Country fileKZKZTVerified 2026-09-21
KZ
Employer of Record in Kazakhstan: what one employee really costs
Kazakhstan, Asia. One software engineer at $28,000 gross per year, priced through 12 providers with a published fee, on the European Commission's September 2026 exchange rate. Change the salary and headcount below.
- Employer on-cost
- +14.5%
- statutory charges on top of gross
- All-in per month
- $2,871 – $3,371
- salary + charges + published fee, cheapest to dearest listed provider
- Onboarding through an EOR
- 7 days
- per Deel - Hire employees in Kazakhstan ('your next hire could start in as little as 7 days with Deel')
Hiring one software engineer in Kazakhstan at $28,000 gross a year costs about $339 a month in statutory employer charges (+14.5%), plus an EOR fee of $199 to $699 per month depending on the provider: $2,871 to $3,371 all-in, before deposits, FX margins and add-ons. Prices checked 2–24 Sept 2026.
Disclosure Some provider links on this page are affiliate links: if you become a customer after clicking, the provider may pay us a referral fee. It never changes the price you pay, and it never changes the numbers on this page, which come from official sources and are dated. How we are paid
Cost engine · preset to Kazakhstan
Price your own hire, line by line.
employee inatgross / year
≈ KZT 12,990,552 gross / year · KZT at the European Commission monthly rate for September 2026
| Per employee | Rate | Per month |
|---|---|---|
| Gross salary | $2,333 | |
| Employer pension contribution (ОПВР) | 3.50% | $82 |
| Social contributions (социальные отчисления) capped | 5% | $64 |
| Mandatory health insurance deductions (ОСМС), employer share | 3% | $70 |
| Social tax (социальный налог), effective rate on gross | 5.28% | $123 |
| Employer on-cost | +14.5% | $339 |
| Cost of employment, before EOR fee | $2,672 |
Social contribution base: gross less the employee's 10% pension withholding90 %
RemoFirstLowest total
$2,871/ month · 1 employee
- Fee / mo
- from $199
- Per year
- $34,456
- Fee share
- 6.9%
Checked 2 Sept 2026
Get a RemoFirst quotePapaya Global
$3,171/ month · 1 employee
- Fee / mo
- from $499
- Per year
- $38,056
- Fee share
- 15.7%
Checked 2 Sept 2026
Get a Papaya quoteDeel
$3,271/ month · 1 employee
- Fee / mo
- from $599
- Per year
- $39,256
- Fee share
- 18.3%
Checked 2 Sept 2026
Get a Deel quoteEmployer charges from official sources; provider fees are list prices on the dates shown; deposits, FX margins and add-ons are not included. Not legal or tax advice. Methodology
14 providers, one scenario, all-in totals.
| Provider | EOR fee / employee / mo | All-in / mo, 1 hire | Deposit | Countries | Checked | Quote |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| RemoFirst EOR in 185+ countries from $199 per employee per month, no annual contract. | from $199 | $2,871 | Not stated on the pricing page | 185+ | 2 Sept 2026 | Get a quote from RemoFirst· $2,871/mo |
| Rivermate EOR in 180+ countries from $319 to $639 per employee per month. | from $319 | $2,991 | Not stated on the pricing page | 180+ | 2 Sept 2026 | Get a quote from Rivermate· $2,991/mo |
| Pebl Velocity Global, renamed Pebl in 2026. Prints $399 per employee per month. | from $399 | $3,071 | Not stated on the pricing page | 185+ | 22 Sept 2026 | Get a quote from Pebl· $3,071/mo |
| Playroll EOR in 180+ countries from $399 per employee per month; deposit of one month's salary. | from $399 | $3,071 | Fully refundable security deposit equivalent to one month's salary when onboarding an employee (pricing page). | 180+ | 2 Sept 2026 | Get a quote from Playroll· $3,071/mo |
| Multiplier EOR from $459 (annual) or $499 (monthly) per employee, plus mandated add-ons. | from $499 $459 billed annually | $3,171 | Refundable security deposit required per employee by the EOR terms (effective 1 June 2026), sized by Multiplier; not on the pricing page. | 150+ | 24 Sept 2026 | Get a quote from Multiplier· $3,171/mo |
| Papaya Global EOR starting from $499 per employee per month, quote-based, 160+ countries. | from $499 | $3,171 | Not stated for EOR on the pricing page (the contractor block states 'No deposit required'). | 160+ | 2 Sept 2026 | Get a quote from Papaya Global· $3,171/mo |
| Borderless AI EOR at $579 per employee per month, no deposit or pre-funding, 170+ countries. | $579 | $3,251 | No deposit: 'No upfront deposits or pre-funding required' (pricing page). | 170+ | 24 Sept 2026 | Get a quote from Borderless AI· $3,251/mo |
