Employer of Record in Ukraine: what one employee really costs
Ukraine, Europe. One software engineer at $30,000 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
- +22.0%
- statutory charges on top of gross
- All-in per month
- $3,249 – $3,749
- salary + charges + published fee, cheapest to dearest listed provider
- Onboarding through an EOR
- 5 days
- per Deel - Hire employees in Ukraine ('your next hire could start in as little as 5 days with Deel')
Hiring one software engineer in Ukraine at $30,000 gross a year costs about $550 a month in statutory employer charges (+22.0%), plus an EOR fee of $199 to $699 per month depending on the provider: $3,249 to $3,749 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 Ukraine
Price your own hire, line by line.
≈ UAH 1,338,900 gross / year · UAH at the European Commission monthly rate for September 2026
| Per employee | Rate | Per month |
|---|---|---|
| Gross salary | $2,500 | |
| Unified social contribution (ЄСВ), employer share | 22% | $550 |
| Employer on-cost | +22.0% | $550 |
| Cost of employment, before EOR fee | $3,050 |
$3,249/ month · 1 employee
- Fee / mo
- from $199
- Per year
- $38,988
- Fee share
- 6.1%
Checked 2 Sept 2026
Get a RemoFirst quote$3,549/ month · 1 employee
- Fee / mo
- from $499
- Per year
- $42,588
- Fee share
- 14.1%
Checked 2 Sept 2026
Get a Papaya quote$3,649/ month · 1 employee
- Fee / mo
- from $599
- Per year
- $43,788
- Fee share
- 16.4%
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 | $3,249 | Not stated on the pricing page | 185+ | 2 Sept 2026 | Get a quote from RemoFirst· $3,249/mo |
| Rivermate EOR in 180+ countries from $319 to $639 per employee per month. | from $319 | $3,369 | Not stated on the pricing page | 180+ | 2 Sept 2026 | Get a quote from Rivermate· $3,369/mo |
| Pebl Velocity Global, renamed Pebl in 2026. Prints $399 per employee per month. | from $399 | $3,449 | Not stated on the pricing page | 185+ | 22 Sept 2026 | Get a quote from Pebl· $3,449/mo |
| Playroll EOR in 180+ countries from $399 per employee per month; deposit of one month's salary. | from $399 | $3,449 | 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· $3,449/mo |
| Multiplier EOR from $459 (annual) or $499 (monthly) per employee, plus mandated add-ons. | from $499 $459 billed annually | $3,549 | 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· $3,549/mo |
| Papaya Global EOR starting from $499 per employee per month, quote-based, 160+ countries. | from $499 | $3,549 | 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· $3,549/mo |
| Borderless AI EOR at $579 per employee per month, no deposit or pre-funding, 170+ countries. | $579 | $3,629 | No deposit: 'No upfront deposits or pre-funding required' (pricing page). | 170+ | 24 Sept 2026 | Get a quote from Borderless AI· $3,629/mo |
| Atlas HXM EOR from $599 through its own entities, plus an Agent of Record at $199. | from $599 | $3,649 | Not stated on the pricing page | 160+ | 21 Sept 2026 | Get a quote from Atlas HXM· $3,649/mo |
| Deel EOR in 130+ countries, starting at $599 per employee per month. | from $599 | $3,649 | Not stated on the pricing page | 130+ | 2 Sept 2026 | Get a quote from Deel· $3,649/mo |
| G-P EOR in 180+ countries from $599, with no minimum contract length. | from $599 | $3,649 | Not stated on the pricing page | 180+ | 24 Sept 2026 | Get a quote from G-P· $3,649/mo |
| Oyster EOR in 120+ countries at USD 699 per employee per month; refundable deposit. | $699 | $3,749 | 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· $3,749/mo |
| Remote EOR in 90+ countries at $699 per employee per month, no deposit. | $699 | $3,749 | No deposit: 'We collect reserve payments in rare, high risk circumstances' (pricing FAQ). | 90+ | 2 Sept 2026 | Get a quote from Remote· $3,749/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 Ukraine 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: The employer is an ordinary payer, not a Diia City resident = 1.
