Tanzania
Min. wage
(x12 payments)
TZS 175,000 /mo
About the minimum wage
Employer tax
Annual leave
28 days
Learn about annual leave
Notice period
4-28 days (by pay frequency)
Termination and notice info
Updated
Sep 2026
An indefinite (permanent) contract has no predetermined end date and continues until lawfully terminated by either party with proper notice or cause. It is the default and most common contract type in Tanzania and provides employees full statutory protections, including severance and unfair-dismissal protection after the qualifying period.
Fixed-term contracts are for a specified period and, following the 2025 amendments to the Employment and Labour Relations Act, are restricted to defined circumstances: professionals/managers (minimum 12 months), temporary workload increases (max 12 months), graduate trainee programmes (max 24 months), seasonal work, specific projects, foreign migrant workers, publicly funded/tender-based or externally funded positions, and re-engaged retirees. Fixed-term contracts cannot be used for work of a permanent nature, and task/project-specific contracts end automatically on completion of the defined task.
Standard working hours are 45 hours per week, generally structured as 9 hours per day up to 6 days per week. Overtime is capped at 50 hours per 4-week cycle and 12 hours per day (inclusive of overtime), requires mutual agreement, and is compensated at 150% of the normal rate (200% for work on public holidays or rest days).
Tanzanian law does not set a fixed statutory probation length, but it is standard and legally recognized practice to use an initial probationary period, commonly 3 months and extendable up to a maximum of 6 months. During this period, employees are not protected against a claim of unfair termination if dismissal occurs within the first 6 months of continuous service, and shorter notice periods generally apply.
There is no statutory requirement in Tanzania for employers to pay a 13th or 14th month salary. Any such bonus is discretionary and is typically only paid where provided for in an employment contract, collective bargaining agreement, or company policy.
Tanzanian labour law does not impose specific statutory restrictions on job titles. However, certain regulated professions (e.g. law, medicine, accounting, engineering) require registration with the relevant professional body, and work/residence permits for foreign nationals are tied to specific approved job titles and skill categories under immigration and labour regulations.
Employers contribute 10% of gross salary to the National Social Security Fund (NSSF), plus a 3.5% Skills Development Levy (SDL) on total payroll (for employers with 10 or more employees), plus 0.5% to the Workers Compensation Fund (WCF), for a combined statutory employer cost of approximately 14% of gross payroll (excluding any discretionary 13th-month or holiday payments).
Employees contribute 10% of their gross salary to the National Social Security Fund (NSSF), matching the employer's 10% contribution for a combined 20% statutory NSSF contribution. Employees are also subject to Pay-As-You-Earn (PAYE) progressive income tax, withheld and remitted by the employer, which is separate from social security contributions.
In addition to statutory leave, employees are entitled to the following statutory benefits:
Tanzania's principal social security scheme is the National Social Security Fund (NSSF), which covers pensions, maternity, injury compensation, survivor, and invalidity benefits.
Employers with 10 or more employees also pay a Skills Development Levy (SDL) of 3.5% of total payroll costs.
Employers must register with and contribute to the Workers Compensation Fund (WCF), which provides compensation for employees who suffer work-related injury, disease, or death.
This is an employer-only contribution; employees do not contribute to the WCF.
Severance pay applies to employees with at least 12 months of continuous service whose employment is terminated other than for serious misconduct (e.g. redundancy/retrenchment, or by the employer generally).
Tanzania has no statutory requirement for a 13th or 14th month salary.
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.
