Employer of Record in Sweden: 18 Providers Compared (2026)

Employing someone in Sweden: key facts

Sweden sets working time, leave and dismissal by statute, but pay levels come from collective agreements and contracts, because there is no statutory minimum wage.

Minimum wage

Sweden has no statutory minimum wage. Fewer than 250 of about 700 collective agreements contain specific minimum-wage levels, and about 90% of employees work at workplaces with a collective agreement; where there is none, or it sets no minimum, there is no minimum wage for the employer to consider (Medlingsinstitutet, checked 2026-10-05).

Employer contributions

Employers pay arbetsgivaravgifter on gross pay and taxable benefits. The 2026 total is 31.42%, with no earnings cap, so cost scales linearly with salary.

• Age 19-23: a temporary reduction applies to pay from 2026-04-01 to 2027-09-30: 20.81% on pay up to SEK 25,000 a month, full 31.42% above (skatteverket.se, checked 2026-10-05). We don’t apply it in the cost examples because it depends on age, not salary.
• ITP1 occupational pension is not in the 31.42%. It is a collectively agreed pension for private-sector white-collar staff born 1979 or later, and applies only if the employing entity is bound by a collective agreement (avtalat.se, checked 2026-10-05). We haven’t confirmed whether any EOR in Sweden is bound by one, so it is shown as a memo in the cost section, outside the total.

Working hours and overtime

The Act caps overtime hours but sets no pay premium in the text we read; the premium is left to the collective agreement or the contract.

Annual leave and public holidays

• 25 paid vacation days per vacation year. If employment starts after 31 August, the right for that year is 5 days (riksdagen.se, checked 2026-10-05).
• 13 statutory public holidays besides ordinary Sundays: New Year’s Day, Epiphany, Good Friday, Easter Sunday, Easter Monday, 1 May, Ascension Day, Whit Sunday, National Day (6 June), Midsummer Day, All Saints’ Day, Christmas Day and Boxing Day. Easter Sunday and Whit Sunday fall on Sundays (riksdagen.se, checked 2026-10-05).

Probation

• Probationary employment (provanställning) lasts up to 6 months.
• Either party must give notice by the end of the period, or the employment converts to permanent.
• Unless otherwise agreed, it can be ended before the period expires. It is a fixed-term form of employment, not a right to dismiss a permanent employee without cause.
• Source: LAS 6 §, riksdagen.se, checked 2026-10-05.

Notice and severance

Minimum notice is one month for both sides. When the employer terminates, notice grows with total service:

• Dismissal requires objective grounds (redundancy or personal circumstances) and written notice; redundancy follows seniority-order rules.
• Breach of the Act leads to damages. If an employer refuses to comply with a court judgment annulling a dismissal, damages are 16, 24 or 32 monthly salaries for under 5, 5 to under 10, and 10+ years of service, with a minimum of 6 months’ salary.
• No statutory severance pay was found in the Act. Collective-agreement severance exists through the TRR agreement, financed by a 0.40% employer premium; whether an EOR employee is covered depends on the EOR’s collective agreement and is not confirmed.
• Source: LAS 7, 8, 11, 22, 38, 39 §§, riksdagen.se, avtalat.se, checked 2026-10-05.

13th salary and bonuses

• Not mandatory: no statutory 13th or 14th-month pay (wageindicator.org, checked 2026-10-05). This is a negative claim based on the statutes read and WageIndicator, not a dedicated legal source.

Mandatory benefits

• The employer pays sick pay (sjuklön) for the first 14 calendar days of a sickness period: 80% of employment benefits, less a waiting deduction (karensavdrag) of 20% of an average week’s sick pay. From day 15 Försäkringskassan pays sickness benefit (riksdagen.se, checked 2026-10-05).
• Collective agreements can affect the waiting deduction (forsakringskassan.se, checked 2026-10-05).
• Sick pay is an employer cost outside the 31.42% rate.

