Employer of Record in Georgia (the Country): 13 Providers Compared (2026)

Employing someone in Georgia (the country): key facts

Georgia has one employer contribution and no working minimum wage. The Labour Code text was read in English on matsne.gov.ge; fees, quotas and permit terms for foreign staff rest on law-firm summaries because we didn’t read the Government resolution.

Minimum wage

• The GEL 20 figure is unchanged in nominal terms since 1999. We read the decree’s registry page, not its consolidated text, so the amount comes from the FES study.
• An opposition bill to set the minimum above GEL 1,050 was filed on 2026-04-01 and rejected by the ruling party (Georgia Today, checked 2026-10-07).
• Pay is whatever the contract sets (art. 41(2)); with a flat GEL 20 since 1999 we skipped a history chart.

Employer contributions

The employer pays one statutory contribution, the funded pension, on taxable salary. Total employer on-cost for a citizen or permanent resident is 2% of gross pay.

• Who is covered: Georgian citizens and foreigners or stateless persons with a permanent residence permit. An expatriate without permanent residence is outside the scheme, so no employer 2% is due.
• Not found: an employer social tax, health levy, or unemployment or work-injury premium. Employer-paid sick pay and work-injury cover weren’t found in the Labour Code either, and aren’t quantified here.

Working hours and overtime

• Standard working time is at most 40 hours a week; up to 48 in listed industries (art. 24(2)-(3)). Rest: 12 hours daily and 24 hours uninterrupted weekly (art. 24(4), (7)).
• Overtime is by agreement and paid at an increased hourly rate; the Code gives no fixed multiplier (art. 27(2)). Time off may be agreed instead, within 4 weeks (art. 27(3)).
• Work on a public holiday counts as overtime (art. 30(4)) (matsne.gov.ge, checked 2026-10-07).

Annual leave and public holidays

• At least 24 working days of paid leave a year, 15 working days of unpaid leave, and 10 extra calendar days for arduous, harmful or hazardous work (art. 31(1)-(3)). The right to request leave arises after 11 months (art. 32(1)); unused leave is paid out pro rata on dismissal at the employer’s initiative (art. 31(5)).
• Public holidays: art. 30(1) lists 18 calendar days, counting the four Easter days, before weekend overlap; the Government may add days off by ordinance (art. 30(3)) (matsne.gov.ge, checked 2026-10-07).

Probation

• A trial-period agreement may be made once with a person, in writing, for up to 6 months (art. 17(1)).
• The employer may end it at any time; the art. 48 notice and severance rules don’t apply unless the agreement says so (art. 17(3)-(4)). Work in the period is paid pro rata (matsne.gov.ge, checked 2026-10-07).

Notice and severance

• Written reasons are due within 7 days of a request; the employee has 30 days to sue, and the burden of proof then moves to the employer (art. 48(4)-(7)).
• If a court voids the dismissal: reinstatement, an equal job or court-set compensation, plus lost earnings up to the final judgment (art. 48(8)-(9)).
• Misconduct grounds carry no notice or severance duty in art. 48; we didn’t analyse them further.

13th salary and bonuses

• Not mandatory: the Labour Code has no 13th-salary or statutory bonus provision, and pay is whatever the contract sets (matsne.gov.ge, checked 2026-10-07).

Mandatory benefits

• We found no statutory employer-funded health, life or private pension insurance.
• Sick leave can suspend the labour relationship for up to 40 consecutive or 60 total calendar days in 6 months (art. 46(2)(i)); during suspension the employee isn’t paid unless the law or contract says so (art. 46(4)). We haven’t read the state sickness benefit.
• Maternity leave is 126 calendar days (143 for complications or twins), parental leave 604 days of which 57 are paid, newborn-adoption leave 550 days of which 90 are paid; the paid parts come from the State budget (art. 37-39) (matsne.gov.ge, checked 2026-10-07).

Work permits

• A foreigner without permanent residence needs the right to work, tied to one employer and one position, plus a D1 visa or work residence permit, before working for a Georgian employer.
• The applicant is the local employer: a legal entity registered in Georgia, an individual entrepreneur or a registered representation of a foreign organisation (Law on Labour Migration art. 3(c1), 13^4(1)). A Georgian EOR entity can be that applicant; a foreign client with no Georgian entity cannot.
• The regime applies from 2026-03-01 (Law No 862 of 2025-06-26; Government Resolution No 70 of 2026-02-20). The contract with a labour immigrant must be fixed-term and written (art. 13^2(2)).
• Per law-firm summaries: a decision within 30 calendar days, or 10 working days expedited; state fee GEL 200, or GEL 400 expedited (the law caps the fee at GEL 500) (Andersen, Frontnews, checked 2026-10-07).
• Exempt under art. 1(4): fully remote work for a local employer with no entry into Georgia, services for a non-resident related to activity outside Georgia, permanent-residence or investment-permit holders, and short-term professional activity of up to 4 months a calendar year (matsne.gov.ge, checked 2026-10-07).

