Employer of Record in Norway: 15 Providers Compared (2026)

Employing someone in Norway: key facts

Norway has no statutory minimum wage and employer’s national insurance that depends on the employee’s zone. The rules below are from the Working Environment Act and related Lovdata texts as read on 2026-10-07; amounts are in NOK.

Minimum wage

There is no statutory minimum wage. Minimum pay exists only where the Tariff Board (Tariffnemnda) has made a collective agreement generally applicable (allmenngjort) for a sector. The benchmark here is building work on construction sites, not an office or IT sector; for an office or IT hire the floor is the contract or the employer’s own agreement. Rates in force from 2025-06-15:

The regulation is FOR-2024-10-21-2544 as amended by FOR-2025-05-28-960; Lovdata shows no later amendment. A search excerpt said new rates from 2026-04-01 were still under consideration; not confirmed. Other sectors with generally applicable rates, from a search excerpt we did not open: cleaning, hotels and restaurants, shipyards, agriculture, fish industry, electrical, road freight and tour buses.

Employer contributions

Employer’s national insurance contribution (arbeidsgiveravgift) 2026, general industries, by zone. The base is salary plus employer pension contributions (skatteetaten.no, checked 2026-10-07).

• Occupational pension (OTP): the employer pays at least 2% of salary up to 12 G. G is NOK 136,549 from 2026-05-01, so the cap is NOK 1,638,588 (lovdata.no, nav.no, checked 2026-10-07).
• Holiday pay: 10.2% of the previous year’s pay (ferieloven s 10); it is not paid on pay above 6 G.
• The extra 5% contribution on pay above NOK 750,000 (2023) and NOK 850,000 (2024) was abolished from 2025-01-01 and does not apply in 2026 (skatteetaten.no, checked 2026-10-07).
• Not in the percentages: employer sick pay for the first 16 days, work-injury insurance premium, pension above 2%.

Working hours and overtime

• Ordinary working time: at most 9 hours in 24 and 40 hours in 7 days; 38 hours a week for round-the-clock shift work and similar rotas (s 10-4) (lovdata.no, checked 2026-10-07).
• Total time including overtime: at most 13 hours in 24 and 48 hours in 7 days (s 10-6(8)).
• Overtime supplement: at least 40% on top of pay for equivalent ordinary hours (s 10-6(11)).
• Overtime limits: 10 hours in 7 days, 25 in 4 consecutive weeks and 200 in 52 weeks; 20, 50 and 300 by written agreement with union representatives in tariff-bound workplaces (s 10-6(4), (5)).

Annual leave and public holidays

• Annual leave: 25 working days per holiday year, counting all days except Sundays and public holidays; 6 extra working days for employees turning 60 in the holiday year (ferieloven s 5) (lovdata.no, checked 2026-10-07). A fifth week is common by agreement and not statutory.
• Statutory holidays (Holiday Act, s 2): Sundays, 1 January, Maundy Thursday, Good Friday, Easter Sunday and Monday, Ascension Day, Whit Sunday and Monday, 25 and 26 December (lovdata.no, checked 2026-10-07). 1 and 17 May are holidays under a separate act, paid like Sundays: full pay, and at least a 50% supplement if the employee works.
• 2026 weekday days off: 1 January (Thu), 2 April (Maundy Thu), 3 April (Good Fri), 6 April (Easter Mon), 1 May (Fri), 14 May (Ascension), 25 May (Whit Mon), 25 December (Fri). 17 May, 24 May and 5 April fall on Sundays and 26 December on a Saturday. Dates are computed from Easter Sunday, 2026-04-05.

Probation

• Probation may be agreed in writing for up to 6 months; in a fixed-term job at most half the term.
• Extension by the length of absence only if the employee was told in writing at hiring; no new probation for the same or a similar role.
• Notice during probation is 14 days unless agreed otherwise, and dismissal must be justified by the employee’s suitability, skills or reliability (s 15-3(7), s 15-6) (lovdata.no, checked 2026-10-07).