| Line | Employer rate | Base & ceiling | Source |
|---|---|---|---|
| Unified social contribution (ЄСВ), employer shareEvery employee, on gross pay between one and twenty minimum wages a month; the employee has no contribution of their own | 22% | Gross salary , capped at UAH 2,075,280 / yr, floor UAH 103,764 / yr One contribution covers pensions, sickness, unemployment and work-accident cover, and the employee pays none of it: article 8(5) states that the unified contribution for the payers listed in article 4 'is set at 22 per cent of the base of assessment defined by article 7 of this Law'. The ceiling is where published figures for Ukraine go stale, and the law does not read the way most summaries say. Article 1(4) defines the maximum base as fifteen minimum wages, but that definition has been suspended for 2026 by the State Budget Law of 3 December 2025, and article 32 of that budget law sets the maximum base from 1 January 2026 at twenty minimum wages for everyone except military and police pay, which stays at fifteen. With the minimum wage fixed at UAH 8,647 a month by article 8 of the same budget law, the 2026 ceiling is UAH 172,940 a month, carried here as UAH 2,075,280 a year. Providers are still quoting the 2025 pair: Deel's Ukraine page prices the ceiling at UAH 160,000 a month, which is twenty times the old UAH 8,000 minimum wage. The floor is the other half of the rule: where the base is below one minimum wage the contribution is still computed on the full minimum wage, giving a minimum liability of UAH 1,902.34 a month. | Law of Ukraine No. 2464-VI on the collection and accounting of the unified contribution, article 8(5), consolidated text on the official parliamentary portal2026-09-21 |
| Contribution ceiling for 2026 - twenty minimum wages, not fifteen not in total | — | Carried at zero because it is a modelling rule rather than a charge, and named because it is the single most out-of-date number published about Ukrainian payroll. Article 32 of the Law on the State Budget of Ukraine for 2026 states that in 2026 the maximum base of assessment for the unified contribution equals twenty minimum wages from 1 January 2026, except for the pay of military personnel and police, where it equals fifteen. The same law fixes the minimum wage at UAH 8,647 a month. The ceiling therefore starts biting at about US$3,875 of monthly salary at the September 2026 accounting rate, which is above the example priced here, so the full 22% applies to this salary and the cap only matters for senior pay. | Law of Ukraine No. 4695-IX on the State Budget of Ukraine for 2026, articles 8 and 322026-09-21 |
| Personal income tax and military levy - withheld, not added not in total | — | Carried at zero because both are withheld from the employee's gross pay rather than charged on top of it, and named because they are routinely added to Ukrainian employer-cost tables by mistake. The unified contribution is the employer's whole statutory bill; personal income tax and the military levy come out of the same gross salary the employee was promised. The practical consequence for an offer is that a Ukrainian gross figure converts to a noticeably smaller net than the same gross in a country where the employer carries part of the social burden, so compare net pay with a candidate, not gross. | Law of Ukraine No. 2464-VI, article 7, base of assessment for the unified contribution2026-09-21 |
| Thirteenth month - not required by Ukrainian law not in total | — | Carried at zero because the Labour Code creates no thirteenth-month salary and no statutory holiday bonus. Annual leave is paid at average earnings under the Law on Leave, with no separate holiday supplement. Bonuses and private health cover are contractual and normal in the Ukrainian technology market; price them as market cost, not as a legal charge. | Law of Ukraine No. 504/96-VR on Leave, article 6, consolidated text2026-09-21 |
| Employer on-cost at $30,000 | +22.0% | $6,600 a year, $550 a month |
EOR or your own entity
Fees scale with headcount. An entity does not.
Two Ukrainian facts change the employer-of-record decision in opposite directions, and both are specific to the country rather than general advice. The first is Diia City. Part 14-1 of article 8 of the unified contribution law sets the contribution for a resident of that regime at the minimum insurance contribution - UAH 1,902.34 a month in 2026 - instead of 22% of actual pay. On the salary priced here, that is roughly US$43 a month against about US$550, so a qualifying technology company running its own Ukrainian entity has a structural payroll advantage no provider fee can match. The regime carries conditions on qualifying activity, headcount and average remuneration under the digital-economy law, and a provider hiring on your behalf will not normally bring them to your role, so the honest comparison is your own entity inside Diia City against an employer of record outside it. The second is martial law, in force since 2022 and extended in ninety-day increments. Law No. 2136-IX changes the employment relationship while it lasts: article 12 lets the employer limit annual leave to 24 calendar days for the current working year and grant anything beyond that without pay; article 13 allows the contract to be suspended for up to 90 calendar days in total, during which the employer owes no salary and no guarantee payments; article 5 permits dismissal during sick leave or leave and disapplies the trade-union consent rule in article 43 of the Labour Code; and the public-holiday article of the Labour Code does not apply at all, so the nine holiday dates and the two religious Sundays it names are not guaranteed non-working days for now. Those provisions expire with martial law rather than on a fixed date, which is the part to write into a contract rather than assume.
