Employer of Record in Zambia: 13 Providers Compared (2026)

Employing someone in Zambia: key facts

Labour-law figures come from the Employment Code Act No. 3 of 2019 as enacted; no consolidated text with later amendments was found. Contribution rates are mostly from PwC, because the ZRA, NAPSA and WCFCB pages did not open.

Minimum wage

Zambia has no single national minimum. Sector orders apply under the Employment Code. The General Order (SI 48 of 2023) has been in force since 2024-01-01.

• Category I is basic pay of 1,487.00, a 30% housing allowance (446.10), transport (200) and lunch (180).
• Shop workers: Grade I 2,313.10 to Grade VIII 4,638.25. Domestic workers: 1,300.
• Scope: the Orders exclude employees whose conditions are more favourable than the Order’s gross pay, so a salaried hire at market pay sits outside them.

Source: Mulenga Mundashi law-firm note, checked 2026-11-04. The gazetted SI was not opened. We found no 2025 or 2026 revision, though the Code requires a review at least every two years.

Employer contributions

On a ZMW 84,500 monthly salary the standard cost is ZMW 1,861.80 + 845.00 + 422.50 = ZMW 3,129.30 a month, about 3.7% of gross, checked 2026-11-04. WCFCB and a small local-authority levy are excluded.

Working hours and overtime

• Ordinary hours: 8 hours of actual work a day; up to 48 hours a week, or a lower figure in the contract (s.74). At least 24 consecutive hours of rest in every 7 days (s.76).
• Overtime: 1.5 times the hourly rate above 48 hours a week (watchpersons and guards: above 60); double on a public holiday or weekly rest day outside the normal week. Hourly rate is monthly basic wage divided by 208 (s.75).

Source: Employment Code Act 2019, checked 2026-11-04.

Annual leave and public holidays

• Annual leave: after 12 consecutive months, at least 2 days per month (24 days a year) on full pay, on top of public holidays and weekly rest; leave not granted is paid out (s.36).
• Maternity and paternity: 14 weeks maternity leave, plus 4 for a multiple birth (s.41); at least 5 working days paternity leave after 12 months of service (s.46).
• Public holidays: the Schedule to the Public Holidays Act, as we read it (amended to 1987), names 11 days; the Minister may add days by notice. We did not verify a complete 2026 list, so we give no count.

Source: Employment Code Act 2019 and Public Holidays Act, checked 2026-11-04.

Probation

• Up to 3 months, extendable once by up to 3 months (6 in total). Either side may end the contract on at least 24 hours’ notice.
• Without written confirmation, the employee is confirmed when probation expires. No severance is payable during probation (s.54(3)).

Source: Employment Code Act 2019, ss.19, 27, checked 2026-11-04.

Notice and severance

No statutory severance is set for a permanent employee dismissed for another valid reason. Source: Employment Code Act 2019, ss.38, 52-56, 73, checked 2026-11-04.

13th salary and bonuses

Not mandatory. We found no 13th-month or statutory bonus provision in the Act (Employment Code Act 2019, checked 2026-11-04).

Mandatory benefits

• NAPSA pension, NHIMA health insurance, the SDL and employer-funded workers’ compensation through the WCFCB (rate not confirmed).
• Gratuity: at least 25% of basic pay at the end of a long-term (over 12 months) or fixed-duration contract, applied instead of severance (s.73, s.54(3)).

Source: Employment Code Act 2019, checked 2026-11-04.

Work permits

• Foreigners need an Employment Permit (Form 23) for employment over 6 months; the employer applies while the person stays outside Zambia.
• The file includes the contract, police clearance, qualifications, incorporation documents and a succession plan with an understudy programme.
• The Immigration Control Act, 2026 (Act No. 3 of 2026, assented 2026-03-31) replaces the 2010 Act from a date set by statutory instrument, which we did not find. It provides for a decision within 30 days and a 3-month temporary employment permit, renewable once (ss.16, 28).
• Whether an EOR may sponsor a client’s foreign hire is not confirmed.

Source: Immigration Department guide (2019) and Immigration Control Act 2026, checked 2026-11-04.

Currency and payroll

• Payroll runs in Zambian kwacha (ZMW) (PwC, checked 2026-11-04).
• Wages are paid monthly and in any case within 5 days after they fall due; the employer keeps a wage record for each employee (ss.66, 71).
• The written contract goes to a labour officer for attestation within 30 days (s.25).

Source: Employment Code Act 2019, checked 2026-11-04.

Is Employer of Record legal in Zambia?

