Employer of Record in Equatorial Guinea: 5 Providers Compared (2026)

Employing someone in Equatorial Guinea: key facts

One national Labour Law (Ley 4/2021, text of 2022-01-31) applies. Ley 6/2026 of April 2026 amends it; we could not read the amending text.

Minimum wage

• Labour Law art. 86 says the Government sets the interprofessional minimum wage (SMI) by decree.
• We found no decree text and secondary sources conflict, so we give no figure.

Sources: Ley 4/2021, COMIFAC copy; WageIndicator; checked 2026-11-04.

Employer contributions

Source: PwC Tax Summaries, last reviewed 2025-11-21, checked 2026-11-04. The employee 5% matches the cap in art. 89(3). No official text with the INSESO rates was found and sources disagree on where the employer 1% goes.

Working hours and overtime

Source: Ley 4/2021, COMIFAC copy, checked 2026-11-04.

Annual leave and public holidays

• 30 days of paid leave per year of uninterrupted work (art. 83), in at most two periods a year. The passage we read doesn’t say whether these are calendar or working days.
• Special paid leave: 10 days for marriage, 7 for the death of a close relative (art. 81).
• Public holidays: national and local holidays are rest days and work on them pays +50% (arts. 79 and 80). We didn’t find the holidays decree, so we give no list.

Source: Ley 4/2021, COMIFAC copy, checked 2026-11-04.

Probation

Either party may end the contract during probation without indemnity. Source: Ley 4/2021, COMIFAC copy, art. 8, checked 2026-11-04.

Notice and severance

• Notice: written, one week after one month of work, or twenty days after six months or more (art. 110(1)).
• Pay in lieu: one week of pay (contracts under six months) or twenty days (longer); no notice for a justified cause under art. 106 (art. 110(2)-(3)).
• Seniority benefit (antiguedad): 45 days of salary per year of service, or a proportional amount per fraction of a month, on expiry of the contract for any cause; recalculated on the last salary and not taxed (art. 112 of the 2022 text).
• Ley 6/2026 is reported by one vendor guide to have changed this: 30 days per year on retirement or justified resignation, 45 days per year where an unjustified dismissal is not reversed. The amending text wasn’t found, so the current rule for other terminations is not confirmed.

Sources: Ley 4/2021, COMIFAC copy; Teamed for Ley 6/2026; checked 2026-11-04.

13th salary and bonuses

• There is no 13th month by name. Art. 100 requires two annual bonuses of 15 days of salary each: one paid at least 5 days before 12 October, one by 20 December, for each effective year of service.
• Together about one extra month a year (8.3% on top of 12 months’ pay).
• Whether the bonuses fall inside the INSESO and tax base isn’t stated in the sources we read.

Source: Ley 4/2021, COMIFAC copy, checked 2026-11-04.

Mandatory benefits

• Sick leave: the employer pays the first 3 days, then Social Security (art. 81(1)).
• Maternity: 6 weeks before and 6 weeks after birth; paternity: 7 paid days within 15 days of birth (art. 81).

Source: Ley 4/2021, COMIFAC copy, checked 2026-11-04. Who pays maternity pay is not confirmed.

Work permits

• A foreign national needs a work authorisation from the Ministry of Labour (per Teamed, citing Ley Organica 3/2010) and a residence permit.
• The Spanish Embassy in Malabo says the procedures can be slow and costly.
• We found no official source on permit types, fees or whether an EOR can sponsor a permit.

Sources: Spanish Foreign Ministry, read as a search excerpt; Teamed; checked 2026-11-04.

Currency and payroll

• Payroll runs in the Central African CFA franc (XAF), pegged at 1 EUR = 655.957 XAF. The ECB reference rate of 2026-11-03 gives about 1 USD = 586.78 XAF (ECB, checked 2026-11-04).
• Wages are paid at intervals of at most one month (art. 91), by cheque or bank transfer (art. 88); final settlement on termination is due within one month.
• The employer withholds the wages tax (ISS) monthly and pays it by the 15th of the following month, per Teamed’s reading of Ley 1/2024.

Articles: Ley 4/2021, COMIFAC copy, checked 2026-11-04.

