Employer of Record in Portugal: what one employee really costs

Questions people ask before booking a demo

How much does an employer of record cost in Portugal?

The statutory employer charge is one line: social security at 23.75% of gross pay, with no ceiling. On a US$45,000 salary that is about US$890 a month on top of salary. Published EOR fees then run from about $199 to $699 per employee per month, so the all-in cost lands near $4,840 to $5,340 a month depending on the provider. Two real costs sit outside that: the work accident policy, which is an insurer's quote rather than a public rate, and the meal allowance, which almost every Portuguese contract carries.

Do the 13th and 14th month salaries add to the employer cost?

Not to the figure on this page, because the annual salary you enter already contains them. Portuguese pay is quoted monthly and the year has fourteen of those months: the Labour Code gives a Christmas subsidy equal to one month's pay, due by 15 December, and a holiday subsidy on top of holiday pay. Deel states the convention on its own Portugal page - the 13th and 14th month salaries 'are included in the total annual salary'. They do attract social security, and the 23.75% above is already charged on them, so counting them again would count the same euros twice. Where they do bite is cash timing and the first year: both are proportional to time served, so a hire starting in July earns roughly half of each that year.

Do Portuguese employers still pay into the Fundo de Compensacao do Trabalho?

No, and several provider pages still say otherwise. Decreto-Lei 115/2023 of 15 December closed the FCT to new contributions and suspended payments into the guarantee fund FGCT, with effect from 1 January 2024; the official fund portal states that the obligation to make payments into the FCT ceased definitively and that employers' outstanding FCT debts were extinguished. So the 0.925% and 1% figures still printed by competitors are not owed for any salary year this page prices. The two funds differ in one respect: the FCT is closed for good, while the FGCT is only suspended until the end of the October 2022 medium-term income agreement, whose targets run to 2026. The decree still reads that way, so a contract signed in 2026 owes nothing; if the suspension ends, the charge that returns is 0.075% of base pay and seniority allowances. The underlying exposure did not vanish: half of the statutory termination compensation those funds used to reimburse is now simply an employer cost when a dismissal happens.

What is not included in the 23.75%?

Three things, all real and none of them a public rate. The work accident policy every employer must buy from an authorised insurer: Deel charges 3.15% of salary for it and Rippling quotes 1.75%, a gap of about US$630 a year on this page's example. The meal allowance, EUR 6.15 a working day at the 2026 public-sector rate, which is also the tax-free limit in cash, roughly EUR 1,350 a year. And the telework compensation the Labour Code requires for a remote hire, which Deel sets at EUR 50 a month; only about EUR 1 a day of it is tax-free under Portaria 292-A/2023. Occupational health and safety services are billed separately again - Deel lists EUR 150 a year. Ask any provider to quote these four as line items rather than inside a blended percentage.

What leave, notice and probation apply in Portugal?

Twenty-two working days of paid annual leave is the statutory minimum, plus thirteen mandatory public holidays, one of which is Easter Sunday. Probation runs to 90 days for most employees, 180 days for technically complex, high-responsibility or specially qualified roles and for first-job seekers, and 240 days for directors and senior management; during it either side can end the contract without notice or compensation. After probation, an employee resigns on 30 days' notice up to two years of service and 60 days after that, while an employer dismissing for economic reasons gives 15 to 75 days by seniority and pays 14 days of base salary per complete year of service.