How much does an Employer of Record cost?
EOR cost has three parts: a per-employee monthly fee, the statutory employer costs for that country, and the salary itself. CareerBuddy's Africa EOR starts from $399 per employee per month; statutory employer costs range from roughly 2% to 18.5% depending on the market.
- CareerBuddy EOR from
- $399/employee/month
- Statutory range
- ~2%–18.5%
- Deposits
- Market-dependent
- Setup fee
- None
03The three components
Comparing EOR quotes on the headline fee alone is a mistake — the statutory layer is often larger than the fee, and it is not negotiable.
- Platform fee — flat per employee per month, or a percentage of salary with some providers
- Statutory employer cost — pension, social security and levies, set by law in each market
- Salary — benchmarked in local currency; the published salary pages give current bands
04What to watch in a quote
Ask whether the fee is flat or a percentage of salary, whether severance accruals or deposits are held, what the FX spread is on local payment, and what happens to the fee when you offboard mid-month. Percentage-of-salary pricing quietly punishes senior hires.
Frequently asked
Is a flat fee better than a percentage?+
For senior roles, almost always. A flat per-employee fee keeps the cost of an expensive hire predictable, while percentage pricing scales with a salary that has nothing to do with the work the provider does.
Are there hidden costs?+
The common ones are severance accruals, mandatory benefits, thirteenth-month pay where applicable, and FX spread. Ask for a fully loaded monthly figure per market before comparing providers.
Go deeper
More on employer of record
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