RemoFirst

Employer of Record (EOR) in

Nicaragua

Ready to employ talent in Nicaragua?

Here's what you need to know about their employment laws, taxes, termination rules, and more. And many companies choose to work with an Employer of Record in Nicaragua to stay compliant from day one.

Language(s)

Spanish

Currency

NIO

Capital

Managua

Population

7.1 M

Public holidays

VAT

15%

Contract Types

Here's what you need to know about their employment laws, taxes, termination rules, and more. And many companies choose to work with an Employer of Record in Nicaragua to stay compliant from day one.

DEFAULT

Indefinite contract

The default and most common contract type under the Código del Trabajo (Ley 185). Must be in writing, signed before work begins, in Spanish. Either party may end the relationship at any time; the employer does not need 'just cause' but must pay statutory seniority indemnización unless a just cause under Art. 48 applies.

REGULATED USE

Fixed-term (a plazo determinado) and task-based (por obra determinada) contracts allowed for genuinely temporary work. Successive renewals followed by continued work, or continuing over 30 days past the stated end date without a new agreement, converts to an indefinite contract by operation of law.

Employment basics

Here's what you need to know about their employment laws, taxes, termination rules, and more. And many companies choose to work with an Employer of Record in Nicaragua to stay compliant from day one.

WORKING HOURS

48 hrs/week

Three shift types under Art. 51: day (6am-8pm) max 8hrs/day, 48hrs/week; night (8pm-6am) max 7hrs/day, 42hrs/week; mixed max 7.5hrs/day, 45hrs/week. Overtime capped at 3hrs/day, 9hrs/week, paid at 200% of normal hourly rate. Every 6 consecutive working days entitles 1 fully-paid rest day.

PROBATION PERIOD

30 days max

Under Art. 28, parties may agree in writing to up to 30 days' probation for an indefinite contract, during which either party may terminate without notice or severance liability.

13TH / 14TH SALARY

Required

The Aguinaldo (Art. 93) equals one month's additional salary after a full year of service, or proportional for partial years, calculated on last ordinary salary or average of last 6 months for variable pay. Must be paid within the first 10 calendar days of December.

JOB TITLE REGULATIONS

Regulated

Art. 14 requires employers to maintain a workforce at least 90% Nicaraguan nationals; MITRAB may grant waivers for documented technically-justified specialized roles.

Taxes & employment costs

Here's what you need to know about their employment laws, taxes, termination rules, and more. And many companies choose to work with an Employer of Record in Nicaragua to stay compliant from day one.

EMPLOYER CONTRIBUTIONS

22.5

Employer INSS 'régimen integral' contribution: 21.50% of gross payroll for employers with ≤50 workers, 22.50% for >50 workers, funding pension/disability/death, sickness-maternity, and occupational-risk coverage combined. Plus a flat 2% INATEC training levy, bringing total employer cost to ~23.5%-24.5%.

EMPLOYEE CONTRIBUTIONS

Employees contribute a flat 7.00% of gross monthly salary to INSS (4.75% pension/disability/death + 2.25% sickness-maternity), withheld by the employer.

Figures reflect statutory INSS rates and IR income tax framework in force as of August 2026, per MITRAB, INSS, and PwC. Progressive personal income tax ranges 0%-30% via 5 brackets. Minimum wage figures are renegotiated via tripartite MITRAB accords, typically each 1 March.

Cost Calculator

Country

Budget Type

Total Cost

Gross Salary

Period

Annual

Monthly

Currency

NIO

Amount

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Employer of Record cost calculator

Found talent in another location outside your home base? Know the potential cost using RemoFirst before you commit. Use our calculator to get instant, country-specific employee cost estimates in 185+ countries.

*This calculator provides reliable estimates based on up-to-date local data. While it's not a final EOR quote, it gives you a strong benchmark for planning.

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Leave entitlements

Here's what you need to know about their employment laws, taxes, termination rules, and more. And many companies choose to work with an Employer of Record in Nicaragua to stay compliant from day one.

Type

Duration

Pay During Leave

Annual leave

30 days

100%

Maternity leave

12 weeks

100%

Paternity leave

5 days

100% (flagged for confirmation)

Sick leave (days 1-3)

Days 1-3

Not clearly mandated [REVIEW: vendor sources conflict]

Days 4-20

60% (INSS)

(Days 21+)

60% (INSS), up to 26 weeks total

Benefits

Here's what you need to know about their employment laws, taxes, termination rules, and more. And many companies choose to work with an Employer of Record in Nicaragua to stay compliant from day one.

Statutory Benefits

In addition to statutory leave, employees are entitled to the following statutory benefits:

EMPLOYER CONTRIBUTIONS

Nicaragua's social security system is administered by INSS under its 'régimen integral'.

Employee contribution: 7.00% of gross monthly salary (4.75% pension/IVM + 2.25% sickness-maternity)
Employer contribution: 21.50% (≤50 workers) or 22.50% (>50 workers)
INATEC training levy (employer only): flat 2%
Combined employer statutory cost: ~23.5%-24.5%

WORKPLACE INJURY PROTECTION

Nicaragua does not have a stand-alone workers' compensation product. Occupational accident/disease coverage ('riesgos profesionales') is bundled into the INSS régimen integral employer contribution (21.5%-22.5%).

No separate premium billed beyond the standard INSS employer rate.
Employers must also comply with occupational health & safety obligations under Ley 618.