Is Employer of Record legal in Equatorial Guinea?

Restricted. Equatorial Guinea has no EOR statute. The Labour Law bans illegal assignment and lets only a licensed temporary work agency (ETT) place its own workers with a client. No authority statement, court case or law-firm opinion on EOR was found, so this verdict rests on the statutes (Ley 4/2021 and Ley 5/1999, checked 2026-11-04).

• Illegal assignment is banned. It occurs when an employer that is not a temporary work agency hires a worker exclusively to work for another employer (Ley 4/2021 art. 16(1)-(2)).
• Consequence. The worker may choose to become a permanent employee of the assigning or the receiving company, with seniority from the start of the assignment (art. 16(3)).
• What an agency may do. An ETT hires workers in its own name and places them with a user for up to six months, only for a specific job or service, to replace workers with a job reservation, or for circumstantial market needs. If the worker keeps working for the user after six months, the worker is treated as employed by the user on an open-ended contract (Ley 4/2021 art. 13(4); Ley 5/1999 arts. 7 and 10).
• Conditions for authorisation. The agency’s capital must be national, it must do this activity exclusively, be up to date on taxes and social security, and lodge a guarantee fund of XAF 10,000,000 in a national commercial bank (Ley 5/1999 arts. 2-3).
• Fines. Under Ley 5/1999 art. 28, minor infractions carry XAF 100,000-500,000, serious ones XAF 500,000-1,500,000 and very serious ones XAF 1,500,000-2,500,000; operating without prior authorisation is a serious infraction. Amounts as published in 1999.

What this means for a client. A placement through a non-licensed intermediary falls under the ban, and the worker can choose to become your permanent employee. Even with a licensed agency, a placement kept beyond six months becomes an open-ended contract with you, and as user you are subsidiarily liable for wage and social-security obligations during the placement. If you were treated as the employer, the seniority benefit of 45 days per year would be payable on termination under the 2022 text. We didn’t check whether Ley 5/1999 was amended after 1999.

Who actually employs your hire in Equatorial Guinea

Of the 23 providers we checked, five show an EOR page for Equatorial Guinea. Remote and Oyster list only contractor products for the country; the other 16 show no country page confirming EOR coverage. The commercial registry (Registro Mercantil) has no open name search, so none of the five was checked there. All entries below are checked 2026-11-04.

No provider names the company that would employ your hire: two describe a local partner, three say nothing about the entity. That matters here because the Labour Law ties placement to a licensed ETT with national capital, so the legal basis comes first. Before signing, ask: “Which company will employ my hire in Equatorial Guinea, does it hold authorisation as a temporary work agency under Ley 5/1999, and can I see the placement contract?”

How to choose an EOR in Equatorial Guinea

Is the role temporary? A placement of six months or less for a specific job, a replacement or a market need is what Ley 5/1999 provides for. Ask for the provider’s authorisation and the written placement contract. For a permanent role, no provider in our data shows a route that fits the Law; your own Equatorial Guinean entity removes the question.

Need evidence of who the employer is? None of the five gives it on its public pages. Skuad and Rivermate point to a local partner: ask for its name and whether it meets the ETT conditions, including national capital.

Weighing price against data? Only Playroll publishes a country price, from $399 per employee a month, billed separately. Skuad starts at $199 and Rivermate at $349, both global, and Remote People at $499 globally; G-P publishes none. Vendor-stated timelines: 7 to 12 business days at Playroll, about 9 to 13 days at Remote People.

Hiring a foreign national? The Ministry of Labour authorisation and a residence permit are both needed, and no official source we read says an EOR can sponsor them. Skuad’s page says its local partner can sponsor work visas (8 to 9 days, one-year Employment Pass). Treat that as a vendor statement and ask who files.

What it costs to employ someone in Equatorial Guinea through an EOR

The EOR is the legal employer, so neither salary below gets small-employer relief. Both examples are 12 monthly payments of base pay. XAF 29.3 million is about USD 49,935 and XAF 58.7 million about USD 100,038 at 1 USD = 586.78 XAF (cross rate from the ECB reference rate of 2026-11-03).

Total employer cost is XAF 35,892,500 and XAF 71,907,500 respectively, before the items below.

