No matter where you’re based out of, we can tell you one thing: North Macedonia has different labor laws than your home country (unless your home country is North Macedonia, that is). 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. Fortunately, doing things right is pretty easy if you take the right route.
If you want to successfully hire in
North Macedonia
, you have two options:
Laws about hiring contractors are significantly more simple in
North Macedonia
. 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
North Macedonia
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
North Macedonia
.
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
North Macedonia
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 generally puts you at a bigger risk for legal fees. When you hire contractors overseas, your biggest risk is misclassification—but even then, misclassification penalties are often minimal and just require you to pay off any compensation that the person would have been owed as an employee.
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
North Macedonia
, 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 North Macedonia 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 North Macedonia
Employer is not required to contribute for social security.
In North Macedonia, employees receive one additional day of annual leave for each five years of service with an employer, up to a maximum of 26 days for employees with 30 or more years of service.
A minimum of 20 days of paid annual leave, which is often extended to as much as 26 days by contract or collective agreement.
There are 11 public holidays.
The rate of sick pay is normally determined by collective agreement. Under the agreement applicable to the private sector, the employer pays :
-70% of the average North Macedonian salary for the first seven days,
-80% for days eight-15, and
-90% for days 16-30.
Employees receive unlimited sick leave, with the employer paying for the first 30 days of illness.
The employee should provide a medical certificate, and further examinations may be required in the event of a long-term illness.
The expectant mother must present a medical certificate of her pregnancy before beginning her leave and must notify her employer of when she plans to begin and end her maternity leave.
Female employees receive nine months of paid maternity leave, or 15 months if they give birth to multiple children.
A woman who takes maternity leave is entitled to return to her job after the leave or, if that is not possible, to another suitable position.
The father of a baby is entitled to up to seven days of paid leave for the birth.
No Info.
Childcare Leave- Unpaid leave has no legal provision in North Macedonia.
Employees in North Macedonia are entitled with marriage leave, discretion of the employer.
Discretion of the employer for the number of days that an employee is entitled.
An employee because of the employee’s misconduct, the employer must first warn the employee and advise them of the possibility of dismissal if the misconduct continues.
An employer may only terminate an employee because of misconduct or breach of workplace duties or rules, or because of the needs of the business.
In addition, an employer may dismiss an employee without notice if the employee is absent from work for more than three days without permission.
Employees performing seasonal work may be terminated with seven days of written notice.
The employer is required. 2 months’ notice is required if the termination is for more than 150 employees or 5% of the workforce
Employees who are terminated in a collective dismissal are entitled to severance pay.
The amount of severance pay is based on an employee’s length of service and ranges from one month of salary to six months of salary.
Probation period is 4 months.
The standard working hours in North Macedonia is 40 hours over five days.
In Liechtenstein, employer may only require an employee to work overtime when there is an urgent need, and the overtime is capped at eight hours per week, up to 190 hours a year.
The rate for overtime hours is normally set by a collective agreement and is generally not less than 135% of the employee’s standard hourly rate.
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