Employer of Record in North Macedonia: 12 Providers Compared (2026)

Employing someone in North Macedonia: key facts

North Macedonia has one national minimum wage and no employer-borne social contributions on top of gross pay. Everything below is statute unless marked as a law-firm, press or vendor source.

Minimum wage

One national rate, legislated as a net figure; the gross figure is derived from it. Each March the rate is adjusted by 50% of the growth of the average net wage plus 50% of the growth of the cost-of-living index, and it cannot fall below 57% of the previous year’s average net wage (Levica bill quoting Law on Minimum Wage Art. 4, checked 2026-10-07).

• We did not find the Ministry of Labour’s own announcement for March 2026. The net figure is from the WageIndicator page; the gross figure is from a WageIndicator search extract and matches our own calculation from the net, the 28% contributions, the monthly tax allowance of MKD 10,932 and 10% income tax.

Employer contributions

The employer borne cost is nil: the employee bears all four contributions, and the employer calculates, withholds and pays them from the gross salary (Law on Compulsory Social Insurance Contributions, Art. 4, 7, 10-13, 2008 text, checked 2026-10-07).

• Employer-borne total: 0% of gross. Income tax is a flat 10% and is also withheld from the employee.
• 2026 base limits: minimum MKD 34,570 a month (50% of the average salary), maximum MKD 1,106,256 (16 average salaries). Above the maximum there are no contributions, only income tax (ujp.gov.mk, checked 2026-10-07). In 2021 the base was MKD 20,571 to MKD 658,256.
• The July 2026 reallocation is under “What changed in 2026”; what applies from January 2027 is not stated. No history chart: the employer-borne total was 0 in every year from 2021.
• Not in this figure: sick pay. Eurofast says the employer pays the first 30 days; we did not cross-check it (Eurofast, checked 2026-10-07).

Working hours and overtime

• Full time is at most 40 hours a week over five days; a law or collective agreement may set 36-40 (Law on Labour Relations Art. 116) (ssnm.org.mk, checked 2026-10-07).
• Overtime only in the cases listed in Art. 117(1): at most 8 hours a week and 190 hours a year. We did not confirm the pay supplement.

Annual leave and public holidays

• At least 20 working days of paid leave a year, up to 26 by collective agreement or contract, plus 3 days for older workers, disabled workers and certain carers (Art. 137) (ssnm.org.mk, checked 2026-10-07).
• Art. 148 gives paid absence on the holidays in the Law on Holidays. We did not open that law, so we give no list.

Probation

• Up to 4 months in the contract, extendable for justified absence such as illness (Art. 60(2)). The worker can leave during probation with 3 working days’ notice; the employer may terminate after an unsatisfactory result at its end (Art. 60) (ssnm.org.mk, checked 2026-10-07).

Notice and severance

• Dismissal needs a statutory ground (personal, conduct or business reasons) and a written decision with reasons. Employer notice is 1 month, 2 months where more than 150 workers or 5% of the workforce are dismissed (Art. 88). Employee notice is 1 month, up to 3 by contract. Collective dismissal of at least 20 workers in 90 days needs a month of consultation first (Art. 95).
• Severance for dismissal on business grounds (Art. 97), in net salaries of the worker’s last 6 months, not below 50% of the national average net salary:

• We read the text to OG 288/21; later amendments were not read (ssnm.org.mk, checked 2026-10-07). RemotePass’s page lists “Redundancy: Not possible under the EOR setup”, in its words (remotepass.com, checked 2026-10-07).

13th salary and bonuses

Not mandatory: no statutory 13th or 14th salary or holiday bonus in the Law on Labour Relations. We did not read the General Collective Agreement.

Mandatory benefits

No statutory private health, pension or life insurance beyond contributions. The employer may organise transport and meals at its cost, meals up to 20% of the previous year’s average net salary (Art. 113).

Work permits

• A foreigner needs a temporary residence permit for work from the Ministry of Interior or a work permit from the Employment Agency, which gives an opinion on quota use and labour-market need. The annual quota cannot exceed 5% of the legally employed population (Law on Employment and Work of Foreigners, Art. 4-5, checked 2026-10-07).
• A foreigner is “employed in North Macedonia” only under a contract with an employer whose seat or residence is there (Art. 1(2)). A contract with a foreigner who has no permit is void (Art. 4(5)).
• Amendments in force from 2025-09-26 (law-firm summary, text not read): the employer files a notarised statement on the foreigner’s stay costs and registers the employment within 30 days of the permit (Karanovic & Partners, checked 2026-10-07).

Currency and payroll

MKD. Pay is calculated for periods of at most a month and paid within 15 days after the period ends (Art. 109). In practice net pay, contributions and income tax go out on one payment order (Eurofast, checked 2026-10-07).

Is Employer of Record legal in North Macedonia?