Currency and payroll

• Georgian lari (GEL). 1 USD = 2.6025 GEL (National Bank of Georgia, 2026-10-07).
• Pay at least once a month (art. 41(3)); late payment accrues 0.07% of the delayed sum per day (art. 41(4)) (matsne.gov.ge, checked 2026-10-07).

Is Employer of Record legal in Georgia?

Grey area. Georgian law has no category for an employer of record, no regime for temporary agency work or labour leasing, and no licence for domestic staffing companies. An EOR can employ locally under ordinary employment law, but nothing recognises the split between the legal employer and the client who supervises the work. We found no Georgian law-firm, Big Four or regulator commentary on EOR. Our checks of the Labour Code and the Law on Employment Promotion were keyword and heading scans, so we say we found no provision, not that none exists.

• Employer definition. The Code defines the employer as “a natural or a legal person, or an association of persons, for whom certain work is being performed under a labour agreement” (art. 3(2)). We found no article on temporary agency work, secondment to a user company, hiring-out or co-employment, and no licence or registration for employers (matsne.gov.ge, checked 2026-10-07).
• Private employment agencies. The Law on Employment Promotion says employment promotion is carried out by the State and, “in the established manner”, by the private sector (art. 46(1)). We found no licence or registration of private recruitment or staffing agencies (matsne.gov.ge, checked 2026-10-07).
• Intermediary register. The registration regime in the Law on Labour Migration covers companies that find work outside Georgia for Georgian citizens and permanent residents (art. 3(a1), 7). It doesn’t cover hiring people to work in Georgia (matsne.gov.ge, checked 2026-10-07). That a Georgian EOR employing residents who work for a foreign client is outside it is our inference from the text; nobody addresses it.
• Foreign staff. The local employer applies for the right to work, and the labour immigrant’s contract must be fixed-term. The Code deems a contract of more than 30 months, or consecutive fixed-term contracts totalling more than 30 months, open-ended (art. 12(4)). How the two rules fit a long-term EOR hire of a foreigner isn’t addressed.
• Law-firm view. A Tbilisi firm, Gegidze, describes an EOR as a local company that employs your workers on paper and warns that the Revenue Service can reclassify the arrangement; we read the page through a summarising fetch, and it cites no article (Gegidze, checked 2026-10-07).

Risks for you as the client:

• Reclassification and tax. If the substance is control by the client, the tax authority can treat the worker as the client’s own employee and assess back taxes; the EOR contract doesn’t bind it. Georgian-source income is taxed at a flat 20%. Whether the client creates a taxable presence through the worker wasn’t researched (Gegidze, checked 2026-10-07).
• Work-permit exposure. An employer that engages a labour immigrant without the right to work is fined by VAT-turnover band, from GEL 1,000 for a non-VAT employer (art. 16^1-16^2); law firms report GEL 2,000 per offence and up to GEL 12,000 for repeat offences (matsne.gov.ge, Frontnews, checked 2026-10-07). We didn’t match those figures to an article.
• Quota. An employer with more than five foreign hires a year, or foreign workers above 5% of staff, needs an annual quota approved at least 10 working days before applying, and must show annual turnover of GEL 50,000 per foreign worker (GEL 35,000 for schools and medical institutions). An EOR with many foreign hires would meet this; whether the test counts EOR service revenue isn’t known (Andersen, KPMG, checked 2026-10-07).
• Termination cost. Dismissal for objective circumstances needs written reasons (art. 47(3)), the notice and severance above, and a court can order reinstatement with lost earnings. The EOR is the legal employer; it passes this cost to you under its contract.
• Pension. Late or missing employer pension contributions are fined by the Pension Fund and carry a “lost benefit” payable to the participant (Law on Funded Pension art. 6, 37-37^3); we didn’t read the amounts (matsne.gov.ge, checked 2026-10-07).
• Remote work. Law firms disagree. Frontnews and Revera say a permit is needed including for remote work; the law text exempts fully remote work for a local employer with no entry into Georgia (art. 1(4)(j)). Whether a foreigner living in Georgia and employed by a Georgian EOR for a foreign client falls under the exemption for services to a non-resident (art. 1(4)(k)) isn’t settled by anything we found.

