Eswatini EOR & PEO

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Hire in Eswatini

The Kingdom of Eswatini is a small, landlocked country in southern Africa surrounded by South Africa and Mozambique. The people living here are predominately ethnic Swazis and the country was previously named Swaziland up until its formal change in 2018. It was a British territory from 1903 to 1968, when it regained its independence. Since then, the population has tripled to 1.176 million in 2024. Its GDP has also grown to $4.87 billion in 2023, led by agriculture, forestry, mining, textile manufacturing, sugar processing, and services. In 2024, the GDP is again set to grow by 3.7%. Eswatini follows a distinct political system of tinkhundlas (community centers) for participatory democracy and the development of economic initiatives. Swazi workers are known to be friendly, active, dedicated, and hard-working. If you want to hire employees from Eswatini for your company, working with an EOR might be the best way to do it.

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hire employees in Eswatini

What Is an Eswatini EOR?

An Eswatini employer of record or EOR is a service provider that specializes in employment. In particular, it helps companies from other countries hire workers in Eswatini without needing to own registered business entities in the country. An EOR is also sometimes referred to as a PEO or professional employment organization and these terms can be used interchangeably.

EORs typically recruit and hire workers on behalf of their clients. They then manage the workers’ human resources (HR) needs, including payroll, taxes, benefits, leave schedules, and more. In return, the EOR’s clients pay a fee for each employee it recruits and manages. The clients also pay for workers’ salaries and social contributions through the EOR.

Save Money And Time with A Eswatini EOR

What Are the Benefits of an Eswatini EOR?

Working with an Eswatini EOR can be highly advantageous for foreign-based companies. The benefits of this kind of partnership include:

Not needing an entity: First and foremost, EORs enable foreign firms to hire workers in Eswatini without having to own registered entities there. Registering a limited liability company or a corporation abroad can be a long, expensive, and difficult process. An EOR can hire workers on your behalf and, therefore, avoid this entirely. This can greatly enhance the speed and efficiency of hiring while saving your company’s resources.
Language skills: Eswatini’s official languages are Swaziland and English. Widespread fluency in English can facilitate international communication. At the same time, people here also speak Zulu, Tsonga, Afrikaans, and Portuguese. These language skills can be highly valuable for doing business in the region.
Fast recruitment and onboarding: When you want to hire workers in Eswatini, you need to have a lot of experience and knowledge of the local labor market to find the best talent. As a foreign-based firm, this is rarely possible, and that’s why working with an EOR makes a lot of sense. EOR staff know how to reach out to local people and find the top talent you need for your open positions. They can do this very effectively and often fill your vacancies in a matter of days to just a few weeks.
Affordability: Eswatini is a lower-middle-income country where salaries are above average for Africa. However, they’re still relatively low compared with many other countries. Social security contributions are also low at just 5% for employers, making Swazi employees highly affordable.
Constant compliance: The EOR hires employees directly and contracts them to work for your company. This makes the EOR their sole legal employer in Eswatini and places the responsibility of compliance with local tax and labor laws in their professional hands. The EOR’s staff prepare legal contracts and monitor working conditions to ensure constant compliance and avoid penalties and legal issues.

Horizons is Best IN Class

Why Choose Horizons?

Horizons stands out as a Eswatini EOR through:

A strong regional presence in Africa, meaning senior management are on the ground to deal with any issues.
Client-focused infrastructure. Horizons won’t oversell you on products and services you don’t need. Horizons offers the easiest platform to compliantly hire and pay people worldwide.
Cost-effective solutions. At $499 per employee, per month, no EOR in Eswatini is more affordable. The cost is 100% transparent (onboarding, offboarding, deposit, no extra charges).
A customer-first culture. Horizons is an efficient bootstrapped company. It is not an externally-funded company burning investor cash to aggressively acquire new clients. Horizons is the only EOR that grows with its customer, reflecting the level of care and personal attention provided to each customer. Horizons will carefully advise on the best setup in each country: the type of contract needed, how to structure your benefits, and how to offboard a person while minimizing the risk of conflicts and extra cost
A long-term partnership. Horizons is the only EOR platform with a recruitment arm — a direct response to client demand. If any employee is leaving, or if our clients want to explore a new country, Horizons can recruit new candidates directly for the client. Horizons is:
- The only EOR doing this in-house — no subcontracting
- The only EOR doing this without a retainer — clients are only charged upon success
- The only EOR charging just a 2% fee per month.

Step-by-step Eswatini EOR

How Does an Eswatini EOR Work?

