Rwanda
Min. wage
(x12 payments)
Nominal (unenforced)
About the minimum wage
Employer tax
Annual leave
18 days
Learn about annual leave
Notice period
15-30 days (by tenure)
Termination and notice info
Updated
Sep 2026
The default and most common contract type in Rwanda. It has no fixed end date and may be terminated by either party subject to statutory notice and, where applicable, severance/terminal benefits. The contract must specify the probation period, salary, job duties, and working hours.
Fixed-term contracts are permitted even for tasks of a permanent nature, require no specific justification, and can be renewed an unlimited number of times by mutual agreement under the 2018 Labour Law. The contract ends automatically at expiry; early termination by either party requires a legitimate reason.
The statutory maximum is 45 hours per week, commonly distributed as 8 hours/day over 5 days plus a half-day, or up to 9 hours/day over 5 days (schedules vary by employer). Overtime is capped at 60 hours/week and paid at a premium of 35% (weekdays), 50% (weekly rest day) or 100% (public holidays) above the normal hourly rate. Employees are entitled to at least 24 consecutive hours of weekly rest.
The initial trial period may not exceed 3 months. Employers may require a single additional probation period of up to 3 months (6 months total) if justified by the nature of the job or the employee's performance/conduct, following a written evaluation. No statutory notice period applies to termination during probation, though a written explanation is still expected.
Rwandan law does not require a 13th- or 14th-month salary payment. It is offered voluntarily as a bonus/incentive by some employers, particularly multinational companies, but is not a statutory entitlement.
Rwanda does not maintain a general statutory registry or approved-title system restricting job titles for private-sector employees; titles are set contractually. Certain regulated professions (e.g., legal, medical, engineering, accounting) require licensing/registration with the relevant professional body regardless of the job title used.
Employers contribute to the Rwanda Social Security Board (RSSB): 6% pension, 0.3% maternity insurance, 2% occupational hazards (employer-only), and 7.5% medical insurance scheme, totaling approximately 15.8% of gross salary. Combined pension contributions are scheduled to rise by 2 percentage points per year from 2027, reaching 20% (10% each side) by 2030.
Employees contribute 6% of gross salary to the RSSB pension scheme, 0.3% to maternity insurance, and 7.5% to the medical insurance scheme, totaling approximately 13.8% of gross salary, withheld and remitted by the employer. (Employees not enrolled in the RSSB medical scheme instead pay 0.5% of net salary to the Community-Based Health Insurance/CBHI scheme.) This is separate from progressive PAYE income tax of 0%-30%.
In addition to statutory leave, employees are entitled to the following statutory benefits:
Employers and employees both contribute to the Rwanda Social Security Board (RSSB) on gross salary:
Total statutory contribution: approximately 15.8% employer / 13.8% employee. Contributions are withheld and remitted monthly by the employer.
Work-related injuries, occupational diseases, and resulting disability are covered by RSSB's Occupational Hazards insurance, funded entirely by a 2% employer-only contribution on gross salary.
Employers must report workplace accidents and occupational diseases to RSSB promptly to trigger benefits.
Severance ("terminal benefits") is payable to employees dismissed for economic, technological, or health-related reasons after at least 12 months of continuous service. It is not payable for dismissal due to gross misconduct or for resignation. Amounts are based on average monthly salary and length of service (Law N° 66/2018, Art. 31):
Terminal benefits must be paid within 7 working days of the end of the contract.
A 13th- or 14th-month salary is not required by Rwandan law.
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.
