Employer of Record Cost in 2026: EOR Pricing by Provider and Country

How much does an employer of record cost per employee?

An employer of record costs $199 to $699 per employee per month in published list prices, read from 14 provider pricing pages on 26 September 2026. That is the service fee only.

Salary, employer taxes, statutory benefits and any deposit come on top.

Older buyer guides still quote global EOR costs ranging from $199-$1,000+ per employee monthly. Remote People's current comparison of 30 providers puts advertised starting fees between $99 at Native Teams and $699 at Remote.

No pricing page we read lists more than $699.

"Starting at" matters. G-P, Atlas HXM, Papaya Global, Skuad and RemoFirst all print a floor, and the final price depends on country, headcount and contract length. Oyster and Multiplier discount annual billing.

Flat fee vs percentage of salary

A flat fee charges the same amount per employee whatever the salary; a percentage model charges a share of each employee's gross pay.

Every provider in the table that publishes a price quotes a flat monthly fee, which is the model most EOR providers typically use today.

None of the 15 pricing pages offers a percentage plan. SelectSoftware Reviews puts the global average for EOR services at $300 to $1,000 a month on fixed fees and 5% to 10% of salary on percentage deals.

At 10%, the two models cross at a gross salary of $5,990 a month. Below that the percentage deal is cheaper; above it, every raise or promotion raises the fee too.

A $12,000 employee on a 10% contract costs $1,200 a month in fees, double the flat price.

Ask for a monthly cap on any percentage quote. The full comparison, including hybrid and custom packages, is in our guide to EOR pricing models.

EOR cost by country

Country changes the total cost far more than it changes the fee. None of the pricing pages we read shows a higher list price for Europe; the difference comes from what the law makes the employer pay on top of salary.

• Vietnam, 23.5%: 17.5% social, 3% health and 1% unemployment insurance per PwC's tax summary, plus a 2% trade union fee. Contributions stop at 20 times the reference level (see our Vietnam payroll guide).
• Germany, about 21.2%: our sum of the employer halves of the 2026 health, care, pension and unemployment rates SBK publishes, at the 2.9% average health add-on. Sick-pay and maternity levies come on top.
• Singapore, 17%: CPF for citizens and PRs aged 55 and under, on wages up to S$8,000 a month from January 2026. Employment Pass holders pay no CPF.
• United Kingdom, 15%: employer National Insurance on earnings above £5,000 a year in 2026-27, per GOV.UK.
• Australia, 12%: the super guarantee since 1 July 2025.
• India, 12%: the employer's provident fund contribution (PwC summary), with the 8.33% pension part capped at ₹15,000 of wages.
• Philippines, 10%: the employer's SSS share since January 2025, per KPMG, on salary credits up to PHP 35,000. PhilHealth, Pag-IBIG and 13th-month pay are extra.
• United States, 7.65%: Social Security and Medicare, per the IRS, before federal and state unemployment tax.

In Europe, the fee is the same list price and the contributions set the gap. A German employee on €5,000 a month adds about €1,060 in employer contributions at 21.2%, before levies.

A UK employee on £4,000 adds £537 of National Insurance, since the first £417 a month is exempt. Both are our arithmetic on the rates above.

Borderless AI's regional table, built on 2025 pricing data, reflects the same pattern at the fee level: $450 to $800 a month in Western Europe against $300 to $500 in Latin America. Those are Borderless AI's estimates, not list prices.

EOR vs your own entity: the break-even

An entity pays back when the EOR fees you stop paying each month exceed the entity's own running cost by enough to recover its setup. Headcount in one country decides it, not years in the market.

Finding the break-even point starts with the entity's price: RemoFirst puts initial setup at $20,000 to $150,000. Our EOR vs entity cost calculator uses $15,000 to $40,000 of setup and $1,500 to $4,500 a month of upkeep for our markets.

The chart takes the midpoints.

With five staff or fewer, $599 fees total less than $3,000 a month, so the entity never pays back. At six it takes 46 months; at 10, nine months.

A cheaper EOR fee pushes each of those numbers later, which is why a $599 provider and a $199 provider give different answers to the same question.

For the wider trade-off, see EOR vs PEO vs contractor management.

FAQ

Which countries are cheapest to hire in through an EOR?

List fees do not change by country on the pages we read, so the cheapest countries are the ones with low salaries and low employer contributions.

Of the eight above, the United States and the Philippines carry the lowest headline rates, though the Philippine figure leaves out PhilHealth, Pag-IBIG and 13th-month pay.

Does the EOR fee rise when an employee gets a raise?

On a flat fee, no. On a percentage contract, yes, by the same share: a $1,000 raise adds $100 a month at 10%.

Can I negotiate EOR pricing?

G-P and Atlas HXM advertise volume pricing, and Oyster and Multiplier discount annual billing, so headcount and commitment are the levers the providers themselves name.