Not counted:

• The two mandatory annual bonuses (art. 100) add one twelfth of annual base pay: XAF 2,441,667 and XAF 4,891,667. It isn’t confirmed whether they carry INSESO and fund contributions; if they do, add 22.5% of those amounts.
• The seniority benefit of 45 days per year of service accrues on termination (art. 112): 12.3% of annual base pay for each year of service.
• Paid leave, sick pay and the EOR fee.

The EOR’s own fee is on top, quoted per employee per month. Only Playroll publishes an Equatorial Guinea price: from $399 on its country page, billed separately from payroll. The others show global “from” prices: $199 at Skuad (a 12-month commitment applies to the discounted rate), $349 at Rivermate and $499 at Remote People. G-P publishes none. Global prices aren’t country quotes, so ask for one.

Hidden costs: no provider in our data publishes a setup fee, deposit or termination fee for Equatorial Guinea, and only Skuad mentions a minimum term. Treat blanks as unpublished, not zero.

When you don’t need an EOR

• A genuinely independent contractor. If the person runs their own work rather than working under your direction, see how to pay contractors in Equatorial Guinea and our hiring guide; for the risk of getting the label wrong, see contractor misclassification. We found no source on the tax regime for an individual freelancer invoicing a foreign client.
• A temporary need. For up to six months, the Law’s route is a licensed temporary work agency. Our data records no EOR vendor stating that it holds this authorisation, so ask for it.
• Your own Equatorial Guinean entity. For a long-term hire, this avoids depending on the temporary-work rules. Our data has no cost for setting one up.
• PEO. A PEO co-employs alongside a client that has its own local entity, and no provider here offers one for the country in our data. See EOR vs PEO and co-employment.

What changed in 2026

• 2026-01-01 — First full tax year under the General Tax Law (Ley 1/2024, enforced from 2025-01-01): personal income tax is now the Tax on Salaries and Wages (ISS), the exempt limit rose from XAF 1,000,000 to 1,400,000, the top rate fell from 35% to 25% and the 20% professional-expenses deduction was repealed. No separate 2026 change to the scale was found (PwC, checked 2026-11-04).
• 2026-01-01 — No change to INSESO or Work Protection Fund rates found for 2026; Ley 5/2026 (social protection system) doesn’t set INSESO rates, per Teamed, checked 2026-11-04.
• 2026-02-28 — A commercial blog reports that the Council of Ministers approved a study of labour-law amendments, and that the 2021 text stays in force until amendments are published in the official gazette. Possibly the origin of Ley 6/2026; not confirmed (finiquitojusto.com, checked 2026-11-04).
• 2026-04-10 — Ley 6/2026 amends the General Labour Law. It is reported by one vendor guide to add a teleworking article and to change the seniority benefit and dismissal compensation (30 days per year on retirement or justified resignation; 45 days where an unjustified dismissal is not reversed). The amending text wasn’t found (Teamed, checked 2026-11-04).

Numbers vendors haven’t updated

• Remote People states a minimum wage of about $230 a month (XAF 129,035) and three annual bonuses of about 16.7% in total. We found no decree text for the minimum wage, so we can’t confirm the figure. Labour Law art. 100 provides two bonuses of 15 days each, about 8.3% (checked 2026-11-04).
• Rivermate’s global price is $349 a month, while the mirror of its country page shows “Only 399 EUR” and a search excerpt of the main page showed another figure. We use the global price and don’t treat any as an Equatorial Guinea quote.
• Playroll’s country page says 7 to 12 business days in its text and “1-5 Days” in its stats block, and its disclaimer says the page doesn’t reflect product delivery in any given jurisdiction.

How we built this page

Facts were collected and checked on 2026-11-04 against the Labour Law (Ley 4/2021), Ley 5/1999, PwC Tax Summaries and secondary guides where primary text wasn’t open; each rests on the source linked beside it. Equatorial Guinea’s commercial registry has no open name search, so vendor entity claims are recorded as the vendors state them. No provider has a confirmed own entity here, so the order puts providers that describe a local partner first, then the rest by published price and completeness of data. Nobody pays for placement on this page.