Employer of record in Austria: costs, rules and how to hire

Use a written contract covering the employing entity, role, workplace, classification, pay, hours, leave, notice, trial terms and applicable collective agreement, and unless that contract already contains all required information, provide the Dienstzettel employment statement. For employment starting from 28 March 2024 the duty also covers relationships lasting a month or less, so the old one-month exemption is gone. What decides the substance is the collective agreement and the employee's classification within it.

Put the practical terms in writing

Record who employs the person, who gives work instructions, the agreed location, hours and salary, the pay date, leave, benefits, reporting process and notice rules, and explain the applicable collective agreement and classification in language the employee understands. Employees can request electronic delivery of the statement.

Probation and fixed-term work

An ordinary trial period can be agreed only at the start of employment and cannot exceed one month, during which either party can end employment without ordinary notice, subject to shorter collective-agreement periods, separate apprentice rules and the discrimination and other protections that still apply.

A fixed-term contract normally ends on its agreed date, and ordinary termination before that needs an expressly agreed termination option, with serious-cause and mutual termination as separate routes. Successive fixed terms need an objective justification or the relationship can be treated as indefinite. Choose the contract type for the real employment need: a fixed end date is not a substitute for a lawful probation clause, and the client's project ending does not erase the agency's obligations to its employee.

Remote work, equipment and information

Telework needs a mutual written agreement, which can be made electronically, and neither side can impose it unilaterally. The employer normally provides the required digital equipment and connection, or agrees appropriate reimbursement for employee-provided equipment, while working-time, rest and employment protections continue and travel accident cover depends on the approved location and trip.

Agree approved locations, availability, overtime approval, expenses, equipment ownership and the return of company information, and ask the provider to explain confidentiality and how intellectual-property rights reach your company through the employment and service agreements. Review any proposed post-employment restriction for the actual role.

Contractor classification

Assess what happens in practice: who controls the work, whether the person is integrated into the business, and which entity carries employment responsibilities. A contractor or EOR label does not settle the legal classification, so obtain an assessment before converting an employee-style role into independent services.

Misclassification risk, and the dependence test behind it

Austria asks a social insurance question first, and the answer decides who owes contributions. The official guidance for employers puts the test in one sentence: an employee in the social insurance sense is a person who is employed for remuneration in a relationship of personal and economic dependence, and the category also covers people whose work carries the features of personal and economic dependence. Source: Osterreichische Gesundheitskasse, employer guidance, archived capture 13 September 2026.

Read "personal and economic dependence" as the two questions it actually is. Personal dependence is about who decides when, where and how the work is done. Economic dependence is about whether this person's living comes from you and whether they carry any business risk of their own. A supplier who works the hours you set, at the place you set, with your equipment and no other clients, is a person a reviewer will look at closely whatever the contract says.

What a hirer does about it: settle the status before the engagement starts, because the contribution liability that follows a reclassification is the employer's, and document which side decides the working arrangements. I have not found an Austrian government source in our registry setting out the penalty schedule that follows a finding, so I am not quoting a figure, and a provider who quotes you one should be asked where it comes from.

Six things catch foreign employers out here, and the first two are about the collective agreement and the salary structure rather than about the law being strict. Cross-border leasing adds a seventh set of duties on top. Resolve each before signature.

Resolve these points before signing

Each item names something to confirm with the provider in writing.

• Collective agreement: the job title alone does not identify the binding sector terms. For leasing, compare the agency and client entitlements.
• Annual salary: clarify whether holiday and Christmas payments are included, how many instalments are due and what happens in a partial year.
• Location: Vienna has a higher housing contribution, and the chamber surcharge varies by province.
• End of assignment: stopping the client service does not automatically end the employee's pay or contract.
• Written information: new short contracts also need the required employment particulars; the former one-month exemption is obsolete.
• Notice date: a notice period and the permitted quarter-end or agreed monthly end date must both be satisfied.

When people are leased across borders

For covered leasing into Austria from the EU, EEA or Switzerland, the overseas employer must make the ZKO4 notification before work starts, with required notification, social-insurance and wage records available for inspection. Current guidance allows wage documents in German or English, the domestic client has document-retention responsibilities in a leasing arrangement, and Austrian minimum-pay rules still apply.

Local Austrian employment and an overseas employer leasing staff into Austria are different setups, so ask the provider which one it uses and make sure the notification, document, social-security and immigration duties match that setup rather than being copied from another country's contract.

The 2026 base employer rate for an ordinary fully insured employee is 20.98% of contributory regular pay outside Vienna and 21.23% in Vienna, and that is only the social-insurance layer: the severance fund, family-burden levy, chamber surcharge, municipal tax and any agency-sector contribution all sit outside it. Austria stacks charges on different bases, which is why one percentage never describes the cost. What decides yours is the province and the employee's circumstances.

Separate employer charges from employee deductions

For an ordinary fully insured employee paying the full unemployment-insurance rate, the 2026 regular-pay employee contribution is 18.07% outside Vienna or 18.32% in Vienna up to the contribution ceiling, with low earnings, age and other eligibility rules able to reduce it. Those come out of gross pay alongside wage tax.

