Serbia
Min. wage
(x12 payments)
RSD 371 /hr
About the minimum wage
Employer tax
15.15%
Understand employer tax
Annual leave
20 days
Learn about annual leave
Notice period
8-30 days (per CBA)
Termination and notice info
Updated
Sep 2026
The indefinite-term contract is the default and legally preferred form of employment in Serbia — employment is presumed indefinite unless a fixed term is expressly agreed in writing on one of the statutory grounds. It gives employees full statutory protections, including cause-based termination with notice, redundancy severance, and continuous pension/social-security accrual, with no automatic expiry date.
Fixed-term contracts may not exceed a cumulative 24 months with the same employer, except in specific cases: replacing a temporarily absent employee, project-based work until completion, foreign nationals for the duration of a work permit, newly established employers (up to 36 months), or employees within 5 years of retirement. The relationship automatically converts to indefinite if the statutory cap/requirements are violated, if the employee keeps working at least 5 days after expiry without employer objection, or if the employer repeatedly renews contracts without genuine justification — Serbian courts consistently treat abuse of fixed-term contracts as unlawful.
Standard full-time work is 40 hours/week with no individual opt-out. Overtime is permitted only in exceptional circumstances with the employee's written agreement, capped at 8 hours/week (max 4 hours/day) and paid at a minimum 26% premium over the base hourly rate; total daily hours including overtime may not exceed 12.
Probationary work is not mandatory under Serbian law. When included in the employment contract, it may last a maximum of 6 months. Either party may terminate during probation with 5 working days' written notice, without needing to cite cause beyond unsatisfactory performance, and no severance is owed.
Serbian labor law does not require a 13th or 14th month salary, Christmas bonus, or holiday allowance. Any such payment is entirely discretionary, depending on the employer's internal policy, individual employment contract, or an applicable collective bargaining agreement.
Serbia has no statutory list of regulated job titles for general employment. Each employer is legally required to adopt an internal Rulebook on Organization and Systematization of Jobs (Pravilnik o organizaciji i sistematizaciji poslova) defining job titles, descriptions, and qualification requirements, and the employment contract's job title/description must align with that internal act. Certain regulated professions (e.g., medical, legal, engineering licenses) have separate licensing requirements outside general labor law.
Employer-paid statutory social security contributions total 15.15% of gross salary: Pension and Disability Insurance (PIO) 10%, and Health Insurance 5.15%. Employers pay no unemployment insurance contribution. Contributions are calculated on gross salary within a statutory monthly contribution base of RSD 51,297 (minimum) to RSD 732,820 (maximum) for 2026, and are remitted monthly alongside employee-side withholdings.
Employee-paid statutory social security contributions, withheld from gross salary, total 19.9%: Pension and Disability Insurance (PIO) 14%, Health Insurance 5.15%, and Unemployment Insurance 0.75%. Separately from contributions, a flat 10% personal income tax applies to gross salary minus employee contributions and a monthly non-taxable allowance of RSD 34,221 (2026).
In addition to statutory leave, employees are entitled to the following statutory benefits:
Serbia funds social security through mandatory contributions split between employer and employee, calculated on gross salary within statutory monthly contribution-base limits (RSD 51,297 minimum to RSD 732,820 maximum for 2026).
Total statutory contribution burden: 15.15% employer / 19.9% employee. Contributions fund state pensions, public healthcare (including sick-leave and work-injury benefits), and unemployment benefits, and are withheld and remitted monthly by the employer alongside a flat 10% personal income tax on the employee's net-of-contributions salary.
Serbia does not operate a separate, stand-alone workers' compensation insurance premium. Work-related injuries and occupational illnesses are covered within the mandatory health insurance and pension/disability insurance contributions described above.
Statutory severance in Serbia is payable only in redundancy situations (termination due to technological, economic, or organizational restructuring) — it is not owed for resignation, misconduct-based dismissal, or performance-based dismissal.
Serbian labor law does not mandate a 13th or 14th month salary, Christmas bonus, or holiday allowance.
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.