| Atlas HXM EOR from $599 through its own entities, plus an Agent of Record at $199. | from $599 | $3,271 | Not stated on the pricing page | 160+ | 21 Sept 2026 | Get a quote from Atlas HXM· $3,271/mo |
| Deel EOR in 130+ countries, starting at $599 per employee per month. | from $599 | $3,271 | Not stated on the pricing page | 130+ | 2 Sept 2026 | Get a quote from Deel· $3,271/mo |
| G-P EOR in 180+ countries from $599, with no minimum contract length. | from $599 | $3,271 | Not stated on the pricing page | 180+ | 24 Sept 2026 | Get a quote from G-P· $3,271/mo |
| Oyster EOR in 120+ countries at USD 699 per employee per month; refundable deposit. | $699 | $3,371 | Refundable deposit required for EOR team members 'to initiate the engagement and to ensure on-time payments' (pricing FAQ). | 120+ | 24 Sept 2026 | Get a quote from Oyster· $3,371/mo |
| Remote EOR in 90+ countries at $699 per employee per month, no deposit. | $699 | $3,371 | No deposit: 'We collect reserve payments in rare, high risk circumstances' (pricing FAQ). | 90+ | 2 Sept 2026 | Get a quote from Remote· $3,371/mo |
| Rippling EOR bundled with the Rippling platform; custom quote only. | Quote only | — | Not stated on the pricing page | — | 24 Sept 2026 | Get a quote from Rippling |
| Safeguard Global EOR sold alongside entity setup and payroll; no price published. | Quote only | — | Not stated | 187+ | 21 Sept 2026 | Get a quote from Safeguard Global |
Same salary and statutory charges in every row; only the fee segment changes.
What Kazakhstan adds on top of the salary, and where each rate comes from.
Rates apply to the base named in each line; capped lines stop growing above the ceiling. Engine assumptions: Social contribution base: gross less the employee's 10% pension withholding = 0.9; The hire was born on or after 1 January 1975 = 1.
| Line | Employer rate | Base & ceiling | Source |
|---|---|---|---|
| Employer pension contribution (ОПВР)Every employee born on or after 1 January 1975, on monthly income between one and fifty minimum wages | 3.50% | Gross salary , capped at KZT 51,000,000 / yr, floor KZT 1,020,000 / yr The newest line in Kazakh payroll and the one that is scheduled to keep rising. Article 251 of the Social Code states that employer pension contributions are made 'at the expense of the agent's own funds' and sets the rate year by year: 1.5% from 1 January 2024, 2.5% from 1 January 2025, 3.5% from 1 January 2026, 4.5% from 1 January 2027 and 5% from 1 January 2028. The 2026 step was enacted by the amending law of 18 July 2025, No. 215-VIII. A multi-year engagement therefore gets more expensive without anyone renegotiating anything: the same salary carries 3.5% this year and 5% from 2028. The base is the income used for the employee's own pension contributions, bounded at one and fifty minimum wages a month, so with the minimum wage at KZT 85,000 for 2026 the ceiling is KZT 4,250,000 a month, far above the salary priced here. Provider pages still showing 2.5% are quoting the 2025 step. | Social Code of the Republic of Kazakhstan, article 251, rate and procedure for employer pension contributions2026-09-21 |
| Social contributions (социальные отчисления)Every employee, on gross less the 10% pension withholding, bounded at one and seven minimum wages a month | 5% | Basic wage , capped at KZT 7,140,000 / yr, floor KZT 1,020,000 / yr Article 244 of the Social Code sets the rate at 3.5% and then at '5 per cent of the object of calculation of social contributions from 1 January 2025'. What makes this line unusual is its ceiling: article 245 caps the monthly base at seven minimum wages, which is KZT 595,000 for 2026, and floors it at one minimum wage. Because the base is gross less the employee's 10% pension withholding, the cap is reached at about KZT 661,000 of monthly gross - roughly US$17,100 a year at the September 2026 accounting rate. Above that the contribution stops being a percentage and becomes a fixed KZT 29,750 a month, about US$64. On the salary priced here it is already a flat amount, which is why the effective rate of this line falls as pay rises while the other three do not. | Social Code of the Republic of Kazakhstan, articles 244 and 245, rate and object of calculation of social contributions2026-09-21 |