Notice and severance

• Mutual notice is 1 month unless agreed otherwise in writing; at least 2 months after 5 years’ continuous service in the same business and 3 months after 10 years (s 15-3(1)-(2)) (lovdata.no, checked 2026-10-07).
• Employer notice after 10 years’ service is 4, 5 or 6 months if the employee is 50, 55 or 60 or older (s 15-3(3)). Notice runs from the first day of the month after it is given.
• Dismissal must be objectively justified by the business, the employer or the employee (s 15-7).
• Severance: no statutory pay for a lawful dismissal in the chapter read. An unfair dismissal can be declared invalid or compensated by a court (s 15-12) (lovdata.no, checked 2026-10-07). Collective-agreement redundancy pay was not examined.

13th salary and bonuses

Not mandatory. The only statutory extra is holiday pay of 10.2% of the previous year’s pay (ferieloven s 10(2)) (lovdata.no, checked 2026-10-07).

Mandatory benefits

• Occupational pension: at least 2% of pay up to 12 G.
• Holiday pay: 10.2%.
• Work-injury insurance with an insurer (Yrkesskadeforsikringsloven s 3).
• Employer-paid sick pay for the first 16 calendar days; after that the national insurance pays (Folketrygdloven s 8-19).
• Employer’s national insurance contribution. No statutory private health insurance (lovdata.no, checked 2026-10-07).

Work permits

• EU, EEA and EFTA citizens need no permit.
• Other nationals need a residence permit; the main route is skilled worker (Utlendingsforskriften s 6-1): at least 3 years of vocational training, higher education or special qualifications, and a concrete offer from one Norwegian employer, normally full-time (at least 80% accepted), on pay and conditions not poorer than normal.
• From 2025-09-01 UDI requires at least NOK 599,200 a year for a job needing a master’s degree and NOK 522,600 for a bachelor’s (udi.no, checked 2026-10-07; page blocked to us, figures from a search excerpt and a law-firm summary).
• A staffing enterprise may be the employer: the worker presents a list of planned assignments confirmed by the client business or businesses, the permit covers only the assignment periods and is granted for up to one year at a time, and the enterprise must be in Arbeidstilsynet’s register.
• The separate route for employees of a foreign company working on a contract with a Norwegian company is closed to staffing: “The company in Norway cannot be a staffing company.”
• UDI’s pages block direct requests; the wording above is from a Wayback copy of its skilled-worker page captured 2025-12-15 (web.archive.org, checked 2026-10-07).

Currency and payroll

Norwegian krone (NOK). Unless agreed otherwise, wages are paid at least twice a month, by bank transfer to the employee’s account (s 14-15(1)) (lovdata.no, checked 2026-10-07). Norges Bank rate on 2026-10-06: 1 USD = 9.5643 NOK (norges-bank.no, checked 2026-10-07).

Is Employer of Record legal in Norway?

Restricted. Norway has no EOR statute, and we found no authority guidance or court ruling that names an employer of record. The verdict is our reading of the statutory test. Under Working Environment Act s 14-12(4) a service contract between two businesses is lending of workers (innleie) if the client leads the work and is responsible for the result. Other factors: mainly labour is supplied, the work is close to the client’s business, it covers a lasting labour need and it falls within the client’s core activity (lovdata.no, checked 2026-10-07). An open-ended hire you direct is that kind of arrangement. We found no Norwegian law-firm text on EOR specifically. See also the Employer of Record glossary entry.

What the rules allow (lovdata.no, checked 2026-10-07):