Your company can pay a fee to an EOR to recruit and manage each worker you want to hire. In exchange, the organization typically provides the following services:

Hiring your employees: You start by letting the EOR know how many positions you need to fill, what types, and what requirements you have for the staff who will fill them. It takes this information and prepares a recruitment strategy. This normally entails dipping into its labor pools, using local networks, or publicly advertising your positions. After screening applicants, the EOR will put forward candidates for your jobs. If you accept them, the EOR will hire them and become their legal employer, contracting them to work for you.
Managing employment contracts and onboarding: With their knowledge of local employment laws, EORs are experts at preparing and managing employment contracts. They advise you on the terms and compensation you should offer and help you negotiate with selected candidates. Once the terms are agreed upon, they’re written into legal contracts, which the EOR enters with the employees. Now hired, the employees enter the onboarding process. They give their personal and payment details to the EOR, are entered into its employee database, and are registered with the local tax and social security authorities as new hires.
Processing payroll and handling employment taxes: When you work with an EOR, you pay employees’ salaries through this service provider. You also provide hours worked data to the EOR so it can calculate employees’ gross salaries, tax withholdings, and social security contributions. It pays taxes and contributions on your behalf and then disperses net salaries to the employees each pay period. The EOR will provide employees with their detailed pay slips and keep all payroll records for your reference.
Administering benefits: The EOR will manage all of the mandatory benefits that employees are entitled to, including leaves, overtime pay, and holidays. If you choose to provide additional benefits to your workers, such as private insurance or pensions, the EOR can also administer these by making regular contributions from both you and your employees.
Taking care of exit procedures: Terminating employees is the responsibility of the EOR as their legal employer. When you request that it terminate contracts, the EOR will consider your reasons and act accordingly. It will give notice to employees and calculate and pay any severance that might be necessary.

stay compliant with Eswatini labor laws

Labor Laws

Eswatini has an active, highly participatory system of government. This system places a high value on workers’ rights, which are enshrined in various legal instruments, including the Employment Act of 1980, the Industrial Relations Act of 2014, the National Occupational Safety and Health policy, the Code of Good Practice of 2015, the Wages act of 1964, and other decrees and acts. The EOR you partner with will have expert knowledge of this complicated collection of statutes. However, as an employer, you should also know the basic points of law so you’re aware of what your Swazi staff are entitled to.

Employment contract types

Contracts in Eswatini must be provided to employees within 60 days of the start of their employment. Contracts must be in writing in one of the official languages (English or Swazi) and can be permanent or fixed-term. If they include probationary periods, these cannot exceed three months in length.

Project-based

Fixed-term

Indefinite

Working hours in Eswatini

Most workers in Eswatini work a 45-hour work week spread over five or six days. There are no specific limits to overtime, but overtime limits and rates must be dictated in workers’ contracts.

Domestic workers have a regular work week of 48 hours spread over six days. They can work overtime if they consent to, but this overtime must be paid at the rate of at least 150% of their normal wages.

Overtime must be compensated in the following way:

Holiday Schedule in Eswatini [2024]

Eswatini has 13 paid public holidays each year. These are a mixture of national days and (Christian) religious observances.

Eswatini’s public holiday schedule for 2024 is:

Date	Holiday name
1 Jan, 2024	New Year’s Day
29 Mar, 2024	Good Friday
1 Apr, 2024	Easter Monday
19 Apr, 2024	The King’s Birthday
25 Apr, 2024	National Flag Day
1 May, 2024	Labor Day
9 May, 2024	Ascension Day
22 Jul, 2023	King’s Father’s Birthday
2 Sep, 2024	Umhlanga/Reed Dance
6 Sep, 2024	Somhlolo/Independence Day
18 Dec, 2024	Incwala Day
25 Dec, 2024	Christmas Day
26 Dec, 2024	Boxing Day

Paid time off

Most workers who work for five hours are entitled to a 30-minute unpaid break.

Domestic workers who work for four and a half hours are entitled to a one-hour unpaid break.

Sick leave in Eswatini

Swazi workers who have worked for more than three months for the same employer are entitled to 14 days of sick leave each year. The employer must pay this leave in full at 100% of the worker’s normal rate. However, payment is subject to the presentation of a medical certificate.

Less than 6 months of sick leave:

(percentage of regular wages owed to the employee)

Over 6 months of sick leave

In order for employees to receive the full wages due to them, workers must present a valid medical certificate from a certified doctor to their employer.

Maternity leave in Eswatini

Expecting mothers are entitled to 12 weeks of maternity leave. Not more than six weeks can be taken before the date of confinement. This leave is paid in full by the employer; however, paid leave is only given once every 24 months. There is no mandated paternity leave in Eswatini.

Annual leave in Eswatini

Swazi workers who have performed 12 months of service to their employers are entitled to not less than 2 weeks of paid annual leave. They must be paid for this leave within six months of having earned it by working for 12 months.

Termination & severance in Eswatini

Any worker who has worked between one and three months must be given one week’s notice. For between three and twelve months of service, two days of notice must be given for each month of service, and workers who have provided more than one year of service must be granted notice of one month as well as four additional days for each year of service. Workers terminated for reasons other than gross misconduct are given severance pay totaling ten days’ wages for each year of service to the employer.

