Employer of Record in Honduras: 12 Providers Compared (2026)

Employing someone in Honduras: key facts

Amounts are in lempiras (L, HNL), nominal. Where a source is secondary or a figure is from an earlier year, we say so.

Minimum wage

No single national rate: a tripartite agreement sets it by economic activity (11 activities) and company size (1-10, 11-50, 51-150, 151 and over workers).

• Acuerdo Ejecutivo SETRASS-233-2026 (La Gaceta No. 37,129, 2026-04-29), retroactive to 2026-01-01. Increase for 2026: 6% up to 50 workers, 7% for 51-150 and for 151+; for 2027: 6%, 7% and 7.5% (EY, checked 2026-10-29).
• Average minimum wage for 2026: L 14,917.20 (SAR-19-2026). Textile maquila and free zones follow a separate schedule to 2026-12-31.
• We saw only 4 of the 11 activities, and not the acuerdo text. One article gives L 13,654.55 as the start of the financial range while its table shows L 13,412.92; we use the table.

Employer contributions

• No 2026 IHSS ceiling and no 2026 RAP communique were found, so the 2025 ceiling is used and the reserve ceiling is 3 x L 19,298.72. The IHSS board sets later ceilings by actuarial study.
• The EM rate comes from press and INFOP from a payroll guide only: confirm both with your provider.
• The reserve fund applies from 2024-06-01, except to employers with an agreed annual advance payment of cesantia.

Working hours and overtime

• Day work (05:00-19:00): 8 hours a day and 44 a week, paid as 48 (art. 322). Night work: 6 hours a day, 36 a week.
• Ordinary plus overtime may not exceed 12 hours a day; one rest day per six worked.
• Overtime: +25% by day, +50% at night, +75% on the night wage when it extends a night shift. Rest-day or holiday work is paid double (art. 340). Night work carries a 25% surcharge (Código del Trabajo, checked 2026-10-29).

Annual leave and public holidays

• Paid vacation: 10 working days after 1 year, 12 after 2, 15 after 3, 20 after 4 or more (art. 346). The employer sets the date within 3 months; accumulation is prohibited, with a one-time exception for technical and trusted posts.
• Art. 339 paid holidays: 1 Jan, 14 Apr, 1 May, 15 Sep, 3 Oct, 12 Oct, 21 Oct, 25 Dec, plus Holy Thursday, Friday and Saturday (Código del Trabajo, checked 2026-10-29). Press mentions a Semana Morazanica in October; we did not check whether a decree moves those days.

Probation

• Maximum 60 days, agreed in writing; otherwise the general contract rules apply (arts. 49-50).
• We could not confirm how the contract ends during probation (Código del Trabajo, checked 2026-10-29).

Notice and severance

• Preaviso must be written and can be replaced by paying the same amount; the worker gets one paid day off a week during notice.
• Cesantia is due on unjustified dismissal and on resignation for the causes in art. 114, on the average of the last 6 months’ wages. Microenterprises (up to 10 employees) have a 15-month cap.
• Since 2024-06-01 employers also fund the 4% RAP reserve; we did not find whether it offsets or only pre-funds the cesantia liability (Código del Trabajo, checked 2026-10-29).

13th salary and bonuses

• The decree texts were not opened; the calculation base is not confirmed (Andersen, checked 2026-10-29).

Mandatory benefits

• IHSS affiliation (health and maternity; disability, old age, death) and RAP contributions.
• RAP labour reserve fund, 4%, paid by the employer.
• Maternity leave: 4 weeks before and 6 weeks after birth, paid like work (art. 135). We did not check how much IHSS carries (Código del Trabajo, checked 2026-10-29).

Work permits

• Not confirmed: we opened no immigration source, so fees, timing and whether an EOR entity can sponsor are unknown.
• Confirmed: Labour Code art. 11 forbids employing less than 90% Honduran workers and paying them less than 85% of the payroll, which limits foreign staffing of an entity (Código del Trabajo, checked 2026-10-29).

Currency and payroll

Lempira (HNL). The parties fix the pay period: never longer than 1 week for manual workers, 1 month for intellectual workers (art. 368); wages are paid in legal tender (art. 365) (Código del Trabajo, checked 2026-10-29). Rate used on this page: 1 USD = 26.8936 HNL, the BCH reference rate for 2026-10-20 as reported by La Tribuna, checked 2026-10-29.

