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

The individual employment contract must be written in Romanian and concluded no later than the day before work starts, with a copy given to the employee and the required employment information recorded before the start. Include the employer, the role, the workplace, the duties, gross pay and components, the payday, working hours, leave, probation, notice and the applicable collective terms. An understandable translation helps a foreign employee, alongside the required Romanian contract rather than instead of it.

Put the employment terms in writing

Registration changed this year. REGES-ONLINE replaced Revisal from 1 January 2026, and the required contract registration has to be complete before the employee starts work, with changes then reported under the deadlines applicable to each type of change. That is separate from tax registration and payroll returns, and the inspectorate's 15-working-day deadline concerns requested employment certificates rather than permission to register a new hire after they start.

Choose the contract duration and trial period

Indefinite employment is the ordinary rule. A fixed-term contract needs a permitted reason and a written duration, normally no more than 36 months, with at most three successive fixed-term contracts between the same parties, and a subsequent contract concluded within three months after the previous one ends treated as successive and capped at 12 months. Those rules are different from a temporary-agency assignment.

For ordinary indefinite employment, probation can run up to 90 calendar days for execution roles or 120 calendar days for management roles, and for a person with a disability it is limited to 30 calendar days. During or at the end of a valid trial either party can normally end the contract by written notification without notice or a stated reason, and probation remains paid employment with employee rights throughout.

Fixed-term trials are much shorter and worth checking before a contract is drafted: five working days for a contract under three months, fifteen for three to six months, and thirty for more than six months, with forty-five working days for a management role on a contract longer than six months. The ordinary ninety-calendar-day trial does not apply to a fixed-term hire.

Check medical fitness, safety and collective terms

Employment requires a medical certificate confirming fitness for the job, which is a pre-start item rather than an onboarding formality. The employer must assess and address workplace safety, provide the necessary information and training and bear the cost of safety measures, and using an outside service removes none of that legal responsibility. For an EOR arrangement, set out how the provider and the client will handle the actual workplace, equipment and incidents.

Collective negotiation at employer level is mandatory unless the employer has fewer than ten employees, though that duty does not guarantee an agreement will be concluded. Identify any applicable agreement before setting pay, leave, notice or other conditions, and check the workforce of the actual employing company, because the client's headcount does not settle the provider's duties.

Make the contract and benefit information understandable to the employee. A service agreement between your company and the provider does not replace the employee's own employment documents.

Misclassification risk, and the authority test

Romania puts authority in the statutory definition, which gives you a single question to answer. The Labour Code describes employment as work performed under an employer's authority in exchange for salary, and if that describes the role, calling the person a contractor does not settle their status. Source: the approved Romanian contractor guidance, Labour Code via inspectiamuncii.ro, checked 18 September 2026.

So assess control, independence and the actual services before using a contractor arrangement, and treat the invoice as what it is: evidence of how you chose to pay, not evidence of what the relationship is. A contractor invoice is not a substitute for an employment assessment. Source: the approved Romanian contractor guidance, checked 18 September 2026.

What a hirer does about it: where the person will work under your authority, employ them and register the contract properly, because in Romania the register is the first thing an inspection looks at and an unregistered arrangement is the weakest position to hold. And there is a figure attached, which I can now quote. Receiving one or more persons to work without concluding an individual employment contract, as article 16 (1) requires, carries a fine of 20,000 lei for each person so identified, up to a cumulative 200,000 lei. Source: Labour Code article 260 (1) (e), consolidated text published by the Labour Inspection on inspectiamuncii.ro, archived capture 14 September 2026. Note what that penalty is counted on: people, not breaches, so a team engaged the same way is the same mistake repeated at 20,000 lei each. It is also the fine for the missing contract rather than a separate misclassification penalty, which is the shape the exposure takes here.

Two items below can stop an arrangement rather than cost money: the agency assignment limit and the pre-start registration. The rest are figures that moved in 2026 and are still quoted at their old values.

Resolve these points before making an offer

Ask the provider to answer each of these against the actual role and duration.

On the agency point, a temporary-work agency must hold the required authorisation, and its assignment to a user company normally lasts no more than 24 months and may be extended within a total of 36 months. The agency can employ someone indefinitely, which does not remove the assignment limit. Check that the role has a lawful temporary purpose and that the actual employing company is authorised.

One client liability is worth pricing rather than noting. The agency is the employer and normally pays salary and employment contributions, agency workers must receive at least the pay of a comparable worker at the user company and access to the same facilities, and the user has workplace obligations. If the agency has not paid salary or contributions within 15 calendar days after they became due, the user must pay them following the worker's request. Agree how payroll failures and workplace issues will be handled before they happen.

Record the responsibility split between the provider and your company, and make sure the employee knows who pays them, approves leave, handles a complaint and deals with workplace problems.

The whole ordinary Romanian employer charge is 2.25%, which is why the country sits near the bottom of the burden index. The 25% pension and 10% health that people remember are the employee's, and they come out of gross pay rather than sitting on top of it.