Grey area. North Macedonia has no EOR category. The only statute that lets a company employ a worker for another company is the Law on Private Employment Agencies (OG 113/18, 18/2020) (trudovopravo.mk, checked 2026-10-07). A permanent, open-ended hire for the client’s ongoing role, directed by the client, does not fit its list of permitted temporary needs, so the classic EOR product is only partly covered by the licensed route. We found no law-firm or regulator commentary on EOR, so this is our reading of the text, taken from mirror sites (trudovopravo.mk, the union SSNM), not the Official Gazette. See the Employer of Record glossary entry.

The rules, which apply if the client counts as a user of an agency:

• Licence. The agency is a registered company and needs a Ministry of Labour licence: A (over 500 agency workers), B (251-500), V (101-250), G (up to 100). The ministry keeps the register (Art. 5-8).
• Guarantee. A bank guarantee of EUR 50,000 (A), 30,000 (B), 20,000 (V) or 10,000 (G), called for three months of unpaid wages after an inspectorate record (Art. 9-10).
• Permitted grounds and duration. Assignment only to replace an absent worker, for temporary extra workload, seasonal work, project work, specific non-continuous work outside the user’s main activity, or unforeseeable short-term activities, for at most two years on the same work at the same user (Art. 24).
• Equal treatment. Conditions and basic pay at least equal to a user’s worker on the same work; the user gives the agency accurate comparable-pay data (Art. 19, 30).
• Contracts and money flow. An assignment contract with the user and an employment contract with the worker; the agency charges the user only, and the user pays the wage funds to the agency, which pays the worker (Art. 18, 25-27). The user is treated as the employer for health and safety (Art. 31).
• Open point. The 2018 law defines the user as a legal or natural person without saying it must be domestic. Whether a foreign client with no local entity can be the user is not stated.

Whether an EOR avoids the agency regime by acting as an ordinary employer under the Law on Labour Relations while the client directs the work from abroad is answered by no source we found.

Risks for the client, if the agency law applies:

• Fines on the user: EUR 300-400 (micro or small employer), 500-600 (medium), 800-1,000 (large), plus EUR 150 / 250 / 350 on the responsible person, for assignment outside the permitted grounds, unequal conditions, wrong pay data, unpaid agency invoices or ending an assignment because the need ended (Art. 44). A fine paid within 8 days is halved (Art. 50).
• Continuity. If the agency’s licence lapses or is withdrawn, the assignment and employment contracts end by law (Art. 16).
• Permit. A foreigner without a permit has a void contract (Law on Employment and Work of Foreigners, Art. 4(5)).

Who actually employs your hire in North Macedonia

We could not look the providers up in the Central Register (crm.com.mk): its search is interactive, the mirror companywall.mk returned no results to us, and OpenCorporates does not cover North Macedonia, so no provider is confirmed by a registry record. “Own entity” below means the provider says so itself. We also searched the Ministry of Labour’s list of private employment agencies (PDF, 59 entries, created 2025-04-30) for 23 provider names, including former brands.

All checked 2026-10-07. None of the 23 names was found in the Ministry list by name; the list may be out of date, so not found by name is a limit of a name search, not a finding of non-compliance. Not counted: Remote, whose page offers a platform yet says EOR services for the country “may eventually be developed”, and Oyster, Papaya Global, Rippling (contractors page only), RemoFirst, Rise, Kleos, Remozo, Boundless, Borderless AI and Justworks, for which we could not confirm EOR here.

Ten of the 12 don’t say which North Macedonian company employs your hire, and the two that do name none. Before signing, ask: “Which North Macedonian company signs my employee’s contract, and do you hold a licence under the Law on Private Employment Agencies or rely on another basis?”

How to choose an EOR in North Macedonia

Want a named employer? Native Teams and Atlas HXM say they use their own entity, and no one has shown us a registry record. Ask any shortlisted provider to name the company, its registration number and its legal basis in writing.

Hiring a foreign national? The permit law requires an employer seated in North Macedonia, and we found no source on whether an agency or EOR may apply for a client’s worker. Skuad’s page puts permit processing at 45 days and Remote People’s says 4-6 weeks for an EOR with sponsorship history (vendor claims). Ask who files, under which route, and who signs the notarised cost statement.

Expect a permanent role or a long engagement? The agency law’s two-year cap and closed list of temporary needs point against an open-ended assignment. Ask how the provider structures a hire you want to keep, or weigh your own entity.

Price against completeness? On a North Macedonian page Skuad shows from $199 per employee, Playroll from $399 and Deel $599; the rest show global prices or none. Compare after the legal-basis answer, and ask how exit works: RemotePass lists redundancy as not possible, while business-reason dismissal carries 1 to 7 net salaries of severance by statute.

What it costs to employ someone in North Macedonia through an EOR

The statutory cost on top of gross pay is zero, so the figure to budget is the gross salary. The EOR is a large-payroll employer with an office or IT employee on an open-ended contract. Gross pay is MKD 2,650,000 and MKD 5,300,000 a year (MKD 220,833.33 and MKD 441,666.67 a month), about USD 50,000 and USD 100,000 at 1 USD = MKD 53.0597, the National Bank’s average for 2026-04-01 to 2026-06-30 (nbrm.mk, checked 2026-10-07).