Work permits

• EU/EEA/Swiss nationals don’t need a permit. Non-EU/EEA nationals do (Migrationsverket, checked 2026-10-05).
• The employer starts the application in Migrationsverket’s e-service and the employee completes it. The requirement also covers a person employed by a staffing company that hires out labour to a company in Sweden.
• Employer duties: advertise the job for at least 10 days (Platsbanken/EURES) for new recruitment, sign the contract after the advertising period, offer terms at least at collective-agreement or customary level, and take out sickness, life and occupational-pension insurance at that level when employment starts.
• Salary: at least 90% of the Swedish median at the application date, SEK 34,470 a month since 2026-06-16. The EU Blue Card threshold is SEK 53,625 a month.
• Whether an EOR can be the sponsoring employer is not established: the agency text names staffing companies and contains no EOR-specific rule.

Currency and payroll

• Swedish krona (SEK); Sweden is in the EU but has not adopted the euro. 1 USD = 10.05791 SEK (Riksbank, 2026-10-02).
• There is no statutory rule on pay frequency or pay day; both are set by collective agreement or contract. Monthly payment is the norm for salaried staff, as practice rather than law (wageindicator.org, checked 2026-10-05).

Is Employer of Record legal in Sweden?

Allowed with limits. Sweden has no licence or registration regime for companies that employ people and hire them out. The placement act (Lag 1993:440) covers placement only and has no permit requirement; its one duty is a ban on charging jobseekers fees (riksdagen.se, checked 2026-10-05). Staffing is regulated by Lag 2012:854, which covers employees hired out “for work under the client company’s control and direction” (riksdagen.se, checked 2026-10-05).

No Swedish statute, ruling or authority guidance specific to “employer of record” was found. We apply the staffing act because an EOR arrangement in which the client controls and directs the work fits its definition on its face; that is our reading of the wording, not an authority’s position. The limits that follow:

• Equal treatment (6 §). The staffing company must secure at least the essential working and employment conditions that would apply if the worker were employed directly by the client: hours, overtime, breaks, rest, leave, holidays, pay and non-discrimination. A collective agreement concluded or approved by a central employee organisation may derogate within the limits of Directive 2008/104/EC (3 §).
• Permanent offer (12 a §). The client must offer permanent employment to a worker placed at the same operating unit for more than 24 months in total within a 36-month period, within one month after the limit is exceeded. It may instead pay compensation equal to two of the worker’s monthly salaries. The rule applies from 2022-10-01; earlier time isn’t counted.
• Other client duties. Give hired workers access to shared facilities on the same terms as own staff (11 §) and inform them of vacant permanent and probationary positions (12 §). The staffing company may not prevent the worker from taking a job with the client (9 §) or charge the worker a placement fee (10 §).
• Work environment. Whoever engages hired-in labour to work in its business must take the protective measures the work needs (Arbetsmiljölagen 3 kap. 12 §, checked 2026-10-05).
• Collective agreements. The staffing sector has its own white-collar agreement (Kompetensföretagen with Unionen, 2025-05-01 to 2027-04-30) with minimum salaries by age and ITP pension. Whether a particular EOR is bound by it was not established (unionen.se, checked 2026-10-05).

Risks for you as the client:

• Damages to the worker for loss and for the violation if you breach the facilities, vacancy-information or 24-in-36-month duties (14 §); claims run four months from the relevant event (16 §).
• If the EOR breaches equal-treatment, non-obstruction or fee rules it owes the worker damages (13 §). Setting pay or conditions below what your direct employees get for the same work exposes the arrangement to that claim. Whether the EOR passes it on to you depends on the service contract, which the statute doesn’t cover.
• You carry work-environment duties for hired-in staff, with no EOR carve-out in the statute.
• Dismissal is tightly regulated, and an EOR will pass termination costs and process constraints on to you by contract; exit is slower and costlier than in at-will systems.
• For work-permit hires, a permit can be refused for employer-related deficiencies, and an EOR hire below SEK 34,470 a month cannot be sponsored (Migrationsverket, checked 2026-10-05).