Payroll reporting and payment

Payroll needs the current D112 return and the employee's correct tax and contribution treatment. Salary income tax is ordinarily payable by the twenty-fifth of the following month, with quarterly exceptions for qualifying employers. Set out who submits returns, who pays liabilities and who handles corrections, keeping the salary payday and the tax-remittance deadline as separate dates.

Business taxes and the provider's invoice

The ordinary corporate profit-tax rate is 16%, with different regimes and minimum-tax rules for qualifying businesses, and the current standard VAT rate is 21%. Those are business and transaction taxes rather than extra salary deductions, and the correct VAT treatment of the provider's invoice depends on the service, the parties and the place of supply.

OECD and other international datasets remain useful for comparing countries. An actual payroll calculation needs the current Romanian rules and the employee's own tax and social-security position.

Pension and additional benefits

The public pension framework uses a standard age of sixty-five, with women's retirement age increasing under the birth-date schedule to sixty-five by January 2035. The minimum contributory period is fifteen years and the full contributory period is thirty-five, with the applicable transition schedule, and reductions and individual exceptions can apply. There is no single current retirement age for every woman in Romania.

For a qualifying Pillar II participant, 4.75 percentage points of the ordinary 25% employee pension contribution go to the private pension account, leaving 20.25 points for the public system. It is a split of the employee's own contribution rather than another employer charge on top of salary, and participation rules, including mandatory participation for eligible younger employees, differ from a voluntary supplementary pension benefit.

Paid annual leave, legal holiday treatment, qualifying family leave and statutory social insurance are part of the employment framework, while additional health cover, meal vouchers, extra leave, bonuses or voluntary pension support depend on the applicable collective terms and the package you agree. Define the eligibility, the employer's cost and the payroll tax treatment for each, and assume neither that every optional benefit is tax-free nor that a thirteenth salary is universally required.

Check the employee's eligibility and supporting documents before promising a leave period or a net benefit, keeping the right to take leave and the amount paid during it as separate questions.

From 1 July 2026 Romania's general full-time minimum base salary is RON 4,325 gross per month, excluding allowances, bonuses and other additions, with the wage-setting measure using 166.667 average monthly hours and an hourly equivalent of RON 25.949. Check any higher sector or collective floor and the employee's working pattern, and do not present the earlier RON 4,050 floor as the current general rate.

Set the offer using the current pay floor

For context, the National Institute of Statistics reported average gross monthly earnings of RON 9,709 and average net earnings of RON 5,820 for July 2026, in release 229 of 11 September 2026. Those are national means for that month, including variable pay in the statistical measure, rather than medians, annual averages or a benchmark for a particular role.

The legal floor checks the minimum permitted pay while a national earnings mean provides context. Use the role, experience, location and working pattern to assess an actual offer.

Agree the payday

Salary must be paid at least once a month on the date specified in the employment contract, the applicable collective agreement or the internal rules, so set the payroll input and approval dates so the employer can meet that payday. The Labour Code creates no universal last-day-of-the-next-month salary deadline. Keep evidence of payment and explain gross pay, deductions and net pay to the employee.

Working hours, overtime and rest

Romanian overtime is compensated in time first and in money only if that fails, which is the opposite of the assumption most foreign policies start from.

The ordinary full-time working week is forty hours, normally eight hours a day over five days, and including overtime working time is generally limited to an average of forty-eight hours a week over four calendar months, subject to lawful exceptions and collective arrangements. A twelve-hour working day must be followed by twenty-four hours of rest, and actual working time including start and finish times has to be recorded.

Overtime normally requires the employee's agreement except in force majeure or urgent accident-related cases. Provide paid time off within ninety calendar days, and if that is not possible pay the overtime in the following month with an agreed supplement of at least 75% of the corresponding base pay. Part-time employees and workers under eighteen have additional restrictions, and there is no annual 180-hour allowance to assume.

Night work runs between 10 p.m. and 6 a.m., with the night-worker rules covering at least three night hours in a normal working day or at least 30% of monthly working time. For qualifying days with at least three night hours the employee receives either a one-hour shorter working day without lower base pay or a 25% night supplement, and health assessment and protections for specified workers also apply.

Employees normally receive at least twelve consecutive hours of daily rest, with an eight-hour minimum between shifts under the shift-work exception, and weekly rest is normally forty-eight consecutive hours, usually Saturday and Sunday. Where weekly rest is scheduled on other days the applicable agreement determines the pay supplement, and breaks for a working day longer than six hours follow the collective agreement or internal rules, with special rules protecting younger workers.

Where work lawfully continues on a public holiday the employee should receive corresponding time off within thirty days, and if justified reasons prevent that the pay supplement must be at least 100% of the base salary corresponding to the holiday work. That is different from overtime and from a weekly-rest-day supplement, so check the actual schedule rather than applying a universal 250% rate.

Employees are entitled to at least twenty working days of paid annual leave, and public holidays and other separate paid days off are not deducted from that entitlement. State the actual entitlement in the contract and check more favourable collective terms, noting that part-time work does not automatically halve the number of statutory leave days even though pay and the working schedule need their own calculation.