| Mandatory health insurance deductions (ОСМС), employer shareEvery employee, on the employer's expenditure paid to the employee, capped at forty minimum wages a month | 3% | Gross salary , capped at KZT 40,800,000 / yr Kazakh health financing uses two words that translate the same way and mean opposite things. Отчисления are, in the words of article 1 of the health insurance law, 'money paid by employers at the expense of their own funds' - that is this line, at 3% since 1 January 2022 under article 27. Взносы are paid by the insured person and are withheld from pay at 2%; they are not an employer cost and are excluded from the ledger here, though they do reduce the social tax base below. The monthly object is capped at forty minimum wages, KZT 3,400,000 for 2026, which is well above the salary priced here. | Law of the Republic of Kazakhstan No. 405-V on Mandatory Social Health Insurance, articles 1, 27 and 282026-09-21 |
| Social tax (социальный налог), effective rate on grossEvery employee, on the employer's expenditure on employee income less the 10% pension withholding and the 2% health contribution | 5.28% | Gross salary This line changed on 1 January 2026 and most published figures for Kazakhstan have not caught up. The new Tax Code, adopted on 18 July 2025 and in force from 1 January 2026, sets the social tax at 6% in article 557(1), against the 9.5% of the code it replaced, and article 556(2) reduces the taxable object by the mandatory pension contributions and by the employee's mandatory health insurance contributions. Article 558(1) then applies the rate to the object net of those exclusions. Two consequences are worth stating plainly. The statutory 6% lands on 88% of gross - 100 less the 10% pension withholding and the 2% health contribution - so the effective charge on gross is 5.28%, which is the rate carried here. And the old rule that let an employer deduct the amount of its social contributions from the social tax due has not been carried into the new code, so the two are now paid in full side by side. Provider pages quoting 'Social Tax 11%' are describing neither the old rate nor the new one. | Code of the Republic of Kazakhstan on Taxes and Other Obligatory Payments to the Budget (Tax Code), articles 556, 557 and 558, in force from 1 January 20262026-09-21 |
| Compulsory employee accident insurance - a premium, not a levy not in total | — | Carried at zero because it is a commercial insurance premium whose rate is set by the insurer against the employer's occupational risk class, not a statutory percentage of pay, and named because it is a real legal obligation that an employer of record carries on your behalf. Kazakh law requires every employer to insure its employees against accidents in the course of their duties, and the premium for a low-risk office activity sits at the bottom of the scale: Deel's Kazakhstan page prices it at 0.49% of salary, which would be roughly US$11 a month on the salary here. Expect it either as its own invoice line or folded into the monthly fee, and ask which, because at this size it is easy to miss. | Deel2026-09-21 |
| Scheduled employer pension increases - 4.5% in 2027, 5% in 2028 not in total | — | Carried at zero because it is a future cost rather than a current one, and named because it is the only line on this page that is already legislated to rise. Article 251 of the Social Code sets employer pension contributions at 3.5% from 1 January 2026, 4.5% from 1 January 2027 and 5% from 1 January 2028. On the salary priced here each step adds about US$23 a month. If you are signing a three-year engagement, model the 2028 rate, not this year's. | Social Code of the Republic of Kazakhstan, article 251(1)2026-09-21 |
| Thirteenth month - not required by Kazakh law not in total | — | Carried at zero because the Labour Code creates no thirteenth-month salary and no statutory annual bonus. Paid annual leave of 24 calendar days under article 88 is paid at average earnings, with no separate holiday supplement. Bonuses and private medical cover are contractual and common in the Almaty technology market; price them as market cost, not as a legal charge. | Labour Code of the Republic of Kazakhstan, article 882026-09-21 |
| Employer on-cost at $28,000 | +14.5% | $4,068 a year, $339 a month |
EOR or your own entity
Fees scale with headcount. An entity does not.