Background: Employer of Record, co-employment.

Who actually employs your hire in Sweden

Most vendors describe their entity model globally. Here we separate what a vendor says about Sweden from what the Swedish company register shows: allabolag.se, an open mirror of Bolagsverket, Statistics Sweden and Skatteverket data. Registry matches are by company name and profile, because no vendor links to its Swedish record.

Nine of these 18 providers don’t say who employs your hire in Sweden. Of the nine marked as own entity, six rest on a registry record matched by name, not on a vendor statement. It matters because the Swedish entity is your hire’s legal employer, and Borderless AI says that in Sweden the worker follows the collective-agreement provisions of the entity that signs the contract. Before signing, ask: “Which Swedish company, with which organisation number, will employ my hire, and is it bound by a collective agreement?”

How to choose an EOR in Sweden

Hiring a non-EU national who needs a work permit? Whether Migrationsverket treats an EOR any differently from a staffing company is not established, and no EOR-specific guidance exists. Skuad says it can sponsor permits through a local partner, with three months’ processing; for every other vendor, ask for written confirmation that it will act as the permit employer. The salary must reach SEK 34,470 a month.

Want a confirmed Swedish employer? Remote and Boundless both say so in their own words and have a matching registered company. Deel, G-P, Oyster, Multiplier, Playroll and Safeguard Global have a registered company matched by name only; Atlas’s claim comes from its own article.

Is price or disclosure the priority? Only Deel, Justworks and Borderless AI show a Sweden-specific price, from $599, $599 and $579 a month. Deel is the one of the three with a matching registered entity. Every other figure is a global list price or absent.

Will the person stay beyond two years? The client’s duty to offer permanent employment after more than 24 months within 36 at one unit applies however you hire. For a long-term role, ask what the contract does when that limit is reached, or consider your own Swedish entity.

What it costs to employ someone in Sweden through an EOR

Employer contributions are a flat 31.42% with no earnings cap, so the statutory cost scales in a straight line with salary. The two examples below use SEK 500,000 (about USD 49.7k) and SEK 1,000,000 (about USD 99.4k) at 1 USD = 10.05791 SEK (Riksbank, 2026-10-02).

Source: skatteverket.se, checked 2026-10-05.

Memo, not in the totals: ITP1. If the employing entity is bound by a collective agreement, ITP1 pension premiums add to the cost, and a special payroll tax of 24.26% is charged on them (avtalat.se, checked 2026-10-05). At SEK 500,000 the pension premium is 4.5% = SEK 22,500, with special payroll tax of SEK 5,458.50; the full ITP1 premium set including insurances is 5.17% = SEK 25,850 before that tax. At SEK 1,000,000 the pension premium is SEK 140,497.50 (4.5% up to SEK 52,125 a month, 30% above), with special payroll tax of SEK 34,084.69. We haven’t confirmed whether any EOR in Sweden is bound by a collective agreement, so treat this as a question for the vendor, not a certain cost.

The contribution total was 31.42% in every year 2021-2026; only the split between components changed on 2026-01-01 (skatteverket.se, checked 2026-10-05), so we’ve skipped a history chart.

The EOR’s own fee is on top of the above. Per month, the Sweden-specific figures are Deel from $599 (management fee on its Sweden page), Justworks $599 and Borderless AI $579. Everything else is a global list price: Native Teams from $99, RemoFirst and Remote People from $199, RemotePass $349, Multiplier from $459 billed annually, Rivermate $319-639, G-P from $599, Remote and Oyster $699. Boundless, Pebl, Playroll, Safeguard Global and Atlas publish no figure, and Skuad’s price is unconfirmed.

Hidden costs, where published: Oyster says it adds no extra charge for setup and onboarding, but requires a refundable deposit, amount not published. Remote says it collects reserve payments “in rare, high risk circumstances”. RemoFirst states no minimum contract term or headcount, and G-P states no minimum contract length for EOR hires; both are global statements. No other vendor publishes a setup fee, deposit, minimum term or termination fee for Sweden; where a field is blank, treat it as unpublished, not zero.