Annual leave and public holidays

If justified reasons prevent all or part of annual leave being taken in its year, the employer must arrange the unused leave with the employee's agreement within eighteen months starting from the following year, and if leave is split the scheduling must allow at least ten uninterrupted working days in a year. Cash compensation for unused statutory annual leave is permitted only when employment ends.

Leave pay has its own formula and its own deadline. The annual-leave allowance uses the daily average of base pay and permanent allowances or supplements over the preceding three months, multiplied by the leave days, cannot be below the corresponding contractual base pay and permanent components, and must be paid at least five working days before leave begins.

The holiday entitlements are 1 and 2 January, 6 and 7 January, 24 January, Good Friday, the first and second days of Easter, 1 May, 1 June, the first and second days of Pentecost, 15 August, 30 November, 1 December, and 25 and 26 December. Some fall on weekends or overlap, so this is not seventeen extra weekdays off every year, and recognised non-Christian religions have a separate entitlement to two days for each of three annual religious holidays.

Sickness and family leave

Romanian sick pay is graded by the length of the episode rather than by service, and a 2026 rule change on unpaid days has to be applied on top.

For ordinary illness or an accident outside work, the benefit rate depends on the medical episode's duration: 55% for up to seven days, 65% for eight to fourteen days, and 75% for at least fifteen days, applied to the statutory calculation base with certification and insurance conditions. Different illnesses and leave categories can carry different rates.

CNAS confirms that from 18 May 2026 only one working day is excluded from the benefit for an uninterrupted medical episode, regardless of the number of initial or continuation certificates. Exceptions applying from 1 June 2026 include maternity, maternal-risk and qualifying oncology-care leave, qualifying national-health-programme cases and hospitalisation. The certificate category and the required supporting entries matter, so do not deduct a day from every continuation certificate or apply the ordinary rule to an exempt case.

Qualifying maternity leave totals 126 calendar days, normally split into sixty-three before birth and sixty-three after, with the split adjustable but at least forty-two days after birth compulsory. The allowance is 85% of the statutory reference earnings, generally based on the preceding six months, with a usual insurance condition of six months in the preceding twelve. Medical certification and individual eligibility apply, and this is separate from child-raising leave.

Where the employer cannot provide safe working conditions for a qualifying pregnant, postpartum or breastfeeding employee, medically recommended maternal-risk leave can last up to 120 days at 75% of the statutory reference earnings. It sits apart from ordinary maternity leave and child-raising leave, with its own conditions and its own 2026 unpaid-day exception.

A pregnant employee who qualifies on medical advice can have normal hours reduced by one quarter without lower pay, and a breastfeeding employee is entitled to two one-hour breaks, or a two-hour daily reduction on request, until the child is one year old, without reduced pay. Night-work and workplace-risk protections also apply, and the employer needs the appropriate notification and medical evidence to arrange protection.

An employed father is entitled to ten working days of paid paternity leave taken within the first eight weeks after birth, with a qualifying childcare-course certificate adding five working days. The additional entitlement can apply for each newborn child and the employer pays the salary corresponding to the leave, separately from the parents' longer child-raising leave.

An eligible parent can take child-raising leave until the child is two, or three where the child has a qualifying disability, with an ordinary qualifying test of twelve months of eligible income or recognised equivalent periods in the preceding twenty-four months. Where both parents qualify, two months are reserved for the other eligible parent and one parent cannot take those reserved months instead.

The ordinary child-raising allowance is 85% of the average qualifying net income for twelve months in the preceding twenty-four, subject to a monthly floor of RON 1,651 and a cap of RON 8,500, and since August 2025 10% health insurance has been withheld from it. The headline award and the amount received are therefore different numbers, so confirm the claim, eligibility and payment calculation before promising a net benefit.

The adopting parent, or one spouse in the adopting family, can qualify for accommodation leave of up to two years, with the allowance based on 85% of the qualifying net income over twelve months in the two years before the placement-for-adoption court decision, subject to the statutory conditions and limits. Health insurance has been withheld from this allowance since August 2025 too. Arrange the leave and the benefit application through the appropriate authorities.

An employee can request five working days of paid carer's leave in a calendar year to support a qualifying relative or a person in the same household with a serious medical problem, on written request and subject to the supporting conditions, with more favourable rules able to provide longer. Those days sit outside annual leave, and OUG 42/2023 expressly confirmed their paid status from 25 May 2023.

For an unforeseen family emergency caused by illness or an accident requiring the employee's immediate presence, the employee may be absent for up to ten working days per calendar year after informing the employer, with the missed working time made up under an agreed arrangement. That is separate from the five paid carer's days and is not ten extra days of paid leave.

Paid time off for special family events is separate from annual leave, but the qualifying events and the number of days come from the relevant law, collective agreement or internal rules. Do not promise every private-sector employee a universal ten-day marriage allowance or five bereavement days: record the actual entitlement in the employee's benefits information.