Eswatini's compulsory social security contributions

The social security system is mainly governed by the Swaziland National Provident Fund (SNPF) and the Public Service Pension Fund (PSPF) for public sector employees.

The total contribution to the SNPF is 10% of the employee’s gross earnings, split equally between the employee and employer. On the other hand, the combined contribution to the PSPF can be approximately 22% of the employee’s salary, with the larger portion coming from the employer (government).

Eswatini social security for foreigners

The compulsory social security contributions in Eswatini generally apply to all employees working in the country, including foreigners. However, expatriates or foreigners might have different arrangements depending on their employment contract and agreements between Eswatini and their home country regarding social security.

Individual income tax

Eswatini employs a progressive tax system where the rate of tax increases with higher income levels. Foreigners working in Eswatini are subject to the same individual income tax rates as residents. However, specific tax treaties between Eswatini and other countries may affect the tax obligations of expatriates.

Health insurance

The Ministry of Health oversees the public health system, providing healthcare services through government hospitals and clinics. Services are often subsidized or provided at low cost to citizens, but the quality and availability of services can vary, particularly in rural areas.

Various private health insurance companies operate in Eswatini, offering different plans that cover a range of medical services. These plans can be expensive and are typically more comprehensive than public services.

hassle-free Liswati compensation & benefits

Compensation & Benefits

Eswatini compensation laws

The minimum wage in Eswatini is mandated according to workers’ ratings. Domestic workers are to be paid a minimum of 531.60 SZL (Swazi lilangeni)/month or about 30 USD/month. Unskilled workers must be paid at least 420 SZL (about 23 USD), and skilled workers a minimum of 600 SZL/month (about 33 USD). However, average salaries for highly sought-after workers can range from 5,000-10,000 SZL/month (275-550 USD).

Wages must be paid at or near the place of work during working hours.

13 month salary in Eswatini

A 13th-month annual bonus is not mandatory in Eswatini. Some employers may provide this annual bonus at their own discretion to incentivize workers.

Social security for Liswati nationals

Employers in Eswatini pay contributions equal to 5% of a worker’s salary to the Eswatini National Provident Fund for old age, invalidity, and survivor’s benefits. Employees are deducted 5% of their salaries, for a total of 10%, to contribute to this same fund.

Eswatini Employer Of Record Peo

Navigation

Hire in Eswatini

What Is an Eswatini EOR?

What Are the Benefits of an Eswatini EOR?

Why Choose Horizons?

How Does an Eswatini EOR Work?

Labor Laws

Employment contract types

Working hours in Eswatini

Compensation & Benefits

Frequently asked questions

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Frequently asked questions

How does an EOR in Eswatini handle compliance with local labor laws?

The EOR you work with will legally employ your workers. In compliance with local statutes, it will create contracts that define their working conditions and compensation that are fair and equitable. It will also perform payroll operations so that all taxes and social security contributions are properly calculated and correctly paid.

What are the benefits of using an EOR for hiring in Eswatini?

The most obvious benefit of working with an EOR in Eswatini is that it lets you hire Swazi workers without needing to open a business entity in the country. An EOR can also recruit employees much more quickly and effectively than you could on your own. It will manage payroll, benefits, scheduling, and other HR functions so you can focus on how your workers can produce value for your company.

Eswatini EOR & PEO

Start hiring in Eswatini

Simple, compliant hiring with Horizons EOR & PEO

Hire in Eswatini

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hire employees in Eswatini

What Is an Eswatini EOR?

Save Money And Time with A Eswatini EOR

What Are the Benefits of an Eswatini EOR?

Horizons is Best IN Class

Why Choose Horizons?

Step-by-step Eswatini EOR

How Does an Eswatini EOR Work?

stay compliant with Eswatini labor laws

Labor Laws

Employment contract types

Project-based

Probationary period

Termination

Severance

Fixed-term

Probationary period

Termination notice period

Severance

Indefinite

Probationary period

Termination notice period

Severance

Working hours in Eswatini

Overtime must be compensated in the following way:

For a regular workday:

For a rest day:

For a statutory holiday:

Paid time off

Under 1 year of employment

1-10 years of employment

10-20 years of employment

20+ years of employment

Sick leave in Eswatini

Less than 6 months of sick leave:

Under 1 year of employment

1-10 years of employment

10-20 years of employment

20+ years of employment

Over 6 months of sick leave

Under 1 year of employment

1-3 years of employment

3+ years of employment

Maternity leave in Eswatini

Annual leave in Eswatini

Termination & severance in Eswatini

Eswatini's compulsory social security contributions

Eswatini social security for foreigners

Individual income tax

Health insurance

hassle-free Liswati compensation & benefits

Compensation & Benefits

Eswatini compensation laws

13 month salary in Eswatini

Social security for Liswati nationals

Hire in Eswatini in 24h without your own local entity.

Frequently asked questions

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