The 2026 ordinary social-contribution ceiling is €6,930 per month, or €231 per day for the relevant partial-period calculation, and qualifying special payments have a separate €13,860 annual ceiling. The 1.53% occupational severance-fund contribution is not capped by those ceilings.

Other employer payroll charges

Four further charges apply, each with its own base. The employer contribution to the Family Burdens Equalisation Fund, DB, is ordinarily 3.7% of the relevant gross-pay base, subject to exemptions and the small-payroll allowance.

The 2026 DZ chamber surcharge for liable employers varies by province: Burgenland 0.40%, Carinthia 0.37%, Lower Austria 0.33%, Upper Austria 0.31%, Salzburg 0.35%, Styria 0.34%, Tyrol 0.39%, Vorarlberg 0.33% and Vienna 0.36%, applying the relevant establishment and payroll-base rules with any exemption or allowance.

Ordinary municipal payroll tax is 3% of its statutory payroll base, with a small-payroll allowance available when the relevant monthly wage total does not exceed €1,460, and establishment, cross-border leasing and exempt-pay rules affecting the calculation. Not every payroll levy uses the social-insurance ceiling.

The employer-only WBB-AÜG contribution is 0.35% for covered leased manual and white-collar employees on the relevant regular and special-payment contribution bases up to their ceilings, applying where both the agency and client businesses are covered by collective agreements, with stated exceptions where only one or neither is. Vienna also charges an employer levy of €2 per employment relationship and started week, subject to exemptions, separate from municipal payroll tax and from Vienna's higher housing contribution.

Special payments and low earnings

Qualifying special payments generally exclude the employee Chamber of Labour levy and the housing contribution, which for an ordinary employee at the full unemployment rate gives 20.48% employer and 17.07% employee contributions before the separate severance and other employer levies. Use the annual special-payment ceiling and check exceptions rather than applying the regular monthly percentage unchanged.

At the lower end, the 2026 employee unemployment-insurance rate is 0% up to €2,225, 1% from €2,225.01 to €2,427, 2% from €2,427.01 to €2,630 and 2.95% above €2,630, with regular and special payments assessed separately and the ordinary employer share remaining 2.95%.

Income-tax withholding

For 2026 taxable annual income, marginal rates are 0% up to €13,539, 20% to €21,992, 30% to €36,458, 40% to €70,365, 48% to €104,859, 50% to €1 million and 55% above €1 million, with that top band currently limited through 2029. Credits, deductions and special-payment tax rules affect actual withholding, so payroll must calculate it for the employee's circumstances. Corporate tax and a national tax-wedge statistic are different measures and do not belong in an employer-contribution percentage.

Pension and severance savings

The normal pension age for men is sixty-five, while women's pension age rises by birth cohort from 2024, reaching sixty-five for those born from 1 July 1968. Pension entitlement also requires the applicable insurance record and an application, so pension age is not an automatic employment end date.

For employment starting from 1 January 2003, the Abfertigung NEU scheme generally requires an employer contribution of 1.53% of monthly pay and special payments into an occupational severance fund, with the first month normally contribution-free. The accumulated capital belongs to the employee and is preserved even on resignation, with withdrawal depending on contribution history and the exit reason. The statutory pension system and this funded scheme are different things, and the severance contribution is not a discretionary employer pension benefit.

Immigration and cross-border arrangements

Check the employee's existing work rights and the route for the actual employer and assignment. Austria's EU Blue Card route has a 2026 annual gross salary threshold of €55,678 including special payments, plus qualification, job-offer and other requirements, and an EOR service does not guarantee permission: cross-border leasing from outside the EU or EEA can require separate leasing and employment permits. Confirm which employer and activity the permission covers before the start date, and have the provider assess changes in client, location or employing entity rather than assuming an existing permit covers a new assignment.

Austria has no single statutory minimum wage. Binding pay floors come from the applicable industry collective agreement and job classification, which means the sector, the classification and recognised prior service decide the floor, and for labour leasing you compare the agency and client-sector entitlements and use the higher one. There is no national number to fall back on.

Set pay using the right agreement and benchmark

As a worked example of how sector-specific this is, the 2026 collective agreement for manual labour-leasing workers sets €13.90 an hour for entry groups A and B, with a stated minimum monthly wage of €2,326.86, and higher groups have higher scales. That is a sector floor rather than a national minimum or the floor for a white-collar EOR hire.

For market context, Statistics Austria reports median gross annual income of €55,678 for employees who worked full time throughout 2024, excluding apprentices, with an all-employee median of €38,043 including part-time and part-year work. Those are 2024 observations published in December 2025, not a 2026 average or a role-specific offer, so price from the role, location, seniority, language needs and the binding pay classification.

Pay dates and special payments

Leased employees must receive pay and a written calculation at least monthly. For ordinary white-collar employment the legal default is instalments by the fifteenth and last day of the month, though monthly payment at month-end can be agreed and is common in collective agreements, and blue-collar defaults and sector exceptions differ.