Both salaries are above the minimum base (MKD 34,570 a month) and below the maximum (MKD 1,106,256), so no floor or cap applies. The income tax uses the 2026 allowance of MKD 10,932 a month, from Eurofast and not confirmed against the tax law.

Not included: employer-paid sick pay for the first 30 days (Eurofast, not cross-checked), severance on business-reason dismissal (1 to 7 net salaries), meal, transport or holiday allowances from collective agreements, and the EOR fee.

The EOR’s own fee comes on top. Three providers show a price on a North Macedonian page: Skuad from $199 per employee (FAQ, period not stated), Playroll from $399 a month and Deel $599 a month. Global list prices for the others run from $99 (Native Teams) to $639 a month (top of Rivermate’s range). Safeguard Global and Pebl publish none, and Atlas HXM’s $599 is a global list price.

Hidden costs: none published. No provider we checked publishes a setup fee, deposit, minimum term or termination fee for North Macedonia. 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 North Macedonia and our hiring guide. See also contractor misclassification and EOR vs PEO.
• Your own entity. The route to weigh for a permanent role, or when you want to be the seated employer on a work permit. Multiplier’s page puts entity setup support at $800-$2,000 plus $100-$300 for registration (a vendor estimate) (usemultiplier.com, checked 2026-10-07).
• Employing without any entity. The foreigners law ties “employed in North Macedonia” to an employer seated there. The position of a foreign client paying a local worker with no entity (permanent establishment, registration, withholding) was not researched; see permanent establishment.

What changed in 2026

• 2026-01-01: contribution bases: average gross salary MKD 69,141, minimum base MKD 34,570 (MKD 31,577 in 2025), maximum MKD 1,106,256 (MKD 1,010,464) (ujp.gov.mk, checked 2026-10-07).
• 2026-01-01: the monthly income tax allowance rises to MKD 10,932; the 10% flat tax is unchanged. The start date is not confirmed from the tax law (Eurofast, checked 2026-10-07).
• 2026-01-01: a law on seasonal and occasional employment (adopted May 2025) takes effect for agriculture, accommodation and food service and household work. It is a separate regime from agency work and not an EOR route (law-firm summary, text not read) (Karanovic & Partners, checked 2026-10-07).
• 2026-03-01: the minimum wage rises to MKD 38,507 gross / MKD 26,046 net, from MKD 36,037 / MKD 24,379 (wageindicator.org, checked 2026-10-07).
• 2026-07-01: amendments to the contributions law (OG 148 of 2026-07-06) reallocate the 28.0%: pension and disability 18.8% to 19.9%, unemployment 1.2% to 0.1%; health 7.5% and additional health 0.5% unchanged. The new rates apply to pay for July-December 2026 and the employer’s cost does not change; the notice does not say what applies from January 2027 (ujp.gov.mk, checked 2026-10-07).
• Late 2025: since 2025-09-26 amendments to the Law on Foreigners require a notarised statement on the foreigner’s stay costs, employment registration within 30 days of the permit and cap secondment residence at 180 days. It governs permits issued in 2026 (law-firm summary) (Karanovic & Partners, checked 2026-10-07).

Numbers vendors haven’t updated

• Employer cost. By statute the employer bears none of the contributions. Multiplier’s page puts employer taxes at about 21.2% of gross; Deel’s page names “Compensation for past work service” (0.5% of base salary per year of service) as the only mandatory monthly employer expense, which we did not find in the sources we read. RemotePass’s page says employer costs are aligned with gross salary (usemultiplier.com, deel.com, remotepass.com, checked 2026-10-07).
• Minimum wage. In force: MKD 38,507 gross / MKD 26,046 net from 2026-03-01. Remote People’s page gives MKD 36,037 gross with the 2026 net figure; Multiplier’s page gives “$370 (EUR 340)” (remotepeople.com, usemultiplier.com, checked 2026-10-07).
• Tax allowance. Deel’s page shows MKD 10,270 a month “for 2025”; the 2026 figure is MKD 10,932 (deel.com, Eurofast, checked 2026-10-07).
• Probation. Rivermate’s guide gives up to 6 months; the Law on Labour Relations as we read it (Art. 60(2)) says up to 4 (rivermate.com, ssnm.org.mk, checked 2026-10-07).
• Public holidays. Vendor pages show 11 and 13 holidays. We did not confirm the list from the Law on Holidays, so we don’t say which is right.

How we built this page

Data was collected and checked on 2026-10-07 against legislation read from mirror sites (trudovopravo.mk, the union SSNM), UJP notices on contribution rates and bases, Eurofast and law-firm material; later amendments to several laws were not read. We could not search the company register, so no provider is confirmed by a registry record: entity claims rest on the providers’ own pages, and the Ministry of Labour’s agency list, which may be out of date, was searched by name. Providers are ordered with those that say they use their own entity first, then the rest by published country price; no provider pays for placement.