Basis: an EOR with a Swedish establishment; employee born 1959 or later and aged 24 or over, so no age-based reduction applies; sick pay, vacation-pay accrual and recruitment or immigration costs excluded.

When you don’t need an EOR

• A genuinely independent contractor. Someone who isn’t under your control and direction and serves their own clients. See how to pay contractors in Sweden and our hiring guide. Relabelling a directed role as a contract is contractor misclassification.
• Your own Swedish entity. The route for a role that will run past 24 months within 36 at one unit, or a growing team, where the staffing-law conversion duty would otherwise apply to you as the client.
• A PEO. Deel says it offers PEO for companies that already have their own entity (Deel, checked 2026-10-05). See EOR vs PEO and the PEO glossary entry.

What changed in 2026

• 2026-01-01 — Employer contribution split changed while the total stayed at 31.42%: parental insurance 2.60% to 2.00%, survivor pension 0.60% to 0.30%, work injury 0.20% to 0.10%, general payroll fee 11.62% to 12.62%.
• 2026-01-01 — Income base amount is SEK 83,400, which sets the ITP1 premium bands (SEK 52,125 a month).
• 2026-04-01 — Temporary reduced contributions for employees aged 19-23: 20.81% on pay up to SEK 25,000 a month, for pay paid until 2027-09-30.
• 2026-05-01 — Staffing-sector white-collar agreement (Kompetensföretagen-Unionen): 2.5% pay revision to 2027-04-30, one paid day off in 2026 and a further 0.2% flexible-pension allocation.
• 2026-06-01 — New work-permit rules: salary of at least 90% of the median at application, replacing 80%, for first-time applications decided from this date. Extensions applied for between 2026-06-01 and 2026-12-01 by people already holding a permit stay under the 80% rule. New requirement to show full sickness insurance for stays up to one year, and permits can be refused for employer-related deficiencies.
• 2026-06-16 — Median salary updated to SEK 38,300 a month: threshold SEK 34,470 (90%), and SEK 30,640 (80%) for the transitional extension cases.
• 2027-01-01 (planned, not in force) — The government has said it will propose implementing the EU Pay Transparency Directive from this date, with first pay reports to the Equality Ombudsman by 2028-05-20, after the EU deadline of 2026-06-07 passed without Swedish legislation (regeringen.se, checked 2026-10-05).

Sources: skatteverket.se, Migrationsverket, unionen.se, checked 2026-10-05.

Numbers vendors haven’t updated

• Deel shows an “Estimated Employer Cost” of 32.02% of salary on its Sweden page; the Skatteverket 2026 total is 31.42%. The Deel figure is its own estimate and we didn’t trace it to a source.
• RemoFirst lists a workplace-accident employer contribution of 11.62% on its Sweden guide. The Skatteverket work-injury rate is 0.10% in 2026 (0.20% in 2020-2025); 11.62% was the general payroll fee until 2025 and is now 12.62%.
• RemotePass lists 7 public holidays on its Sweden page; the Public Holidays Act has 13 besides Sundays (riksdagen.se, checked 2026-10-05).
• Skuad’s Sweden page, as archived, shows “$499/month” next to a crossed-out “$649” and “Limited Time Offer”. The snapshot date isn’t established, so we don’t use the price.

How we built this page

Country rules and vendor data were collected and checked on 2026-10-05, from the Swedish statute texts on riksdagen.se, Skatteverket, Migrationsverket and vendor pages. Swedish legal entities were checked against allabolag.se, matched by company name and profile since no vendor links to its record; where nothing matched, we relied on the vendor’s own statement or recorded the entity as not disclosed. The order puts vendors with a Swedish entity first, ranked by published Sweden price and completeness of evidence, then providers that don’t disclose. Nobody pays for placement on this page.