No matter where you’re based out of, we can tell you one thing: Croatia has different labor laws than your home country (well, unless your home country is Croatia, of course). If you don’t do things right, you’ll be putting your company at the risk of fines—and risk losing the talent you brought onboard.
If you want to successfully hire in
Croatia
, you have two options:
Laws about hiring contractors are significantly more simple in
Croatia
. Onboarding talent takes days, not weeks or months. Both you, the company, and your talent have more flexibility. And in many cases, since you’re remote, the talent you’re hiring is better classified as a contractor, anyway. Of course, it’s not possible in every case, but it’s what we built Panther for.
This is the long route. You can either establish a physical presence with an entity and register as an employer, or you can use an Employer-of-Record (EOR) solution. Odds are, you’ll find using an EOR to be the easier route. Still, using an EOR in
Croatia
is expensive—it can often be $500 per month per employee—and sometimes prone to lengthy onboarding times.
Hiring contractors is normally the easier, faster, more flexible choice—but don’t just take it from us. Below are the specific benefits and drawbacks to hiring contractors in
Croatia
.
Hiring employees takes months, at the minimum. When you hire with Panther’s locally-generated contracts, it’s a matter of days or weeks. This means you can hire the best talent, fast, without losing them to a hellish procession of paperwork.
It costs just $0 to sign up for Panther, then $49 per month to hire your contractors with Panther. If you hired employees manually (or did contracting on your own), you’d likely be on the hook for thousands of dollars each month. Setting up an entity alone can cost tens of thousands of dollars.
Hiring contractors in
Croatia
means you’re generally not on the hook for things like health insurance and paid time off. This makes hiring flexible for you, and it gives your talent more options.
Hiring employees is a bigger commitment, and can open you up to increased liabilities and regulations. When you hire contractors overseas, your biggest risk is misclassification—but laws surrounding contractor classification are often significantly more straightforward.
The contractor life isn’t for everyone—some people want the security that being an employee often appears to provide. Though it’s rare, this does happen, and it’s one disadvantage of manage an all-contractor team.
Most countries’ contractor-employer relationship laws stipulate that the employer can’t set fixed working hours, among other things. These laws give contractors more freedom over how and when they do their work than an employee would have. In reality, however, most contractors are willing & able to work on the company’s schedule—it’s a matter of setting expectations beforehand.
If you’re hiring contractors in
Croatia
, you can pay them with Panther in a single click. You won’t need to worry about complicated wire transfers, fees, or currency conversions. We’ll take care of it all. Just make a click and your contractor will get paid in their currency of choice. This is a valuable bonus for talent in countries where the local currency is particularly weak—most people appreciate the ability to receive their payment in stronger currencies.
If you’ve read up until this point, you’ll know that it’s easier, cheaper, and more flexible to hire contractors in Croatia than employees. Still, there are valid reasons why you might want to hire employees instead. The content below is for you—we’ll cover employer taxes and obligations in Croatia
PTO is calculated by the:
There are 14 public holidays.
The duration of sick leave entitlement provided to workers is dependent on how long they have been employed by their employer:
Mandatory paid maternity leave starts 28 days (or 45 days, if necessary) before the due date for the child and goes until 70 days after birth. After that, the mother may continue with paid maternity leave until the baby is six months old, but it is not mandatory.
In all, paid maternity leave goes for 208 days.
In special circumstances, the father can take over the mother’s mandatory leave if the mother is unable to care for the child.
After the 70th day after birth, the mother can transfer the remainder of the leave to the father.
Each parent has the right to paid parental leave for each child, usable until the child turns 8. It goes for 8 months (for the first and second-born child) or 30 months (for twins, third and each subsequent child).
Both parents use parental leave for 4 or 15 months, but if only one parent takes it, it goes for 6 or 30 months.
None.
None.
None.
Employers can terminate a fix term contract by giving the following reasons – business, personal or worker’s’ misconduct. It requires notice and a written explanation for the termination. If the reason is misconduct, a warning needs to be given and the employee gets a chance to explain actions.
Severance is paid, and all statutory obligations, such as paid time off, are compensated.
The notice period in Croatia is:
2 weeks for employees with a year of service
6 weeks for employees with two years of service
8 weeks for employees with five years of service
10 weeks for employees with 10 years of service
12 weeks for employees with over 20 years of service
Add 2 weeks for an employee over 50. Add four weeks for an employee over 55.
An employee with two or more years of service with a company has the right to severance pay in the event of termination. Minimum severance is one-third of the regular monthly pay per year at the company.
The probation period cannot be longer than one year.
Full Time employment is considered 40 hours weekly – however can be extended to 50, and if agreed to in a collective agreement up to 60.
Employees generally cannot work more than 180 hours overtime annually (unless agreed to in collective agreement in which case the maximum is 250 hours).
Overtime work is paid at a higher rate, though the government does not specify how much extra.
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