• Narrow cases only. Lending is allowed to the same extent as fixed-term employment under s 14-9(2)(b) to (e): cover for another worker, practical training, labour-market programmes with NAV, and sports. The earlier ground “work of a temporary nature” ended on 2023-04-01.
• Union agreement. A user bound by a collective agreement with a union that has the right to propose mediation may agree in writing with union representatives for a majority of the worker category on time-limited lending (s 14-12(2)). The user and the agency must show Arbeidstilsynet proof on request.
• Two regulation exemptions. Health personnel, and “employees with specialist competence who are to perform advisory and consultancy services in a clearly delimited project” (lovdata.no, checked 2026-10-07). The consultancy exemption fits a defined project; we read no authority guidance on how far it stretches.
• Construction ban. Lending to building work on building sites in Oslo, Akershus, Buskerud, Østfold and Vestfold is not allowed, with or without a collective agreement. It does not reach office or IT work.
• Approval. A staffing enterprise must be approved by Arbeidstilsynet and entered in a public register; lending from an enterprise that is not approved has the same effect as illegal lending (regulation FOR-2008-06-04-541, ss 2, 4, 5, 11) (lovdata.no, checked 2026-10-07). Conditions include an AS/ASA or an equivalent in another EEA state (or a bank or insurer guarantee for the minimum share capital), written employment contracts, work-injury insurance, and, for a foreign enterprise without a place of business in Norway, a Norwegian representative who can receive claims. Annual confirmation and full documentation every three years; approval can be withdrawn. A search excerpt of Arbeidstilsynet’s English page, which we did not open, states a NOK 30,000 bank guarantee for non-EEA companies and those without AS/ASA status, and an automatic decision once everything is submitted.
• Equal treatment. The agency must ensure the worker has at least the terms they would have if employed directly by the user, on hours, overtime, rest, holiday and holiday pay, public-holiday pay, and pay and expense cover (s 14-12 a). The user must give the agency the information needed and discuss the use of lending with employee representatives at least once a year (s 14-14 a).
• Three years. An employee lent continuously for more than three years has the right to permanent employment with the user (s 14-12(3)). We found no separate rule that the agency must employ the worker permanently.

The risk the client carries:

• Joint liability. A user is liable “in the same way as a guarantor” for pay, holiday pay and other remuneration due under the equal-treatment rule, including collective-agreement claims. The worker must claim in writing within three months of the due date and the user must pay within three weeks of receipt (s 14-12 c).
• Permanent employment with you. If s 14-12 is breached, the court shall, on the worker’s claim, rule that the worker is permanently employed by the user, and the worker can claim damages (s 14-14). The same applies to lending from an enterprise that is not approved. In special cases a court may find that permanent employment would be “obviously unreasonable”.
• Your terms set the price. Equal treatment compares with what the worker would get if employed by you, so a client with a Norwegian collective agreement or higher pay scales carries that cost through the EOR price. For a foreign client with no Norwegian staff the comparison is undefined in the sources read.
• Dismissal rules bind the employer in full. Objective grounds, notice of 1 to 6 months, court review. In an EOR set-up these costs typically return to the client through the contract; the contract wording is outside our sources.

The rules are contested. ESA opened an infringement case on 2023-07-19, calling them “unjustified and disproportionate” (tu.no, checked 2026-10-07). The EFTA Court (case E-2/24, opinion November 2024; sources give 20 and 25 November) held that Norway may restrict lending if the restrictions are justified and proportionate. Oslo District Court upheld the rules on 2025-08-18 (via an IUNO summary; appeal status unknown). The Storting did not adopt a proposal to restore the earlier rules on 2026-02-10.

Not settled in any source we read: whether a foreign client with no Norwegian business is a “user” under s 14-12 at all, and whether Arbeidstilsynet treats a worker based in Norway but directed by a foreign client as lent. See also co-employment.

Who actually employs your hire in Norway

We compared 15 providers that operate in Norway against their own pages, the Norwegian company register (Brønnøysund, via its open API) and Arbeidstilsynet’s register of approved staffing enterprises. The staffing register has no public list; we searched it through its search page’s API on 2026-10-07. A search by organisation number returned stable results; a search by name sometimes returned a server error. A control search for Workfor Safeguard AS returned its entry, so the search works. Owners are from Proff, which reproduces the Brønnøysund registers; we did not open the share registers themselves.

All checked 2026-10-07. The table has 15 rows. Providers whose Norway coverage we could not confirm (Multiplier, Papaya Global, Rippling, Pebl, Rise, Kleos, Remozo and others) are not in it.

