Employer of Record in the United Kingdom: 21 Providers Compared (2026)

Employing someone in the United Kingdom: key facts

The UK has no regional minimum-wage split like Canada’s provinces — the National Living Wage varies by age, not by nation or region, and most other rules below apply UK-wide (with a few England/Wales-specific figures noted).

Minimum wage

The National Living Wage rose on 2026-04-01, after the government accepted the Low Pay Commission’s recommendations in full (gov.uk, checked 2026-09-30).

An apprentice only gets the apprentice rate if under 19, or 19+ and in the first year of their apprenticeship; otherwise they get their age-band rate (gov.uk, checked 2026-09-30).

Employer contributions

The Employment Allowance (up to GBP 10,500/year, reducing employer Class 1 NI) isn’t specifically barred for EORs, but it applies once per PAYE scheme regardless of employee count — for an EOR running many clients through one scheme, its per-employee value is negligible, so it isn’t applied in the cost figures below (gov.uk, checked 2026-09-30).

Working hours and overtime

• No statutory standard working week. The Working Time Regulations 1998 cap average working time at 48 hours/week, averaged over 17 weeks, unless the worker signs a valid opt-out (legislation.gov.uk, checked 2026-09-30).
• No statutory right to overtime pay — the only constraint is that average pay for hours actually worked can’t fall below the minimum wage for that pay period (gov.uk, checked 2026-09-30).

Annual leave and public holidays

• 5.6 weeks (28 days for a 5-day week, pro-rata for part-time), capped at 28 days even for 6–7 day working weeks (gov.uk, checked 2026-09-30).
• 8 bank holidays/year in England and Wales (Scotland and Northern Ireland differ); the contract must state whether these are included in, or additional to, the 28 days (gov.uk, checked 2026-09-30).

Probation

• No statutory probation concept. Employers commonly set a contractual period of 3–6 months (acas.org.uk, checked 2026-09-30).
• The practical equivalent is the unfair-dismissal qualifying period: 2 years’ continuous service, falling to 6 months from 2027-01-01 — below which most dismissal claims are unavailable (acas.org.uk, checked 2026-09-30).

Notice and severance

Source: legislation.gov.uk, checked 2026-09-30. A contract may set a longer period, never shorter.

Statutory redundancy pay applies only after 2+ years’ service: 0.5–1.5 weeks’ pay per year of service depending on age, capped at 20 years and at a weekly-pay figure of GBP 751 (from 2026-04-06) — a maximum of GBP 22,530 (gov.uk, checked 2026-09-30).

13th salary and bonuses

• Not mandatory anywhere in the UK. Any bonus is a matter of contract, not law (acas.org.uk, checked 2026-09-30).

Mandatory benefits

• Statutory Sick Pay, the 3% auto-enrolment employer pension, 5.6 weeks’ paid leave and statutory family-related pay (maternity, paternity, adoption, shared parental, parental bereavement, neonatal care) are the mandatory employee entitlements (gov.uk, checked 2026-09-30).
• No mandatory private health, dental or life insurance — the NHS is funded through general taxation and National Insurance, not an employer premium.
• Employers must separately carry Employers’ Liability insurance (GBP 5,000,000 minimum) — a legal requirement on the employer, not a worker benefit.

Work permits

• UK/Irish nationals and those with settled or pre-settled status can work without a permit; most other foreign nationals need a visa, most commonly the Skilled Worker visa.
• That visa requires a Home Office sponsor licence held by the organisation actually employing and directing the worker. Per Home Office Sponsor Guidance Part 2, a sponsor cannot hold or use a licence for “the hiring out of the worker to another organisation (third party)… regardless of any genuine contract between you and the third party” (gov.uk PDF, checked 2026-09-30).
• In practice, this means an EOR generally can’t be the Skilled Worker sponsor for a role the client directs day-to-day — sponsorship normally has to sit with the client’s own UK entity.

Currency and payroll

• Payroll runs in pounds sterling (GBP); as of 2026-09-28 the Bank of England’s daily rate was 1 GBP = 1.3250 USD (bankofengland.co.uk, checked 2026-09-30).
• No statutory minimum pay frequency — the employer must state the pay period in the written statement of employment particulars (Employment Rights Act 1996 s.1). Monthly pay is market-standard for salaried employees (gov.uk, checked 2026-09-30).

Is Employer of Record legal in the United Kingdom?