Is Employer of Record legal in Honduras?

Grey area. We found no EOR statute, licence or ban. The Código del Trabajo treats a person who hires workers in his own name to work for an employer as an intermediary, and makes the beneficiary employer jointly liable for the legal effects. An EOR therefore works as the formal employer, but the client keeps joint exposure, and the workers’ rights apply in full. We found no court ruling or law-firm opinion applying art. 7 to EOR; the verdict rests on a consolidated copy of the Code, not the La Gaceta original. See the Employer of Record glossary entry.

The rules that matter to a client (Código del Trabajo, checked 2026-10-29):

• Art. 7. An intermediary is anyone who hires, in his own name, workers to perform work for an employer; the employer is jointly liable (solidariamente) for the effects of the Constitution, the Code and social security rules.
• Art. 21. Every personal work relationship is presumed to be governed by an employment contract.
• Art. 11. Employers may not employ less than 90% Honduran workers or pay them less than 85% of payroll; relevant to an EOR entity staffed by foreigners.
• Decreto 47-2024. Non-state employers under the Labour Code pay 4% of ordinary salary into the RAP labour reserve from 2024-06-01 (RAP, checked 2026-10-29).

Risks the client carries:

• Joint liability for the intermediary’s obligations to the workers (art. 7); how cost is split between EOR and client is a matter of the service contract.
• Dismissal disputes. If the employer can’t prove just cause in court, it owes the indemnities plus, as damages, wages from termination until the judgment is final (art. 113).
• Pregnancy. Dismissing a pregnant worker needs prior court approval (art. 124).

See also co-employment.

Who actually employs your hire in Honduras

We read the pages of the 12 providers that operate in Honduras. We found no open search of the Honduran company registers (CCIT, 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 2026-10-29. “Own entity” rests on the vendor’s own statement, not on a registry record. Prices marked global are site-wide list prices, not Honduran ones. Oyster, Multiplier, Papaya Global, Rippling, Native Teams, RemotePass, Justworks, Rise, Kleos and Remozo are not in the table: their Honduras pages were missing or blocked, or held no Honduran data, so we could not confirm that they offer EOR there.

Eleven of the 12 don’t say which Honduran company employs. That matters because in a grey area your exposure runs through the employer on the contract. Before signing, ask: “Which Honduran company signs my employee’s contract, and who pays cesantia if the hire is dismissed?”

How to choose an EOR in Honduras

Want to know the employer’s name? Only Remote says it owns its Honduran entity, and it publishes no name. Playroll, Rivermate and Safeguard Global describe an EOR’s entity in general terms. Ask any provider for the company name before you sign.

Hiring a foreign national? Art. 11 caps foreign staff at 10% of an employer’s workers, and we could not confirm a permit route or whether an EOR entity can sponsor. Ask in writing who would apply and on what basis. Remote adds 3 days to onboarding when a right-to-work assessment applies to non-nationals.

Price against completeness? On Honduran pages, Skuad’s $549 is lower than Deel’s $599; Borderless AI shows $579 and Remote $599 as global prices. Eight providers publish no price. Compare price after you know who employs.

Need to start quickly? Claimed onboarding times: as little as 3 days at Deel, 1-5 days at Playroll, 2-3 days at Rivermate, 5-7 business days at Atlas, one to two weeks in a generic Safeguard Global answer, and a 7-working-day minimum at Remote. These are vendor claims.

What it costs to employ someone in Honduras through an EOR

The employer is the EOR itself, assumed to be a large-payroll entity (151+ workers band) in Tegucigalpa. Gross pay is L 112,000 and L 224,000 a month in 12 payments for an office or IT employee: L 1,344,000 and L 2,688,000 a year, about USD 50.0k and USD 100.0k at 1 USD = 26.8936 HNL (La Tribuna, checked 2026-10-29). Vacation is paid inside salary and is not added.

Contributions alone are 5.31% and 3.94% of salary: L 71,388.79 and L 105,988.79. The rest is two extra months of pay. The share falls at the higher salary because the IHSS and reserve-fund amounts stop at ceilings, while the RAP housing contribution applies only to pay above the IHSS ceiling.

