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

Employing someone in Guatemala: key facts

Amounts are in quetzales (GTQ), nominal. Where a source is secondary, we say so.

Minimum wage

No single national rate: an annual Acuerdo Gubernativo sets it by activity and by economic circumscription. CE1 is the department of Guatemala; CE2 is every other department. A separate GTQ 250 monthly incentive bonus (Decreto 78-89) is paid on top.

• In force from 2026-01-01 under Acuerdo Gubernativo 256-2025, published 2025-12-22. The EY alert is secondary; Prensa Libre gives the same CE1 non-agricultural figures (checked 2026-10-26).

Employer contributions

On the whole salary; we found no ceiling. The GTQ 250 bonus, aguinaldo and Bono 14 are outside the base.

• IGSS states the 10.67% rate; the programme split, IRTRA, INTECAP and the missing ceiling come from secondary sources, so confirm them with your provider.

Working hours and overtime

• Day shift (06:00-18:00): 8 hours a day and 48 hours a week paid, equal to 45 hours of effective work (art. 116).
• Overtime is paid at least 50% above the minimum or agreed wage (art. 121). One paid weekly rest day (art. 126) (Código de Trabajo, checked 2026-10-26).

Annual leave and public holidays

• 15 working days of paid vacation after each year of continuous service, with at least 150 days worked in the year; the employer sets the dates within 60 days after the anniversary (arts. 130-132).
• Art. 127 paid holidays: 1 January; Holy Thursday, Friday and Saturday; 1 May; 30 June; 15 September; 20 October; 1 November; 25 December (10 full days), two half days (24 and 31 December from 12:00), and the local festival day of the municipality. The 15 August holiday in Guatemala City comes from practice; art. 127 names no date (Código de Trabajo, checked 2026-10-26).

Probation

• Indefinite contracts: the first 2 months are probation unless the parties agree a shorter period (art. 81).
• Either side can end the contract in probation without cause and without liability (Código de Trabajo, checked 2026-10-26).

Notice and severance

• Employer notice: we found no statutory period in arts. 76-84. An employer ending an indefinite contract without just cause pays the art. 82 indemnity instead.
• Indemnity: 1 month’s salary per year of continuous service, pro rata for part years, on the average of the last 6 months’ salary; Bono 14 counts for the proportion of six months (Decreto 42-92 art. 4). Not payable on resignation or in probation.
• If the employer cannot prove just cause in court, it also owes lost wages from dismissal to payment, up to 12 months, and court costs (art. 78) (Código de Trabajo, checked 2026-10-26).

13th salary and bonuses

Two extra payments are mandatory, each 100% of one month’s ordinary salary.

• Bono 14 is additional to the aguinaldo (art. 1). Both are exempt from income tax up to 100% of ordinary monthly salary.

Mandatory benefits

• IGSS affiliation for employees: health and maternity, accidents, disability, old age and survivors.
• Monthly incentive bonus of GTQ 250; per payroll guides it is not counted in IGSS, aguinaldo, Bono 14, vacation or indemnity bases. The decree text was not opened.
• Maternity leave 84 days at 100% pay (30 before and 54 after birth, art. 152), paid by IGSS where the worker is covered (Código de Trabajo, checked 2026-10-26).

Work permits

• Foreign employees need a work permit from the Ministry of Labour (MINTRAB), applied for by the employer, under Acuerdo Gubernativo 178-2025 (published 2025-10-02, in force 2025-10-10).
• Fee GTQ 3,000 for issue and GTQ 2,000 for extension; valid 1 year, extendable; decision within 20 business days.
• The employer needs a job offer for a specific company and an accountant’s certificate of compliance with Labour Code art. 13 (at least 90% Guatemalan workers and 85% of payroll to Guatemalans). The foreigner must hold residence or a pending residence application; residence is a separate IGM application.
• Remote workers living outside Guatemala need no permit. Whether an EOR entity can sponsor is not stated in the sources we read (Andersen Guatemala, checked 2026-10-26).

Currency and payroll

Quetzal (GTQ). Pay periods cannot exceed one fortnight for manual workers or one month for intellectual workers (art. 92); payment in legal tender only (art. 90) (Código de Trabajo, checked 2026-10-26). Rate used on this page: 1 USD = 7.63622 GTQ, the Banguat reference rate for 2026-10-26 (Banguat, checked 2026-10-26).