Of the entities above, only Workfor Safeguard AS was found in the staffing register. The others were not found by organisation number on 2026-10-07; whether the register applies depends on whether the client counts as a user under § 14-12, which no source settles. This is not a finding of non-compliance. Six providers name no Norwegian employer and have no company we could tie to them. Before signing, ask the provider for its register entry, and ask: “Which Norwegian company signs my employee’s contract, and which allowed case does the placement rely on?”

How to choose an EOR in Norway

Want to see the legal basis? Safeguard Global’s Norwegian company is the only one with an approved entry in the staffing register, though which placements it covers is not stated. For every other provider, ask for the register entry in writing, and ask which of the allowed cases (cover, a union agreement, a delimited consultancy project) your placement relies on. For an open-ended role you direct, the cases may not fit.

Hiring a non-EEA national? A staffing enterprise can be the employer for a skilled-worker permit, but only with client-confirmed assignments, a register entry, and permits of up to a year at a time. Pay must reach NOK 599,200 (master’s-level job) or NOK 522,600 (bachelor’s). Whether a foreign client with no Norwegian business can confirm assignments was not found; ask the provider in writing who the applicant’s employer would be. Rivermate puts visa processing at 1 to 2 months (vendor claim).

Do you have Norwegian staff or a collective agreement? Equal treatment compares the worker with your own terms, so your pay scales and agreement reach the price. A foreign client with no Norwegian comparator has no settled rule.

Price against completeness? Norway-page prices: Skuad $549 ($299 on a 12-month commitment), Deel and G-P from $599. The rest are global prices from $99 to $699 or unpublished. On speed, vendors claim as little as 2 days (Deel), 1 to 5 working days (Playroll) and one to two weeks (Safeguard Global); these are vendor claims. Price and speed say nothing about the legal basis, so compare them after you have the answer to the first question.

What it costs to employ someone in Norway through an EOR

The examples assume a large EOR entity as employer in arbeidsgiveravgift zone I (14.1%, the top rate; the actual zone depends on the employee’s municipality, and zones II to V are lower), a full-time office or IT worker on a monthly salary, and no collective agreement. Gross pay is NOK 480,000 and NOK 960,000 a year, about USD 50,000 and USD 100,000 at the Norges Bank rate of 1 USD = 9.5643 NOK on 2026-10-06: NOK 480,000 = USD 50,187 and NOK 960,000 = USD 100,373 (norges-bank.no, checked 2026-10-07). Both salaries are below the 12 G pension cap of NOK 1,638,588. Holiday pay of 10.2% is assumed to sit inside the stated gross, since the employee gets 12 months of salary and holiday pay is offset against pay in the holiday month; paid on top, it would add 10.2% of salary plus national insurance on it.

History. On the NOK 480,000 salary the same calculation gave NOK 76,205.57 in 2021 and NOK 78,633.60 in 2026, a rise of 3.2%; 14.1% in zone I did not change, and the 2021 figure is approximate because its pension basis rests on secondary sources (skatteetaten.no, checked 2026-10-07).

Not included: employer sick pay for the first 16 days, the work-injury insurance premium, pension above the 2% minimum or under a collective agreement, group insurance and the EOR fee.

The EOR’s own fee comes on top, and all fees below are in USD per month. Norway-page prices: Skuad $549 ($299 with a 12-month commitment), Deel from $599 (management fee) and G-P from $599. Global prices: Native Teams from $99, RemoFirst and Remote People from $199, Rivermate $319 to $639, RemotePass from $349, Playroll from $399, Borderless AI $579, Atlas HXM from $599 and Remote $699. Safeguard Global and Boundless publish no price for Norway, and we have no confirmed price for Oyster.