Allowed, with limits. There’s no licence or registration specific to “Employer of Record” in the UK, and hiring a UK employee through one instead of opening your own entity is common and lawful. But EOR sits inside two fact-sensitive regimes:

• Agency-worker recharacterisation. If, in substance, the client — not the EOR — exercises day-to-day supervision and direction, the arrangement can fall under the Conduct of Employment Agencies and Employment Businesses Regulations 2003 and the Agency Workers Regulations 2010, which give the worker equal-treatment rights with the client’s own staff after a 12-week qualifying period (legislation.gov.uk, checked 2026-09-30).
• The 2026 umbrella-company reform. From 2026-04-06, new joint-and-several PAYE/Class 1 NIC liability rules move responsibility up the labour supply chain — to the agency, or the end client where there’s no agency — for “umbrella company” arrangements. Law firm Lewis Silkin states this explicitly: “Employers of record or ‘EORs’ act as employing agents… They therefore fall squarely within the new definition of an ‘umbrella company’” (lewissilkin.com, checked 2026-09-30).
• The sponsor-licence bar. Home Office guidance prohibits sponsoring a role that amounts to hiring the worker out to a third party — the sponsor must retain day-to-day control over the worker’s duties (gov.uk PDF, checked 2026-09-30).
• New enforcement. From 2026-04-07, the Fair Work Agency takes over enforcement of agency conduct, the National Minimum Wage, SSP and holiday pay, with powers to inspect, fine and, in some cases, pursue criminal “labour market offences” (cipd.org, checked 2026-09-30).

For the client, three risks follow: recharacterisation as an agency-worker relationship triggers obligations neither side priced in; under the umbrella reform, HMRC can pursue the client for unpaid PAYE/NIC if the EOR gets it wrong, without first exhausting remedies against the EOR (lewissilkin.com, checked 2026-09-30); and a new foreign hire generally can’t get a Skilled Worker visa through an EOR’s sponsor licence — PwC’s client checklist separately flags that failing to verify an EOR’s licensing and genuine UK presence can leave the client treated as the real employer, with the tax and employment-law consequences that brings (pwc.co.uk, checked 2026-09-30).

Who actually employs your hire in the United Kingdom

Vendors describe their entity model globally (“150+ countries,” “owned + partner network”) far more often than they confirm it for the UK specifically. Here’s what each vendor’s own UK page, Companies House or the Home Office sponsor register actually shows:

Eleven of these 21 don’t say whether the UK is served by their own entity or a partner’s — including Oyster, Rippling and Safeguard Global. That matters more here than in most countries: under the 2026-04-06 umbrella-company reform, the chain of liability for PAYE mistakes can run up to the client, so knowing who’s actually on the payroll hook is now a compliance question. Before signing, ask directly: “Can you name the UK entity that will employ my hire, and does it hold a Home Office sponsor licence in that exact name?”

How to choose an EOR in the United Kingdom

Need the clearest evidence of who’s actually employing your hire? Deel and Justworks both name their own UK entity and turn up under an exact matching name in Companies House; Justworks’ entity also holds a Home Office sponsor licence under that same name. Remote has the single strongest confirmation in this set — a first-person “we own our entity” claim, a matching registry record, and a confirmed sponsor licence — though it has no UK-specific price to go with it.

Need to bring in a foreign national on a new Skilled Worker visa? None of the 21 vendors here can be the sponsor for that hire, regardless of which one holds its own sponsor licence — Home Office rules bar sponsoring a role that amounts to hiring the worker out to a client. That licence covers the vendor’s own staff, not your hire; you’ll need your own UK entity and sponsor licence.

Weighing price against confirmation strength? Boundless discloses the lowest UK-specific price, $199/month, backed by a Companies House name match. Rivermate’s €399–499/month comes with a stated no-setup/no-termination-fee policy, but doesn’t say whether the UK is one of its owned entities or a partner market. Remote People publishes the most detailed UK cost example of any vendor here, but its “own entity” claim is the one in this set that public registries couldn’t confirm.

Worried about the 2026 umbrella-company reform? It applies to the EOR model as such, per Lewis Silkin’s reading, not to one vendor over another — ask any shortlisted provider directly how it’s adjusting its UK PAYE process for the April 2026 rules before you sign.

What it costs to employ someone in the United Kingdom through an EOR

An EOR runs payroll for many clients on a combined UK pay bill well above the Apprenticeship Levy’s GBP 3 million threshold, so the levy applies to every hire, and the Employment Allowance — one per PAYE scheme — doesn’t meaningfully reduce a single hire’s cost.

