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Albania is located in southeastern Europe and occupies a diverse terrain from coastlines to the mountains of the Albanian Alps. They are currently in negotiations for EU candidacy.
The right to employment is provided for in the Albanian Constitution which defines that "Everyone has the right to earn a means of living by lawful work that he/she has chosen or accepted himself. Each person is free to choose his profession and place of work as well as the manner of achieving professional or other qualifications or training".
An employer may only hire employees who meets the minimum employment age, which according to the Albanian Labour Code is 16 (sixteen) years old. Foreign citizens who want to work and live in Albania need work and residence permits.
The minimum wage in Albania is 32,000 ALL per month, and the standard working hours are 40 hours per week and 8 hours per day (Monday-Friday).
Employees are allowed to work up to 8 hours of overtime every week and up to 200 hours of overtime per year. Any work done after the standard 40 hours a week has to be paid at a minimum rate of 25% more than the standard rate, and work done during a weekend or public holiday is paid at 50% more than the standard rate.
Pregnant employees are entitled to a compensated maternity leave of 365 days — a minimum of 35 days should be taken before the expected due date, and a minimum of 63 days should be taken after the due date. For any parental leave taken before the birth and up to 150 days following the birth, the employee is paid 80% of their average daily salary, after that they receive 50% of their average salary.
For fathers or non-pregnant parents, there is a right to 3 days of leave after the birth of the child, paid by the employer. Additionally, if the mother does not take her maternity leave (after the 63 mandated days), parents who contributed to social security for the past year are entitled to 330 days of paid paternity leave with salary paid after the 63rd day of the birth of the child. The same as for mothers, their salary will be 80% of the average salary up to 150 days after birth, then 50%.
Albanian law states that parents can have 12 days of paid leave to tend for a child, and they can request up to 30 unpaid days a year to care for a child.
Employees in Albania can claim sick leave for the entirety of an illness, however they do not receive full pay. For the first 14 days of the illness, the employer pays 80% of their salary. After 14 days, social insurance pays the employee 70% of their salary (or 80% if they have more than 10 years of insurance contributions).
Albania has around 20 public holidays, and both full-time and part-time employees are entitled to 4 weeks of paid time off (PTO) per year. PTO accrues monthly at 1.67 days per month. Employees are eligible for annual leave from the start of employment.
Albania has a 3 month probationary period where either party may terminate their contract with 5 days notice. After this period, there is no at-will termination and termination must be done for just cause.
If an employer wants to dismiss an employee with reasonable cause, they are obligated to deliver prior notice to the employee. They must also request a meeting within 72 hours of the notice to discuss the reason for the termination and allow the employee to present their counterarguments. Should the employer fail to arrange the meeting within 72 hours of notice, the employee is eligible for additional compensation.
If an employer terminates a contract for unreasonable causes, they are obliged to pay the employee damages that may amount up to one year of wages. If the employee wishes to terminate their contract, they must also provide a reason and continue through the contracted notice period before their end date.
Notice periods in Albania vary by tenure:
All employees who have worked at a company for 3+ years must receive a minimum of 15 days of severance pay.
Contracts must be written in Albanian but can be in more than one language — an officially translated copy of the document is required if the original contract is not in Albanian.
There is no 13th salary requirement in Albania.
★ 15% - Social Security
★ 1.70% - Health Insurance
You've sourced a full-time employee or contractor located in a country where your company is not incorporated.
Pass us the details of your candidate and we will let you know exactly what it costs to employ your candidate in that country.
Sit back and relax as we onboard your new team member and take care of all the local compliances and admin work.
It can be prohibitively expensive to establish an entity in every country you want to hire talent in, so Remofirst will hire and pay your employee on your behalf while you manage their daily duties. Remofirst will handle formal HR procedures and employment contracts that adhere to local laws, so that you can simply approve invoices via our platform. When you work with an Employer of Record (EOR) you can compliantly hire the best employees around the world.
Unlike full-time employees, contractors work on projects with multiple companies at a given time and are technically self-employed. Full-time employees are solely focused on their employer and usually receive benefits (such as health insurance, equity or stock options, and time off) as an additional form of compensation. While it can be cheaper to work with international contractors instead of paying benefits to a full-time employee, you run the risk of misclassification. It's recommended to work with an EOR for contractor onboarding and payments, so you can know that your international contractors are paid compliantly and on time.