SEVERANCE PAY

Severance (indemnización por antigüedad) under Article 45 applies when an indefinite-contract employee is dismissed without just cause.

Years 1-3: 1 month's salary per year worked
Year 4 onward: 20 days' salary per year worked
Cap: total severance may not exceed 5 months' salary

Severance is exempt from INSS contributions and income tax.

13TH SALARY

The Aguinaldo (décimo tercer mes) is a mandatory 13th-month bonus under Article 93. Nicaragua does not require a 14th-month payment.

One full month's salary after 12 months of service, or proportional for partial years.
Payment deadline: within the first 10 calendar days of December.

Termination & notice

Here's what you need to know about their employment laws, taxes, termination rules, and more. And many companies choose to work with an Employer of Record in Nicaragua to stay compliant from day one.

Scenario

Severance

Unfair dismissal

The Código del Trabajo does not prohibit dismissal without cause outright — it sanctions it economically. An employer dismissing without valid just cause under Art. 48 must pay the full Art. 45 severance, notice pay, and accrued benefits.

Objective / fair dismissal

Article 48 lists just causes allowing dismissal without severance: grave dishonesty, violence, intentional property damage, disclosure of trade secrets, unjustified absences, sexual harassment, criminal conviction. Employer must act within 30 days of becoming aware.

During probation

Freely terminable in the first 30 days — no notice or severance.

After probation

An employee who resigns must give 15 calendar days' notice (Art. 44); the employer must pay the Art. 45 severance scale if terminating without a valid Art. 48 just cause.

The 15-day notice figure is drawn from Art. 44 addressing employee resignation; most vendor guides apply the same figure symmetrically to employer-initiated termination, though the primary statute relies instead on the Art. 45 severance formula as the economic check.

Content last reviewed Sep 2026. Employment laws change fast, always verify critical hiring decisions, and talk to our team of international experts.

Hire in Nicaragua

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Hiring in Nicaragua FAQ

How RemoFirst employs in Nicaragua

It can be prohibitively expensive to establish an entity in every country you want to hire talent in Nicaragua, 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 Nicaragua 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 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).

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, or anything else related to international employment, they can speak with our customer support team to get answers from our team of experts.

More than once, I have had a need or request that was answered not just with a fix, but with a permanent improvement of my service. They go out of their way to give me even better than I ask for, without extra charges. RemoFirst makes it as uncomplicated as possible to have employees in multiple countries. This is a great blessing to our business.

Kenny S.

Co-CEO

Blomberg Music Productions

RemoFirst is an amazing platform, everything is extremely user friendly and easy to use compared to other tools that I have been using in the past. Inna and the team were on point and replying to my questions in a more than timely manner as well as making our life super easy! Great people and platform, I'll highly recommend it to my network.

Hugo D.

Business Ops & Strategy Manager

Aflorithmic

EORs can be really, really complex and there is so many different grey areas involved. But working with RemoFirst, they're able to make things clear and concise. It's been a fantastic relationship and they partner really well with all the teams that need to be involved in our hiring process.

Leanne T.

Manager of HR Business Operations

PandaDoc

RemoFirst enables us to compliantly hire and manage employees in countries where we lack an entity, saving time and costs as we scale Creatio globally. They offered the best pricing among all EORs we considered, and the setup process was smooth despite our many questions. The team has been kind and attentive, and the platform is easy to navigate. We’re excited to have completed our onboarding and to be working with RemoFirst!

Olivia H.

Global HR Manager

Creatio

RemoFirst helps to increase flexibility in the hiring process to ensure remote teams can be successfully onboarded anywhere in the world. Customer service is quick to respond to any queries. Positive onboarding experience. Would recommend to others. Makes hiring smooth and hassle free for remote workers.

Emma T.

Program Lead EMEA

Trust Lab

RemoFirst ensure to provide an easy and smooth transaction in hiring remote workers across the globe; they will take care of all the nitty gritty part of hiring remote workers without having an entity in a country. They also provide a reasonable pricing that is also appropriate for a startup. What I liked most about RemoFirst is their customer service! Special kudos to our account manager, Victor, who has consistently provided us with speedy and prompt responses from initial contact up to now.

G-Anne B.

Recruiter

Portcast

RemoFirst enables me to work remotely and stay compliant in my home country. It’s also very helpful for submitting and managing expenses, making it a great addition to my primary HR platform with its admin features. The platform is simple, intuitive, and easy to navigate, with more than adequate functionality for getting things done efficiently.

Martin P.

Head of Marketing

BetVictor

“We had an entity that was located in a different country that wanted to hire members in the US without affecting the tax status, having RemoFirst help out by being the EOR was the best solution. The setup of the EOR was very easy and we had a dedicated account manger the entire time. Having a dedicated account manager made resolving issues simpler than it would have been otherwise. Nice touch!”

Weston M.

Financial Controller

Truffle Ventures

When we were first looking into partnerships to support our remote team, the complexity and options were overwhelming. RemoFirst was patient and explained how things work, often answering questions that I know were outside of what they technically do. This made me feel informed as a business owner and showed how the team goes above and beyond. Our team members who we've hired using our Remofirst partnership had glowing things to say about the experience.

Rachel W.

CEO

Vinebase

I had some details to be clarified with the contract, but the staff was very helpful in helping me sort it out. Also, the laptop delivery arranged by RemoFirst was a breeze! The device arrived the next day!