Grey area. We found no Zambian statute, regulator statement or law-firm memo on the EOR model. The rules that matter:

• Employment Code s.2, s.108: an “employment agency” includes a person “employing persons with a view to making them available to a third party, who may be a natural or legal person that assigns their tasks and supervises the execution of these tasks”. Operating one without a Labour Commissioner permit is prohibited and carries an administrative penalty; the permit is valid 3 years with an annual fee (ss.109-110). No source says whether an EOR needs it. The Ministry of Labour’s registration page still cites the repealed Cap 268 (mlss.gov.zm, checked 2026-11-04).
• Employment Code s.118(5)-(6): an employment agency must give each worker a contract with the agency and ensure similar wages and conditions to the third party’s comparable employees. A breach is an offence (fine up to 200,000 penalty units or up to 2 years), but only if an EOR counts as an agency (Employment Code Act 2019, checked 2026-11-04).
• Employer registrations: the legal employer must register with the ZRA (PAYE, SDL), NAPSA and NHIMA and is wholly liable for tax not deducted (ZRA PAYE guide, checked 2026-11-04).

Client risks:

• If an EOR is an employment agency under s.2 and holds no permit, the arrangement is exposed to the s.108 penalty and the s.118 offences. The position is open, so this is an unresolved exposure, not an asserted breach.
• Dismissal needs a valid reason and a hearing, and the employer carries the burden of proof; redundancy costs at least 2 months’ basic pay per year served. An EOR contract may pass these costs on (Employment Code Act 2019, checked 2026-11-04).
• The Data Protection Act, 2021 requires controllers to register (s.19) and personal data to be stored in Zambia, with sensitive data staying there (s.70). The Minister’s criteria for cross-border transfers were not found issued, so how a foreign client may hold an employee’s HR data is unsettled (Data Protection Act 2021, checked 2026-11-04).
• PwC reports an anti-fragmentation permanent-establishment rule from 2026-01-01; a foreign client directing work in Zambia should check its position, as PwC doesn’t address its application to EOR use (PwC, checked 2026-11-04). See permanent establishment.

Who actually employs your hire in Zambia

Vendors describe their entity model globally far more often than they confirm it for Zambia. This is what each provider’s Zambia-facing page says (checked 2026-11-04). The company registry (PACRA) requires a login, so we checked no registry record.

Twelve of these 13 don’t say whether a Zambian entity of their own would employ your hire, and the partner statement is company-wide, not Zambian. With the legal question also open, the entity statement is nearly all the evidence a client gets. Before signing, ask directly: “Which Zambian entity will employ my hire, do you own it, and can you show its NAPSA, NHIMA and ZRA registrations?”

Not in the table: Remote and Rise, whose Zambia pages show no EOR product; Justworks, whose EOR country list omits Zambia (archived copy); and Rippling, Native Teams, RemotePass, Kleos, Remozo, Boundless and Atlas HXM, whose Zambia coverage we could not confirm.

How to choose an EOR in Zambia

Want evidence of who employs your hire? No provider can be shown to use its own Zambian entity. RemoFirst states a partner model company-wide. For the others, get the entity name and its registrations in writing before you sign.

Weighing price against detail? Remote People ($199/month flat), Skuad ($199 monthly), Playroll ($399) and Borderless AI ($579) show prices on Zambia pages. The rest show global list prices, and G-P and Safeguard Global publish none.

Hiring a foreign national? Oyster’s country list shows visa sponsorship for Zambia, but no page we read says an EOR sponsors a permit for a client’s foreign hire. Remote People says permits take 6 to 10 weeks; Rivermate says 6 to 8 weeks for a foreign hire. Ask in writing.

Need to start quickly? Deel says as little as 2 days, Borderless AI 1 to 2 business days, Remote People within a week and Safeguard Global one to two weeks. Playroll’s guide says 1 to 5 days; its EOR page says 7 to 12 business days. These are vendor claims.

What it costs to employ someone in Zambia through an EOR

The EOR is the legal employer and runs payroll across many clients, so we model it as a large payroll; the sources read set no size threshold for the Skills Development Levy. Salaries are 12 equal monthly payments with no 13th salary, and the whole salary is treated as basic for NHIMA.

USD figures use 1 USD = 20.277 ZMW, the Bank of Zambia mid rate for 2026-11-04 as republished by allratestoday.com, checked 2026-11-04. Both salaries are far above the NAPSA ceiling, so the pension cost is flat and the share of gross falls as pay rises. On the first salary the statutory total rose from ZMW 31,314 on the 2023 ceiling to ZMW 37,551.60 on the 2026 ceiling (2023 rests on a payroll-vendor notice; 2025 is not confirmed).