Is Employer of Record legal in Guatemala?

Grey area. Guatemala has no EOR statute, no licence for labour intermediaries and no ban on them in the texts we read. The Código de Trabajo treats an intermediary who hires workers in his own name for another’s benefit as creating joint liability for that beneficiary. An EOR therefore operates as the formal employer, but the client keeps statutory exposure. We found no ministry opinion, court ruling or law-firm note on EOR; our reading rests on a hosted copy of the consolidated code, not on the official Congress or MINTRAB site. See the Employer of Record glossary entry.

The rules that matter to a client (Código de Trabajo, checked 2026-10-26):

• Art. 5. An intermediary hires workers in his own name for a patron, who is jointly liable (solidariamente) for the intermediary’s acts towards the workers. A person who takes on work with his own equipment or capital is a patron, not an intermediary.
• Art. 81 (last paragraph, Decreto 18-2001). If one or several companies hire workers to provide services to another company, the latter is liable to the affected workers “de conformidad con la ley”.
• Art. 6 (last paragraph). An employer cannot assign its rights under an employment relationship, or supply workers hired for itself to other employers, without the workers’ clear and express consent.
• Art. 13. No more than 10% foreign workers and 15% of payroll paid to foreigners per employer, unless the Executive changes the proportions. This matters to a foreign-staffed EOR entity and to foreigners placed through it.

Risks the client carries:

• Joint liability for the intermediary’s obligations to the worker (art. 5), and liability to workers hired by another company to serve it (art. 81).
• Dismissal disputes. An employer that cannot prove just cause pays the indemnity plus up to 12 months of lost wages and court costs (art. 78). Who bears that cost between EOR and client is a contract matter.

See also co-employment.

Who actually employs your hire in Guatemala

We read the vendor pages of the 13 providers that operate in Guatemala. We found no public search of the Registro Mercantil by company name without an account, so no vendor entity was checked in a registry. The table rests on what each vendor says.

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 Guatemalan ones. Oyster, Papaya Global, Rippling, Native Teams, RemotePass, Playroll, Justworks, Kleos, Remozo and Rise are not in the table: we could not confirm that they offer EOR in Guatemala. Rise’s page lists Agent of Record and contractor pay, not EOR.

Twelve of the 13 don’t name the Guatemalan company that employs. That matters because in a grey area your exposure runs through the employer on the contract. Before signing, ask: “Which Guatemalan company signs my employee’s contract, and who pays the art. 82 indemnity if the hire is dismissed?”

How to choose an EOR in Guatemala

Want to know the employer’s name? Only Remote says it owns its Guatemalan entity, and it publishes no name. Multiplier and Safeguard Global describe an EOR’s entity in the third person. Ask any provider for the company name before you sign.

Need a work permit for a foreign hire? The employer applies, pays GTQ 3,000 and must show compliance with the art. 13 quota. No source we read says an EOR entity can be the sponsor, so ask in writing who would apply. A hire who lives outside Guatemala needs no permit.

Price against completeness? On Guatemalan pages, Skuad’s $449 is lower than Multiplier’s $459 and Deel’s $599. Global list prices run from $199 (RemoFirst, Boundless) to $599 (Remote); five providers publish no price. Onboarding claims: as little as 10 days at Deel, one to two weeks in a generic Safeguard Global answer, and Remote says its timeline depends on registration with local authorities. Compare price after you know who employs.

What it costs to employ someone in Guatemala through an EOR

The employer is the EOR itself, a large-payroll employer; we found no sector or size relief. Gross pay is GTQ 32,000 and GTQ 64,000 a month in 12 payments for an office or IT employee: GTQ 384,000 and GTQ 768,000 a year, about USD 50.3k and USD 100.6k at 1 USD = 7.63622 GTQ (Banguat, checked 2026-10-26). Vacation is paid inside salary and is not added.

Contributions alone are 12.67% of salary: GTQ 48,652.80 and GTQ 97,305.60. The rest is two extra months of pay and the fixed GTQ 250 bonus, which is why the share barely moves between the two salaries. Aguinaldo and Bono 14 carry no IGSS, IRTRA or INTECAP.