Assumptions. The 2025 IHSS ceiling is used because no 2026 figure was found; the reserve-fund ceiling is computed, and INFOP at 1% rests on a payroll guide. No contribution is applied to the 13th and 14th months. Not included: severance (contingent, up to 25 months under art. 120), work-accident insurance, any employer-paid benefit, the EOR fee, and the unconfirmed offset between the RAP reserve and cesantia. We show no cost history: the 2021-2023 ceilings were not found and the reserve fund exists only from 2024-06-01.

The EOR’s own fee comes on top, quoted per month. Four providers show a monthly price: Skuad $549 on its Honduras page (struck-out $649; its page is marked “Updated for 2025”), Borderless AI $579 (global, from its blog), and Deel and Remote from $599 (global list prices). The other eight publish none; Atlas cites a market range of USD 400 to 800 per employee a month, which is not its own price.

Hidden costs. No vendor publishes a setup fee, deposit, minimum term or termination fee for Honduras. Treat a blank as unpublished, not zero.

When you don’t need an EOR

• A genuinely independent contractor. Any personal work relationship is presumed to be employment (art. 21), so a contract fits only a person who really works independently. See how to pay contractors in Honduras, our hiring guide and contractor misclassification.
• Your own Honduran entity. The route to weigh for a permanent team, because an EOR placement sits in a grey area. The art. 11 quota (90% Honduran workers, 85% of payroll) applies to your entity as well. Atlas estimates that establishing an entity can cost USD 10,000 to 25,000; that is a vendor estimate, not a verified figure (atlashxm.com, checked 2026-10-29). See also permanent establishment.
• A PEO is a different model. See EOR vs PEO.

What changed in 2026

• 2026-01-01: SAR communique SAR 02-2026 updated the income-tax scale by 4.98%: exempt up to L 228,324.32 a year, 15% to L 348,154.10, 20% to L 809,660.75, 25% above; medical-expense deduction L 40,000 a year (Deloitte, checked 2026-10-29).
• 2026-01-01: Minimum wages for 2026 and 2027 agreed on 2026-04-27 and set by Acuerdo SETRASS-233-2026 (La Gaceta No. 37,129, 2026-04-29), retroactive to 1 January: +6% up to 50 workers, +7% for 51 and over; for 2027, +6%, +7% and +7.5% (151+). Average L 14,917.20 (EY, checked 2026-10-29).
• 2026-03-28: Ley de Empleo a Tiempo Parcial (Decreto 45-2026), published in La Gaceta: part-time workers get vacation, 13th and 14th month, notice, severance and social security; hourly pay may not fall below the minimum wage; a contract averaging over 32 hours a week across 3 months converts to full-time. In September 2026 the Congress labour committee was reviewing private-sector changes (Andersen, checked 2026-10-29).
• Context, 2024-06-01: the RAP labour reserve fund (Decreto 47-2024, 4% employer) took effect and the RAP housing contribution moved to salary above the IVM ceiling (RAP, checked 2026-10-29).

Numbers vendors haven’t updated

• Minimum wage. The 2026 national average is L 14,917.20, from L 13,292.06 to L 19,298.72 across the examples we found. Deel’s page says the minimum wage “for 2024 is HNL 12,597.91”; RemoFirst’s gives an average of HNL 10,008.14-13,346.47; Playroll’s gives 2026 from L 9,596.64 up to L 19,298.7 (deel.com, remofirst.com, playroll.com, checked 2026-10-29).
• Employer cost. Deel’s calculator shows an estimated employer cost of 15.80% of salary and Playroll’s page 13.5-15%; our contributions are 3.94-5.31%, or 20.57-21.98% with the two extra months. We don’t know what each vendor’s figure includes.
• Contribution ceilings. Remote’s page gives HNL 10,282.37 for disability and old age and HNL 9,849.70 for sickness and maternity; we use L 11,903.13, the 2025 ceiling in Decreto 48-2024 (remote.com, checked 2026-10-29).
• Holidays. Remote, Playroll and RemoFirst list 11, which matches art. 339 (eight dates plus three Holy Week days); Borderless AI lists 10. Skuad’s holiday list is labelled “observed in Haiti” (skuad.io, hireborderless.com, checked 2026-10-29).

How we built this page

Facts were collected and checked on 2026-10-29 against the Código del Trabajo (a consolidated copy), IHSS and RAP publications, press and law-firm summaries for the minimum wages, 13th and 14th months and tax scale; the acuerdo and decree texts were not opened in La Gaceta. Employers could not be checked in the Honduran company registers, 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 Honduran price and completeness of data; no vendor pays for placement.