Background: Employer of Record, co-employment.

Who actually employs your hire in Georgia

Most vendors describe their entity model globally. Here we separate what a vendor says about Georgia from anything we could verify. The Georgian company register (NAPR) sits behind a captcha and its search was not available to us, so no entity below is checked against the register. A vendor statement shows a claim, not that the entity employs your hire.

Twelve of these 13 providers don’t say which company employs your hire in Georgia, and we couldn’t check any entity against the register. We found no public register of agencies for hiring inside Georgia, so there is nothing to match them against. Before signing, ask: “Which Georgian company, with which registration code, will employ my hire, and will it apply for my hire’s right to work if they are a foreigner?”

How to choose an EOR in Georgia

Is your hire a foreigner who needs a permit? The applicant must be a local employer, and a foreign client with no Georgian entity can’t be one. Ask each vendor for written confirmation that its Georgian entity will apply, how many foreign hires it already carries (the annual quota applies above five a year), and how it handles the fixed-term contract a labour immigrant needs. Rivermate says 30+ days if a work permit is needed (Rivermate, checked 2026-10-07).

Does your hire live in Georgia, or abroad? For someone living abroad and working remotely without entering Georgia, the law text exempts it from the permit regime (art. 1(4)(j)). For a foreigner living in Georgia, law firms disagree. Get the vendor’s position in writing.

Want a named Georgian employer? Remote is the one that says it owns its Georgian entity and has Local Terms naming Remote Georgia LLC; the register wasn’t checked. Boundless says it directly employs the worker without claiming an entity. For the rest, ask for the entity name and code first.

Is price or speed the priority? Deel’s Georgia page shows $599 and says a hire can start in as little as 3 days; Playroll says 1-5 days; Remote People and Safeguard Global say 1-2 weeks. All are vendor claims. Native Teams lists the lowest starting price, $99, and Justworks and Safeguard Global publish none. The 2% pension is the same for every provider.

What it costs to employ someone in Georgia through an EOR

Georgian employer on-cost is one line: the funded pension at 2% of gross pay, with no ceiling in art. 3(6)(a), and only for citizens and permanent residents. The employee’s 2% pension and the 20% income tax are withheld from the employee, and the State’s top-up is paid by the State, so none is an extra cost for the client. The two examples use GEL 130,000 (about USD 49,950) and GEL 260,000 (about USD 99,900) a year at 1 USD = 2.6025 GEL (National Bank of Georgia, 2026-10-07).

Source: matsne.gov.ge, PwC, checked 2026-10-07.

The employer rate was 2% in every year 2021-2026 as far as we could tell, so we’ve skipped a history chart. That rests on the current text of the law and on no reported change to the employer rate: earlier versions weren’t compared year by year (matsne.gov.ge, checked 2026-10-07).

The EOR’s own fee is on top of the above. Per month, Deel’s Georgia page shows a $599 management fee. Everything else is a global list price or absent: Native Teams from $99, Skuad, RemoFirst, Remote People and Boundless from $199, Rivermate $319-639, Playroll from $399, Multiplier Core $459 billed annually, G-P $599, Remote $699. Justworks and Safeguard Global publish none for Georgia.

Hidden costs, where published: Deel’s Georgia page estimates employer cost at 2.60%, made of the 2.0% pension and a 0.60% “Employer Liability Cost” (Deel, checked 2026-10-07). Rivermate says its price “may vary by country, headcount, project, and expat vs local hire” (Rivermate, checked 2026-10-07), and Playroll says “No Minimum Commitments” (Playroll, checked 2026-10-07). No vendor publishes a setup fee, deposit, minimum term or termination fee for Georgia; where a field is blank, treat it as unpublished, not zero. For a foreigner, add the state work-permit fee (GEL 200, or GEL 400 expedited, per law-firm summaries).

Basis: an EOR entity with a large payroll in Tbilisi employing an office or IT employee who is a Georgian citizen, or a foreigner with permanent residence, on an ordinary contract; 2026 rules, GEL. No size-based relief applies.