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 | $6,600 |
| 3 | $7,164 | $20,844 | $19,800 |
| 5 | $11,940 | $34,740 | $33,000 |
| 10 | $23,880 | $69,480 | $66,000 |
| 20 | $47,760 | $138,960 | $132,000 |
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
- 0 · suspended under martial law
- 13th month
- Not mandatory
- Probation
- up to 3 months
- Notice
- Two months for redundancy under article 49-2 of the Labour Code, which requires employees to be notified personally of a forthcoming release no later than two months in advance. An employee resigning from an open-ended contract gives two weeks under article 38. During martial law, article 5 of Law No. 2136-IX also allows dismissal while the employee is on sick leave or on leave, other than maternity and childcare leave.
- Reviewed
- 2026-09-21
Get a quote for Ukraine.
The lowest published total here, next to the two providers searched for most often (the rule). Totals for 1 hire at $30,000. Ask each provider about deposits, FX margins and mandatory add-ons for Ukraine: those are the lines that move.
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 Ukraine?
- 22% of gross pay, as a single unified social contribution covering pensions, sickness, unemployment and work-accident cover. The employee contributes nothing to it. At the US$30,000 example that is about US$6,600 a year, or roughly US$550 a month. The contribution is owed on a base of at least one minimum wage and at most twenty minimum wages a month.
- Is the Ukrainian contribution ceiling fifteen minimum wages or twenty?
- Twenty, for 2026. The definition in article 1(4) of the unified contribution law says fifteen, but that part of it is suspended for 2026 by the State Budget Law of 3 December 2025, whose article 32 sets the maximum base at twenty minimum wages from 1 January 2026 - fifteen only for military and police pay. With the minimum wage at UAH 8,647, the ceiling is UAH 172,940 a month, about US$3,875 at the September 2026 accounting rate. Several provider pages still show UAH 160,000, which is twenty times the 2025 minimum wage.
- What does one engineer cost per month through an EOR in Ukraine?
- At the US$30,000 example: US$2,500 of salary, about US$550 of statutory employer charges, and the provider's fee. With a published fee of US$599 a month that is about US$3,649 a month in total; with a US$199 fee it is about US$3,249. Change the salary or the provider in the calculator above and every line recomputes.
- How does Diia City change the cost of hiring in Ukraine?
- It replaces the percentage with a flat amount. Part 14-1 of article 8 of the unified contribution law sets the contribution for a Diia City resident at the minimum insurance contribution on each insured person's salary, which in 2026 is 22% of UAH 8,647, or UAH 1,902.34 a month - about US$43 - however much the employee earns. That is roughly one-thirteenth of the 22% charge on the salary priced here. The catch is that Diia City residency belongs to the company, with qualifying conditions on activity, headcount and average pay, so it is a reason to model your own entity rather than something an employer of record hands you.
- What does martial law change for an employer in Ukraine?
- Four things, all in Law No. 2136-IX. Annual leave may be limited by the employer to 24 calendar days for the current working year, and any further leave granted without pay. The contract may be suspended for up to 90 calendar days in total, during which no salary or guarantee payments are owed. Dismissal is permitted during sick leave or leave other than maternity and childcare leave, and the trade-union consent requirement in article 43 of the Labour Code does not apply. And article 6(6) disapplies article 73 of the Labour Code, the public-holiday article, so statutory holidays are not guaranteed non-working days while martial law lasts. That is why this page counts zero public holidays for 2026: article 73 names nine holiday dates, plus Easter and Trinity Sundays, and they return as non-working days when martial law ends.