There is no universal statutory entitlement to thirteenth- or fourteenth-month payments: holiday and Christmas bonuses commonly arise from collective agreements or the contract, which set the amount, eligibility and due dates. Agree the annual gross salary and the number of payments explicitly, and state separately the normal salary paid during annual leave and any holiday bonus, because they are different amounts.

Hours, overtime and rest

The normal statutory framework is eight hours a day and forty a week, with shorter weeks in many collective agreements and permitted flexible arrangements, so record the actual agreed schedule. Extra hours within the normal full-time limit and statutory overtime are different categories, which matters most for part-time employees.

Ordinary overtime attracts a 50% supplement or agreed time off including that supplement, normally 1.5 hours per overtime hour. General maximums are twelve hours a day and sixty in a week, with a forty-eight-hour average over seventeen weeks, subject to permitted exceptions and longer averaging periods, and employees can refuse overtime beyond ten hours a day or fifty a week without giving a reason.

Covered employees normally receive a thirty-minute break when working more than six hours, eleven consecutive hours of daily rest and thirty-six hours of weekly rest usually including Sunday, with collective and statutory exceptions regulating permitted splits, reductions and compensatory rest. Keep time records and a clear approval process for additional hours, because an all-in salary wording does not remove the need to check entitlements for the hours actually worked.

Statutory annual leave is five working weeks, normally twenty-five days on a five-day schedule, rising to six weeks after twenty-five reckonable years, and qualifying previous employment, schooling and study can count within limits. That reckonable-service rule is the part to check at onboarding rather than at the first leave request, because it can change the entitlement on day one.

Annual leave and public holidays

In the first employment year leave accrues proportionately for six months and then becomes the full entitlement, with later years normally starting at the full entitlement. Agree holiday dates taking business needs and employee rest into account, keep leave records, and note that ordinary pay continues during leave while any separate holiday bonus depends on the collective agreement or contract. Eligible unused leave is compensated on exit, with special rules for unjustified early departure, so check expiry conditions before deleting carried-over leave.

Austria has thirteen national statutory holidays: New Year, Epiphany, Easter Monday, 1 May, Ascension, Whit Monday, Corpus Christi, Assumption, National Day, All Saints, Immaculate Conception, Christmas and St Stephen's Day. Ordinary pay continues for qualifying holiday absence and permitted holiday work attracts additional pay, while Good Friday is not a general extra statutory holiday, though it can be chosen as the employee's personal holiday from existing annual leave under its notice rules. A holiday falling on a non-working day creates no automatic Monday replacement.

Sick leave and pay

Employer-paid sick leave scales with service, which is a real cost worth modelling. For ordinary illness or a non-work accident it is six weeks at full pay in the first service year, eight weeks in years two to fifteen, ten in years sixteen to twenty-five and twelve from year twenty-six, followed by four weeks at half pay, with repeat absences sharing the applicable annual allowance. Work accidents and occupational disease carry a separate eight-week allowance per incident, rising to ten after fifteen years.

Employees must promptly report incapacity and provide medical evidence when properly requested. Statutory sickness benefit is separate from employer continued pay: it is suspended while employer pay exceeds half and normally halved while half-pay continues, with the insurer applying its own earnings, waiting-period and duration rules, so do not count a full insurer payment on top of full employer salary. Record the employee's service year, previous absences and evidence requirements for planning.

Maternity, birth and parental leave

Employment is normally prohibited for eight weeks before the expected birth and eight weeks after, or twelve after a premature, multiple or Caesarean birth, and a shortened pre-birth period can extend the post-birth protection, generally up to sixteen weeks. Eligible insured employees receive Wochengeld based on net earnings in the preceding three full calendar months, plus a special-payment allowance.

Eligible private-sector fathers have one month of unpaid birth leave, normally between the day after birth and the end of the mother's post-birth protection, requiring a shared household and timely notice: usually notify the employer three months before the expected birth, report the birth promptly and confirm the start within one week after birth, with a notice exception for premature births. Qualifying fathers who interrupt work for family time can apply for a separate state benefit of €54.87 a day for twenty-eight to thirty-one days, subject to prior insured work, household and residence conditions and actual return to qualifying work or parental leave. That benefit is not employer-funded salary.

For current births, one parent can normally take unpaid parental leave until the child reaches twenty-two months, with alternating parents able to extend it to age two, each period generally lasting at least two months. Single-parent and other statutory exceptions can allow age two, while a permitted one-month overlap reduces the endpoint to twenty-three months, and childcare benefit is a separate entitlement. Leave protection, insurer or state benefit and any employer top-up are separate questions, so confirm the claim process, payroll treatment and applicable dismissal protection for the particular family and dates.

Care leave and optional benefits

Necessary care of a sick close relative, or a sick person in the employee's household, can support paid care leave up to one normal working week per employment year, with a further week available for a renewed need to care for a sick child under twelve once the first entitlement is exhausted and the other statutory conditions are met. Related childcare and hospital-accompaniment rights follow their own rules.

Build optional benefits around the hire, such as equipment, training, additional leave, private insurance or an occupational pension top-up, confirming any binding collective-agreement benefits first and showing voluntary enhancements separately in the quote.