In Kazakhstan the headline percentage is of little use, because the four employer charges run on four different bases and two of them are capped at different multiples of the minimum wage. Add the statutory rates and you get 17.5%; compute them properly against their own bases at the salary priced here and the bill is about 14.5%, and it keeps falling as pay rises because social contributions stop at seven minimum wages while everything else continues. That single feature is the argument for pricing a senior hire here rather than assuming a flat rate. Two things should shape the entity-versus-provider decision. The first is that the statutory side is legislated to rise: employer pension contributions go to 4.5% in 2027 and 5% in 2028 under article 251, so a three-year cost model built on 2026 rates understates the last year by about a point and a half of salary. The second is that the 2026 Tax Code reset the social tax to 6% and stopped letting employers net their social contributions off the tax due, which lowers the headline but changes the arithmetic in ways most published breakdowns have not absorbed - several still show 11%. Neither of those is a reason to build an entity, since an entity pays exactly the same four charges. What an entity buys here is control over the risk class used for accident insurance and over the payroll calendar; what it costs is registration, a local accountant and monthly filings against a hire a provider says can start in about a week.
Fees grow with every hire; the charges line is owed under an entity too.
| Headcount | RemoFirst fees / yr | Borderless AI fees / yr | Statutory charges / yr |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | $2,388 | $6,948 | $4,068 |
| 3 | $7,164 | $20,844 | $12,204 |
| 5 | $11,940 | $34,740 | $20,339 |
| 10 | $23,880 | $69,480 | $40,679 |
| 20 | $47,760 | $138,960 | $81,358 |
Statutory charges are owed either way; the provider fee is the only line an entity removes, against the cost of incorporating and running local payroll.
Employment terms that move the cost
- Paid leave
- 24 days
- Public holidays
- 15
- 13th month
- Not mandatory
- Probation
- up to 3 months
- Notice
- One month for liquidation of the employer or a reduction in headcount under article 53(1) of the Labour Code, unless the employment or collective agreement sets a longer period, and fifteen working days where the termination follows a fall in production volumes under article 53(2). By agreement the notice period may be replaced by a payment. Probation may not exceed three months under article 36(2), extended to six only for directors, their deputies, chief accountants and heads of branches.
- Reviewed
- 2026-09-21
Get a quote for Kazakhstan.
The lowest published total here, next to the two providers searched for most often (the rule). Totals for 1 hire at $28,000. Ask each provider about deposits, FX margins and mandatory add-ons for Kazakhstan: those are the lines that move.
Get a RemoFirst quote· $2,871/mo Get a Papaya quote· $3,171/mo Get a Deel quote· $3,271/mo
Disclosure Some provider links are affiliate links; they never change the numbers on this page. Details
Questions people ask before booking a demo
- What does an employer pay on top of salary in Kazakhstan?
- Four separate charges: employer pension contributions at 3.5%, social contributions at 5%, health insurance deductions at 3% and social tax at 6%. They do not add up to 17.5% in practice, because each runs on its own base and two are capped. At the US$28,000 example the combined bill is about US$4,070 a year, or roughly US$339 a month, which is about 14.5% of salary.
- Is the Kazakh social tax 11% or 6%?
- 6%, since 1 January 2026. The Tax Code adopted on 18 July 2025 sets the rate in article 557(1), replacing the 9.5% of the previous code, and article 556(2) removes the employee's pension and health contributions from the taxable object before the rate is applied. That puts 6% on 88% of gross, an effective 5.28%. The new code also drops the old rule that let employers deduct their social contributions from the social tax due, so the two are now paid side by side. Pages still showing 11% are quoting neither the current nor the previous rate.
- What does one engineer cost per month through an EOR in Kazakhstan?
- At the US$28,000 example: US$2,333 of salary, about US$339 of statutory employer charges, and the provider's fee. With a published fee of US$599 a month that is about US$3,271 a month in total; with a US$199 fee it is about US$2,871. Change the salary or the provider in the calculator above and every line recomputes.
- Why does the Kazakh employer rate fall as the salary rises?
- Because social contributions are capped and the other three charges are not. Article 245 of the Social Code caps the monthly base for social contributions at seven minimum wages, KZT 595,000 in 2026, and since the base is gross less the employee's 10% pension withholding, the cap is reached at about KZT 661,000 of monthly gross - roughly US$17,100 a year. Above that the 5% line becomes a fixed KZT 29,750 a month. Employer pension contributions run to fifty minimum wages and health deductions to forty, so they keep scaling. Price your actual band rather than applying one percentage.
- What leave, probation and notice apply in Kazakhstan?
- Article 88 of the Labour Code gives 24 calendar days of paid annual leave unless a longer period is agreed. Probation is capped at three months under article 36(2), extended to six only for directors, their deputies, chief accountants and heads of branches, and it is suspended for any period the employee is actually absent. Notice is one month for liquidation or redundancy under article 53(1), and fifteen working days where the termination follows a fall in production volumes; by agreement the notice may be replaced by a payment.