask: “Which Ecuadorian company signs my employee’s contract, what is its RUC, and how do you structure a permanent placement under Mandato 8 and Decreto 1121?”

How to choose an EOR in Ecuador

Want to know the employer’s name? Remote says it owns its Ecuadorian entity but names none; confirm the company yourself. Rivermate says it works through local partners and doesn’t name them. Ask any provider for the company name and RUC.

Need a work permit for a foreign hire? The official visa route needs a contract registered with the labour ministry and the employer’s no-debt certificates from the SRI, IESS and Superintendencia de Compañías, and no source says an EOR entity can be that sponsor. Ask in writing who would apply.

Expecting a permanent hire? Decreto 1121 lets the user company be treated as the direct, indefinite-term employer, and the only permitted outsourcing is a closed list of complementary activities. A permanent placement rests on the grey-area reading above; ask how it is structured, or weigh your own Ecuadorian company.

Price against completeness? Three vendors show a price on an Ecuadorian page: Skuad $549, Deel and Atlas $599. Global list prices run from $199 (RemoFirst) to $599 (Remote); four vendors publish none. Compare price after you know who employs.

What it costs to employ someone in Ecuador through an EOR

The employer is the EOR itself, a large payroll employer. Gross pay is USD 50,000 and USD 100,000 a year (USD 4,166.67 and USD 8,333.33 a month) in 12 monthly salaries, with the 13th salary paid on top as one extra month. Ecuador is dollarised, so there is no conversion (Código del Trabajo, Andina ed., checked 2026-10-26). The figures are a steady state for a worker in a second year or later; in the first year the fondo de reserva is not owed, so the cost is lower by that amount (USD 4,166.67 and USD 8,333.33).

Why the higher salary costs a lower share. The 14th salary is a flat one SBU (USD 482), and every other component scales with pay. Doubling the pay raises the statutory cost by about 97%, not 100%. Social contributions alone are 12.15% of gross at both salaries; we found no cap on the contribution base.

Not included: profit sharing (15% of the employer’s profit), paid vacation, severance and other termination costs, and the EOR fee. No small-employer exemption was applied.

The EOR’s own fee comes on top, quoted per month. Three vendors show a price on an Ecuadorian page: Skuad $549 in its price widget (struck-out $649; the page also shows $499 billed monthly with a 12-month commitment, and the wording is ambiguous), Deel from $599 as a management fee and Atlas $599 as a platform fee in its Ecuador blog. Global list prices, where no Ecuadorian figure exists, run from $199 (RemoFirst) to $599 (Remote). Remote People’s page uses a $400 fee in its worked example. Playroll, Safeguard Global, G-P and Pebl publish none.

Hidden costs, where published:

• Deel’s Ecuador page lists a one-time “Wet Ink Employment Agreement Handling Fee” of USD 80 and an administrative “Employer Liability Cost” of 0.60% (deel.com, checked 2026-10-26).
• For every provider, deposit, minimum term and termination fee are not published for Ecuador. Treat a blank as unpublished, not zero.

When you don’t need an EOR

• A genuinely independent contractor. If the person sets their own hours and tools and can serve other clients, a contract is closer to the real relationship. See how to pay contractors in Ecuador, our hiring guide and contractor misclassification. A foreigner working as a self-employed professional uses a separate visa route, described on its own gob.ec page (checked 2026-10-26).
• Your own Ecuadorian company. The route to weigh for a permanent team, because Decreto 1121 limits outsourcing to complementary activities. Multiplier’s Ecuador page puts incorporation at up to 23 weeks and the minimum capital at USD 400 for an LLC and USD 800 for a corporation; those are vendor figures that we did not check against the Superintendencia de Compañías (usemultiplier.com, checked 2026-10-26).
• PEO. We found no source on how a PEO is treated in Ecuador; the intermediation rules above are the starting point. See the PEO glossary entry and EOR vs PEO.

What changed in 2026

• 2026-01-01: SBU rises to USD 482 from USD 470 (Acuerdo MDT-2025-195, Registro Oficial Suplemento 187, 2025-12-18). The 14th salary for 2026 is USD 482 (Código del Trabajo, checked 2026-10-26).
• 2026-01-01: New SRI income-tax table for individuals (Resolución NAC-DGERCGC25-00000043): exempt band raised to USD 12,208 from USD 12,081, ten bands up to 37% above USD 109,956 (NMS, checked 2026-10-26).
• 2026-01-07: The SRI recategorised RIMPE taxpayers, moving about 14,000 “negocio popular” taxpayers to “emprendedor” and about 56,000 emprendedores to the general regime (Vistazo, checked 2026-10-26).
• 2026-01-28: A bill (the second, after one of 2025-11-25) would route the employers’ 0.5% SECAP contribution to SECAP. Status unknown; the 12.15% employer rate had not changed (Primicias, checked 2026-10-26).
• 2026-02-18: Acuerdo Ministerial MDT-2026-046 on special shifts and the distribution of the 40-hour week, with days of up to 10 hours. Its status was contested; a revised text, MDT-2026-059, followed (Primicias, checked 2026-10-26).
• 2026-04-09: Constitutional Court Resolution No. 99 declared an additive unconstitutionality of the second paragraph of art. 46.1 of the Código del Trabajo; we did not read its content (SERCOP copy of the Código, checked 2026-10-26).
• 2026-05-01: A ministry agreement was reported to cut the visto bueno resolution time from 120 to 30 days; a press report only, text not opened (El Diario, checked 2026-10-26).

Numbers vendors haven’t updated

• Minimum wage. The rate in force is USD 482 from 2026-01-01. Multiplier’s page gives USD 475 “updated for 2025”, Playroll’s guide USD 470 “for 2026”, Borderless AI’s page USD 470 effective 2025-01-01, Rivermate’s guide USD 460 “as of 2024” and RemoFirst’s guide USD 425 “for 2022” (usemultiplier.com, playroll.com, hireborderless.com, rivermate.com, remofirst.com, checked 2026-10-26).
• 14th salary. Remote’s Ecuador page still shows USD 400 “for 2020”; the 2026 amount is USD 482 (remote.com, checked 2026-10-26).
• Employer cost. Our statutory figure is 29.78% or 29.30% of gross including the 13th and 14th salaries and the fondo de reserva. Deel’s page estimates 12.75% in the first year and about 21.08% from the second; Playroll’s guide gives 12.15-20.48%. We don’t know what each includes, so the figures are not comparable (deel.com, playroll.com, checked 2026-10-26).
• Income tax. Skuad’s table starts its steps at USD 11,212, while the SRI exempt band for 2026 ends at USD 12,208 (skuad.io, NMS, checked 2026-10-26).

How we built this page

Facts were collected and checked on 2026-10-26 against the Código del Trabajo in two reproductions, the IESS resolution C.D. 501, ministerial agreements and Ecuadorian press and law-firm pages; the official government sites did not open from our network, so a later amendment, such as the reform listed by SERCOP on 2026-04-09, may not be reflected. Employers were checked against vendor pages only: the Superintendencia de Compañías and the SRI could not be searched by name, so no vendor entity was verified in an Ecuadorian registry. Vendors are ordered with own-entity statements first, then partners, then those that do not disclose; no vendor pays for placement.