Source: gov.uk, checked 2026-09-30.

The EOR’s own fee is on top of the above. Published UK-specific numbers in our data range from $199/month (Boundless, EUR 175) to GBP 5,295/year (about £441/month) at Deel; Justworks and G-P both quote a flat $599/month, Rivermate €399–499/month plus a refundable deposit, and Remote People $300–$600/month with a stated total employer-cost load of about 27% above gross at a GBP 60,000 example. Playroll’s UK guide states £300–£900/month as a general market range, not its own specific quote. Most other vendors publish only a global list price ($99–$699/month) or nothing at all, quote-based.

Hidden costs, where actually published: Rivermate states no onboarding, offboarding, setup or termination fee beyond its monthly rate, but does charge a refundable deposit (amount not stated). Borderless AI states no setup fee and no security deposit at all. Justworks and RemoFirst both state no setup fees or minimum commitment. No other vendor in this set discloses a deposit, minimum term or termination fee specifically for the UK — where a field is blank, treat it as unpublished, not zero.

Basis: England, 2026/27 tax year (from 2026-04-06); employer NI uncapped above the GBP 5,000 threshold; auto-enrolment pension on qualifying earnings only (GBP 6,240–50,270), not a whole-salary basis; Apprenticeship Levy at its full 0.5% and no Employment Allowance, since an EOR’s combined payroll exceeds the size thresholds that would change either for a single small employer.

When you don’t need an EOR

• A genuinely independent contractor. Cheaper and closer to the real relationship if the person sets their own hours and tools and can serve other clients. See how to pay contractors in the UK and our hiring guide for the classification tests — and be aware that a contractor arrangement that’s really employment risks misclassification exposure of its own.
• Your own UK entity. The only route if the hire needs a new Skilled Worker visa, since a UK sponsor licence generally can’t cover a worker hired out to a client.
• A PEO. Co-employment alongside an entity you already have, rather than the EOR standing in as sole legal employer — see our PEO glossary entry and EOR vs PEO for how the liability split differs; none of the vendors in this set publish a UK-specific PEO product in our data.

What changed in 2026

• 2026-04-01 — National Living Wage (21+) rises to GBP 12.71/hour, from GBP 12.21; 18–20 rate to GBP 10.85; under-18/apprentice rate to GBP 8.00.
• 2026-04-06 — Statutory Sick Pay becomes payable from day one of sickness (the 3 waiting days are removed) and the Lower Earnings Limit eligibility test is abolished; the SSP weekly rate rises to GBP 123.25.
• 2026-04-06 — Employer Class 1 NI rate (15%) and Secondary Threshold (GBP 5,000/year) carry over unchanged from 2025/26, as do the Employment Allowance (GBP 10,500), auto-enrolment thresholds and the Apprenticeship Levy.
• 2026-04-06 — Statutory redundancy pay’s weekly-earnings cap rises to GBP 751, taking the maximum statutory redundancy payment to GBP 22,530; the collective-redundancy protective award doubles to a maximum of 180 days’ pay per employee.
• 2026-04-06 — New joint-and-several liability rules make a recruitment agency — or, absent one, the end client — liable for an umbrella company’s unpaid PAYE/Class 1 NIC; Lewis Silkin’s client briefing states EORs fall within the “umbrella company” definition used for these rules.
• 2026-04-07 — The Fair Work Agency launches, taking over enforcement of agency conduct, gangmaster licensing and National Minimum Wage/SSP/holiday-pay enforcement under the Employment Rights Act 2025.
• 2027-01-01 (outside this year, but announced) — Unfair dismissal becomes available after 6 months’ service, down from 2 years, and the compensatory-award cap is abolished.

Numbers vendors haven’t updated

• Papaya Global’s UK blog page cites Statutory Sick Pay at £99.35/week; the current rate, since 2026-04-06, is GBP 123.25/week (legislation.gov.uk, checked 2026-09-30).

How we built this page

Facts were collected and checked on 2026-09-30 against UK government sources (gov.uk, legislation.gov.uk, the Bank of England) and, for the 2026 umbrella-company reform, a Lewis Silkin client briefing. Vendor entity claims were checked against Companies House and the Home Office register of licensed sponsors where a matching name could be found; where a vendor states only a global entity model, or its claim couldn’t be matched to a registry record, we recorded the UK as not disclosed rather than assuming. The ranking above puts confirmed, UK-specific own entities first. Nobody pays for placement on this page.