Hidden costs, where published: Skuad states a minimum duration of service of 3 months, VAT (MVA) of 25% on EOR services and invoices in NOK (skuad.io, checked 2026-10-07). Playroll says it requires a fully refundable security deposit equal to 1 month’s salary and charges no onboarding or offboarding fee, both vendor claims on its global pricing page (playroll.com, checked 2026-10-07). For the other providers, setup fee, deposit, minimum term and termination fee are not published for Norway. 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 Norway and our hiring guide. Directing the person like staff while calling them a contractor raises contractor misclassification risk, and the s 14-12(4) test for disguised lending looks at who leads the work and answers for the result.
• An approved Norwegian staffing enterprise, hired directly. For one of the allowed cases, such as cover or a delimited consultancy project, lending from an approved agency is the lawful route. Arbeidstilsynet’s register shows approval status; we found no public list we could open.
• Your own Norwegian entity. For an open-ended role you direct, this is the route the rules point to. We did not research setup cost or timing. See permanent establishment.
• A PEO. Deel’s Norway page offers PEO services to clients that already have an entity in Norway. See the PEO glossary entry and EOR vs PEO.

What changed in 2026

• 2026-05-01: the national insurance basic amount G rose 4.9085% to NOK 136,549 from NOK 130,160. It sets the 12 G cap of the occupational pension (NOK 1,638,588) and the 6 G cap on the holiday-pay base and sick pay (nav.no, checked 2026-10-07).
• 2026-01-01: no change in employer’s national insurance zones or rates from 2025; zone I stays at 14.1%. The 5% extra contribution had already ended on 2025-01-01 (skatteetaten.no, checked 2026-10-07).
• 2026-02-10: the Storting did not adopt a proposal to bring back the pre-2023 lending rules, including lending for work of a temporary nature, and to repeal the construction ban. The committee’s text says the government and the budget majority aim to phase out the health-personnel exception; we found no regulation change (stortinget.no, checked 2026-10-07).
• 2026-02-19: a search excerpt reported that for skilled-worker permits the employer must first submit a job-offer confirmation through UDI. We could not confirm it on UDI’s own page (udi.no, checked 2026-10-07).
• 2025-09-01 (in force throughout 2026): UDI’s pay floor for skilled workers with higher education is NOK 599,200 a year for a master’s-level job and NOK 522,600 for a bachelor’s (udi.no, checked 2026-10-07).
• 2025-06-15 (in force throughout 2026): the generally applicable construction-site minimum for unskilled workers without experience is NOK 239.61 an hour. A rise from 2026-04-01 had not been made generally applicable at the check date (lovdata.no, checked 2026-10-07).

Numbers vendors haven’t updated

• Employer cost. Statutory national insurance is 14.1% plus a 2% minimum pension, 16.38% of gross in our model. Deel’s Norway page estimates employer cost at 18.60%: pension 4%, social security 14.1%, holiday pay 12% (14.3% from age 60) with 14.1% on it, and a 0.60% administrative fee for liability insurance. Playroll’s guide gives 16.1% to 26.3%, and RemotePass’s calculator puts a $60,000 hire at $76,944 a year (deel.com, playroll.com, remotepass.com, checked 2026-10-07).
• Pension cap. The cap is 12 G, NOK 1,638,588 from 2026-05-01. Deel’s page gives NOK 1,488,336 (deel.com, checked 2026-10-07).
• Holiday pay. ferieloven s 10(2) gives 10.2% of the previous year’s pay. Deel and Borderless AI give 12%; Oyster and RemoFirst give 10.2% (lovdata.no, hireborderless.com, oysterhr.com, remofirst.com, checked 2026-10-07).
• Public holidays. By listing, the Holiday Act names 10 days besides Sundays, and 1 and 17 May come on top. Oyster and Boundless give 12; Remote, Playroll and RemotePass give 10 (lovdata.no, oysterhr.com, boundlesshq.com, checked 2026-10-07).
• Annual leave. The statute gives 25 working days; Boundless gives 21 to 25 (boundlesshq.com, checked 2026-10-07).

How we built this page

Facts were collected and checked on 2026-10-07 against Lovdata, Skatteetaten, NAV, UDI (through a Wayback copy and search excerpts, because its pages block direct requests), the Storting and Norges Bank. Company details come from the Brønnøysund registers, with owners read on Proff, and from Arbeidstilsynet’s staffing register through its search page; elsewhere we rely on vendors’ own statements. Vendors are ordered with registered own entities first, then those that don’t disclose, and within a group by published Norway price and completeness of data; no vendor pays for placement.