Assumptions. IRTRA and INTECAP at 1% each, the absence of a salary ceiling and the GTQ 250 bonus for every worker rest on secondary sources; the bonus decree text was not opened. Not included: severance (contingent; one month per year under art. 82, and Deel’s guide says EOR practice is to reserve about 8.33% of salary a month), work-accident insurance beyond the IGSS accident share, any employer income tax, and the EOR fee. The employer IGSS rate was the same in IGSS publications of 2022 and 2023 and in the 2026 figures, so we show no history.

The EOR’s own fee comes on top, quoted per month. Three vendors show a price on a Guatemalan page: Skuad $449 (struck-out $549; its page says the discount is based on hiring volume), Multiplier Core $459 and Growth $519 billed annually, and Deel from $599 as a management fee. Global list prices, where no Guatemalan figure exists, run from $199 (RemoFirst, Boundless) to $599 (Remote). G-P, Pebl, Safeguard Global, Atlas and Remote People publish none.

Hidden costs. No vendor publishes a setup fee, deposit, minimum term or termination fee for Guatemala. 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 Guatemala, our hiring guide and contractor misclassification.
• Your own Guatemalan entity. The route to weigh for a permanent team, because an EOR placement sits in a grey area. The art. 13 quota (90% Guatemalan workers, 85% of payroll) applies to your entity as well. We found no published figures for setting one up, so we give none.
• A worker living abroad. A remote worker outside Guatemala needs no Guatemalan work permit (Andersen Guatemala, checked 2026-10-26). We did not check whether an EOR employs people outside the country.

What changed in 2026

• 2026-01-01: New minimum wages under Acuerdo Gubernativo 256-2025 (published 2025-12-22): non-agricultural CE1 GTQ 4,002.28, up from 3,723.05 (+7.5%), and CE2 GTQ 3,816.90, up from 3,550.60 (+7.5%), plus the GTQ 250 bonus. The IGSS minimum contribution base follows the minimum wage (EY, checked 2026-10-26).
• 2026-04-28: Congress approved Decreto 13-2026, amending the income-tax law: the employee deduction is to be linked to 12 monthly minimum wages including the bonus, with an annual automatic update, and a one-off extra deduction of GTQ 3,024 applies for tax year 2026 only. Sources disagree on timing: 2026-05-23 for the extraordinary deduction and 2027-01-01 for the rest (La Hora, checked 2026-10-26).
• 2025-10-10: Acuerdo Gubernativo 178-2025 on work permits for foreigners entered into force, replacing the 2003 regulation: fee GTQ 3,000, one-year validity, 20 business days to decide (Andersen Guatemala, checked 2026-10-26).

Numbers vendors haven’t updated

• Minimum wage. The rate in force is GTQ 4,002.28 base (GTQ 4,252.28 with the bonus) in the department of Guatemala since 2026-01-01. Deel’s page gives GTQ 3,973.05, which is the 2025 base plus the bonus; RemoFirst’s gives GTQ 3,723.05, the 2025 base; Skuad’s gives about GTQ 2,743, on a page headed “Updated for 2025”; Rivermate’s guide, updated 2026-02-17, gives 2024 figures of GTQ 3,171.90-3,634.59. Remote’s GTQ 4,252.28 matches (deel.com, remofirst.com, skuad.io, rivermate.com, remote.com, checked 2026-10-26).
• Employer cost. Deel’s calculator shows an estimated employer cost of 13.27% of salary; our contributions are 12.67%, and we don’t know what Deel’s figure includes (deel.com, checked 2026-10-26).
• Holidays and hours. Remote lists 10 public holidays, RemoFirst 12 and G-P 13; art. 127 names 10 full days, two half days and a local festival. RemoFirst shows a 40-hour week and Atlas 44 hours over six days; the code’s day shift is 48 hours paid and 45 effective. We did not reconcile each vendor’s count (remote.com, remofirst.com, globalization-partners.com, atlashxm.com, checked 2026-10-26).

How we built this page

Facts were collected and checked on 2026-10-26 against the Código de Trabajo (a hosted copy of the consolidated text), IGSS publications, Decreto 42-92, and secondary sources for the minimum wages, the aguinaldo and the work-permit rules; the Acuerdo Gubernativo texts were not opened in the Diario de Centro América. Employers could not be checked in the Registro Mercantil, so every entity statement rests on the vendor’s own wording. Vendors are ordered with own-entity statements first, then those that do not disclose, by published Guatemalan price and completeness of data; no vendor pays for placement.