Standard form of employment; requires 30 days' written notice from either party, with compensation for dismissal without lawful cause
Permitted for a defined period or project; continued work after expiry renews or converts the relationship.
8 hrs/day, 48 hrs/week (6 hrs/day for Muslim employees during Ramadan); overtime at 125-150%
Extendable to 6 months for certain occupations if agreed in writing; 1 day's notice during probation
Company directors, statutory officers and roles reserved for Bahraini nationals under Bahrainisation quotas cannot be hired under the EOR model
For expatriates: 3% to the Social Insurance Organisation (work injury) plus monthly end-of-service contributions of 4.2% (first 3 years) or 8.4% thereafter. For Bahraini nationals: 18% in 2026 (pension, unemployment, work injury)
Expatriates contribute 1% unemployment insurance (nationals 8%), on wages up to BHD 4,000/mo. No personal income tax in Bahrain.
In addition to statutory leave, employees are entitled to the following statutory benefits:
Employers are required to make contributions to social security programs on behalf of their employees. Benefits derived from social security are:
Work-related injuries and occupational illnesses are covered by the employer's 3% work injury contribution to the Social Insurance Organisation, for both national and expatriate employees.
Since March 2024 employers pay expatriates' end-of-service gratuity via monthly SIO contributions of 4.2% of wages for the first 3 years of service and 8.4% thereafter, and the employee claims the accrued amount from the SIO on termination.
There is no statutory 13th or 14th salary in Bahrain; performance or Ramadan/Eid bonuses are discretionary and contract-based.
P.S. our team speaks multiple languages and we'd love to chat in your preferred language if requested.
Your employee's hours, time off, holidays, bonuses, and commissions are automatically calculated into payroll. RemoFirst will invoice you in either US Dollars (USD), Euros (EUR), British Pounds (GBP), Canadian Dollars (CAD), Australian Dollars (AUD), or Singapore Dollars (SGD) around the 15th of each month to make sure your employees are paid on time. To make it even easier, you can summarize your entire global team's salaries to aggregate them into one payment (instead of many individual payments).
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.
Whenever the employee or employer has a question about, or anything else related to international employment, they can speak with our customer support team to get answers from our team of experts.
