Africa

Malawi

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Employer of Record (EOR) in Malawi

What you'll learn

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

Malawi is a landlocked country in southeast Africa, bordered by Zambia, Tanzania, and Mozambique. Its economy is based heavily on agriculture, with a largely rural and rapidly growing population. The country has a diverse population with many native languages spoken.

Employment Terms

Employees in Malawi are entitled to a minimum wage of MWK 50,000 per month, and the average workweek is no more than 48 hours per week. Overtime is paid at a rate of between 200%-400% of the regular rate.

Types of Leave

Parental Leave

Pregnant employees in Malawi are entitled to 8 weeks of paid maternity leave every 3 years, and there is no statutory paternity leave.

Sick Leave

After finishing 1 year at their company, employees are entitled to at least 4 weeks of fully paid sick leave and 8 weeks of half paid sick leave each year.

Paid Leave

There are 12 public holidays in Malawi, and employees are entitled to at least 15 days for employees with 5-day weeks and 18 days for employees with 6-day weeks.

Termination Process

Process

Employers can terminate employment contracts for reasons relating to business, personal, or misconduct. Terminations require a written notice and explanation. If the reason for termination is misconduct, there needs to be a warning given so the employee gets a chance to explain their actions.

Notice Period

The amount of notice usually depends on how often the employee is paid, and ranges between 1-30 days.

Severance Pay

Employees only have to pay severance if the employee has worked at the company for at least 1 year and the employer is terminating the contract for economic reasons (like layoffs), or if the termination is unfair. The amount of the payment depends on how long the employee has worked at the company:

  • 1-5 years = 2 weeks of wages for each year of employment
  • 6-10 years = 3 weeks of wages for each year of employment
  • 11+ years = 4 weeks of wages for each year of employment

Additional Information

N/A

OVERVIEW
Language(s):
English
Currency:
Malawian Kwacha (MWK)
Capital City:
Lilongwe
Population:
20.2 Million
Cost of Living Rank:
N/A
VAT (Valued Added Tax):
16.5%
Employer TaxES
10%
(estimated)

★  10% - National Pension Scheme

Get Started in 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.

Same-day onboarding
Best Pricing
Available in 180+ countries
How Remofirst employs in Malawi

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 Malawi 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), Australian Dollars (AUD), or Singapore Dollars (SGD) around the 15th of each month to make sure your employees in Malawi are paid on time in Malawian Kwacha (MWK). 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 Malawi, they can speak with our customer support team to get answers from our team of experts.