The EOR’s own fee is on top. The USD prices published for Zambia or site-wide in this set run from $199/month (Remote People, flat, on its Zambia page; Skuad on monthly billing; RemoFirst’s global list price) to $699/month (Oyster, global list price). Skuad also shows $149/month on a 12-month commitment, though its widget labels are ambiguous. Rivermate’s figure is EUR 399-499/month; G-P and Safeguard Global publish no price.

Other costs, where published:

• Playroll’s Zambia page says “no hidden setup fees” and Pebl’s pricing page says “no hidden fees”; neither publishes an amount.
• Rivermate’s global FAQ says there are no onboarding, offboarding, setup or termination fees, only a monthly fee and a refundable deposit whose amount isn’t stated.
• No provider publishes a Zambia-specific setup fee, deposit or termination fee; blank means unpublished, not zero.
• A fixed-term contract adds a gratuity of at least 25% of basic pay.

All figures are for mainland Zambia on national rules.

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 Zambia, our hiring guide and contractor misclassification. A contractor is typically a self-employed individual with a ZRA taxpayer number (TPIN), taxed on net profit at the same 0%, 20%, 30% and 37% scale, with quarterly provisional returns. Whether a software freelancer falls under the 5% turnover tax is unsettled, because ZRA and PwC say it does not apply to consultancy services (PwC, checked 2026-11-04).
• Your own Zambian entity. The open question is whether the Employment Code’s employment-agency permit reaches an EOR. An employer with its own entity doesn’t depend on the answer, but it takes on the ZRA, NAPSA and NHIMA registrations itself, plus WCFCB cover.

What changed in 2026

• 2026-01-01 — The NAPSA monthly earnings ceiling is ZMW 37,236, so the employer contribution maxes out at ZMW 1,861.80 a month and the total with the employee at ZMW 3,723.60. The 2025 ceiling was not confirmed (PwC, checked 2026-11-04).
• 2026-01-01 — Income Tax Act amendments after the 2026 Budget add a 1% minimum alternative tax on company turnover, an anti-fragmentation permanent-establishment rule and a 0.5% monthly penalty on unpaid assessed tax (PwC, checked 2026-11-04).
• 2026-01-01 — PwC publishes the 2026 personal income tax table as 0% up to ZMW 61,200, 20% to 85,200, 30% to 110,400 and 37% above. Payroll sites report no change from 2025; we did not verify this against the Finance Act (PwC, checked 2026-11-04).
• 2026-03-31 — The Immigration Control Act, 2026 (Act No. 3 of 2026) is assented and replaces the earlier Act, with employment, temporary employment and seasonal employment permits. It takes effect on a date set by statutory instrument, which we did not find (ZambiaLII, checked 2026-11-04).

Numbers vendors haven’t updated

Vendor figures that differ from the sources above (checked 2026-11-04):

• RemoFirst’s Zambia guide gives a minimum wage of ZMW 917 a month and a 40-hour standard week. The General Order’s lowest category is ZMW 2,313.10 and the Code’s weekly limit is 48 hours (mmlp.co.zm).
• Rivermate’s guide lists ZMW 1,313.10 for general workers; the General Order shows ZMW 2,313.10.
• Deel’s page shows NAPSA capped at ZMW 1,342 a month, which is the 2023 maximum; the 2026 maximum is ZMW 1,861.80 (PwC). Its 29.93% employer cost also counts a 20% housing allowance and a 0.60% liability fee, which are not statutory contributions in our sources.
• Remote People’s page gives a NAPSA ceiling of ZMW 34,164 a month; PwC gives ZMW 37,236 for 2026.
• Skuad’s guide gives 12 weeks of maternity leave; the Code says 14 weeks (s.41).
• Playroll’s guide puts employer on-costs at about 6.5%, against about 3.7% here, which excludes the WCFCB assessment. It also says 15 public holidays; we did not verify a complete list.

How we built this page

Facts were collected and checked on 2026-11-04 against the Employment Code, the Immigration Control Act 2026, PwC tax summaries, law-firm notes and vendor pages; where a source is secondary, we say so. We could not search the Zambian company registry (PACRA requires a login), so no vendor’s entity is confirmed by a record and statements rest on vendors’ own pages. Providers are ordered with the one stating a partner model first, then those that name no entity, ranked by published Zambia price and completeness of data. Nobody pays for placement on this page.