When you don’t need an EOR

• A genuinely independent contractor. Someone who isn’t under your direction and serves their own clients. See how to pay contractors in Georgia and our hiring guide. Relabelling a directed role as a contract is contractor misclassification; a Tbilisi law firm warns the Revenue Service can reclassify such an arrangement and assess back taxes.
• Your own Georgian entity. The route when you hire several foreigners a year: the annual quota applies above five foreign hires a year or above 5% of staff, and a Georgian employer applies for each right to work. Playroll’s guide puts entity setup at 2-4 weeks (Playroll, checked 2026-10-07). A registered representation of a foreign organisation can also be the applicant (art. 3(c1)); we haven’t researched what registering one involves.
• Direct employment from abroad. We found nothing on employing a Georgian resident directly without an entity, and the permit rules name a local employer as applicant. The tax and permanent establishment position of a foreign client wasn’t researched, so check it with Georgian counsel.

What changed in 2026

• 2026-03-01 - New labour-migration regime starts: the State Employment Support Agency grants the right to work per employer and position, applied for by the local employer after signing a fixed-term contract; a D1 visa or work residence permit follows (Law No 862 of 2025-06-26; Government Resolution No 70 of 2026-02-20). Fee GEL 200 (30 calendar days) or GEL 400 (10 working days) per Andersen and Frontnews.
• 2026-04-01 - An opposition bill to set the minimum wage above GEL 1,050 is filed and rejected by the ruling party; the general figure stays GEL 20 a month.
• 2026-04-15 - Law No 1509 amends the Law on Labour Migration: it adds art. 13^9 on short-term professional activity (no right to work or residence permit) and changes arts. 13^1, 13^6 and the scope in art. 1. Law No 1815 of 2026-06-25 amends art. 1 and art. 15; we didn’t compare its content.
• 2026-05-01 - Self-employed foreigners already working in Georgia were to have applied by this date before enforcement; a single law-firm source (Andersen).
• 2026-07-09 - Amendments to the permit resolution replace the vacancy-posting labour-market test with annual employer quotas (above five foreign hires a year or above 5% of staff, turnover GEL 50,000 per foreign worker). Short-term professional activity of up to 4 months a calendar year registers free of charge, and exemptions widen to remote workers of a Georgian employer who need not enter Georgia, services to non-residents about activity outside Georgia, and senior managers of large companies. Andersen, IBCCS and KPMG agree on the content; the number of the resolution differs (Andersen “No 321”, others “No 70 as amended”), and we didn’t read it.
• 2026-09-16 - Organic Law No 1863 amends the Labour Code. We didn’t read the amendment and saw no change to hours, leave, termination or contract rules in the consolidated text.
• 2026-10-15 - A Funded Pension Law amendment takes effect, deleting art. 6 and changing a Pension Fund function; no change to the 2% / 2% / State rates was seen.
• 2027-01-01 - Deadline for foreigners registered as labour immigrants on 2026-03-01 to hold the right to work and a residence permit.

Sources: matsne.gov.ge, matsne.gov.ge Labour Code, matsne.gov.ge pension law, Andersen, Andersen quotas, KPMG, Georgia Today, checked 2026-10-07.

Numbers vendors haven’t updated

• Income tax. Payoneer’s Georgia guide gives 25%; the rate is a flat 20% (PwC, checked 2026-10-07).
• Public holidays. Boundless’s guide lists 12; Skuad says 18 in 2026. Art. 30(1) of the Labour Code lists 18 calendar days including four Easter days (matsne.gov.ge, checked 2026-10-07).
• Sick pay. Multiplier shows 30 days of sick leave. The Code text we read states no employer-paid sick days: sick leave suspends the relationship, unpaid unless the law or contract says otherwise (art. 46(2)(i), 46(4)).
• Maternity. G-P gives 140 days for complications or multiple births; the Code says 143 (art. 37). RemoFirst puts the paid cap at GEL 2,000 and Remote at GEL 1,000; we didn’t resolve which is right.
• Overtime. Deel’s page gives 125%; the Code sets no fixed multiplier (art. 27(2)).
• Legal basis. Payoneer’s guide says an EOR “may not be permitted” in Georgia, without citing a rule; we don’t use it as a legal basis (Payoneer, checked 2026-10-07).

How we built this page

Country rules and vendor data were collected and checked on 2026-10-07, from the Labour Code, the Law on Labour Migration and the Law on Funded Pension on matsne.gov.ge, PwC, the National Bank of Georgia, law-firm summaries and vendor pages. We didn’t read the Government resolution on work permits, so fees, quotas and fines rest on law-firm summaries. We couldn’t search the Georgian company register (NAPR), which sits behind a captcha, so no entity is verified there: where a vendor says it has its own entity, we report it as its statement, and the rest are recorded as not disclosed. The order puts the vendor with a stated own entity first, then those with the most Georgia-specific detail. Nobody pays for placement on this page.