Europe

Bulgaria

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Employer of Record (EOR) in Bulgaria

What you'll learn

  • Country Introduction
  • Employment Terms
  • Minimum Wage and Working Hours
  • Statutory Leave Laws
  • Termination Process
  • Additional Information
Bulgaria Introduction

Bulgaria is a country in Eastern Europe and part of the Balkans, neighbors include Romania, Serbia, Macedonia, and the Black Sea. Bulgaria is considered a developing country with an upper-middle-income economy. The worker-employer relationship is governed by the Bulgarian Labour Code, regardless of nationality.

Employment Terms

As of 2022, the minimum wage in Bulgaria is BGN 710 per month. Standard working hours are 40 hours per week and 8 hours per day. Overtime is allowed at a maximum of 3 hours per day and 6 hours per week, and is paid at 150% of the regular rate. Work during the weekend is paid at 175% of the regular rate and for holidays it’s 200%.

Types of Leave

Parental Leave

Pregnant employees in Bulgaria are entitled to 410 days of maternity leave, of which 45 days need to be used before the birth. Fathers receive 15 day of paid paternity leave. Once the child reaches 6 months of age it’s also possible to transfer leave days to the father. The leave is paid for by the National Health Insurance Fund at 90% of the salary.

Sick Leave

Employees in Bulgaria can take sick leave for up to 18 months. The first 3 days are paid by the employer at 70% of the employee's salary, and the rest is paid by social security at 80%-90% of the salary.

Paid Leave

Bulgaria has 15 public holidays, and employees are entitled to a minimum of 20 days per year of paid time off after working at the company for 4 months. Employees are also entitled to 2 days of paid time off in the event of their marriage, and 2 days of paid time off for bereavement.

Termination Process

Process

Employment contracts in Bulgaria can be terminated with or without notice from either side, or if there is mutual agreement.

Notice Period

If an indefinite employment contract is terminated with notice, 30 days notice is required. For a fixed contract, 3 months notice is customary, but not if that is more time than the remaining period of the contract.

Severance Pay

While there is no statutory severance pay requirement, employees who are terminated due to redundancy should receive payment equal to 1 month salary in the case of individual or collective dismissal. If the termination is without cause, the severance payment is commonly 4 months salary.

Additional Information

Bulgaria does not require a 13th-month bonus to be paid out, but it is common for employers to offer based on their own internal rules.

OVERVIEW
Language(s):
Bulgarian
Currency:
Bulgarian Lev (BGN)
Capital City:
Sofia
Population:
6.8 Million
Cost of Living Rank:
80th
VAT (Valued Added Tax):
20%
Employer TaxES
18.36%
(estimated)

★  7.66% - Social Security

★  2.8% - Pension

★  2.1% - Sickness and Maternity

★  0.6% - Unemployment Insurance

★  4.8% - Health Insurance

★  0.4% - Accident Insurance

Simplified Global HR and Payroll.
Let’s work on it together.

We've made the process really simple
with only 3 steps.

1

Remote candidate

You've sourced a full-time employee or contractor located in a country where your company is not incorporated.

2

Cost Calculation

Pass us the details of your candidate and we will let you know exactly what it costs to employ your candidate in that country.

3

Onboarding & Admin

Sit back and relax as we onboard your new team member and take care of all the local compliances and admin work.

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How Remofirst employs in Bulgaria

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.

How employees in Bulgaria get paid
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), or Singapore Dollars (SGD) around the 15th of each month to make sure your employees in Bulgaria are paid on time in Bulgarian Lev (BGN). 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).
Full-time Employees vs Global Contractors

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.

Dependable support for employees
Whenever the employee or employer has a question about benefits, Visas, or anything else related to international employment in Bulgaria, they can use our platform's chat function to get answers from our team of experts. Every client of Remofirst also receives a dedicated account manager that will serve as a point of contact for global HR support.