North Macedonia EOR & PEO

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Hire in North Macedonia

The Republic of North Macedonia is a landlocked country in Southeast Europe that borders Greece, Albania, Kosovo, Serbia, and Bulgaria. This small nation of just 1.79 million people has a long and complicated history. It was influenced and occupied by Persians, Romans, Byzantines, Slavs, Bulgarians, Serbians, Ottomans, and communist Yugoslavia, from which it succeeded in 1991. Previously called the Republic of Macedonia, the name was changed to North Macedonia in 2019. The country’s GDP reached $14.3 billion in 2023 and is expected to increase by another 2.7% in 2024. Unemployment has steadily increased over the past 20 years, reaching 13.15% in 2023, and is expected to continue dropping. This might make right now the perfect time to hire employees in North Macedonia by partnering with an EOR.

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hire employees in North Macedonia

What Is a North Macedonia EOR?

When you partner with a North Macedonia EOR or employer of record, you start working with a service provider that allows you to hire Macedonians. You can do this even without owning an entity in the country because the EOR acts as the employees’ sole legal employer while contracting them to work for you. An EOR will typically handle all of your human resources (HR) needs related to your Macedonian workers, including recruitment, contracting, payroll, benefits administration, leave scheduling, and even termination. Your company pays the workers through the EOR and also pays it a fee for each employee it recruits and manages over the long term.

An EOR may also be referred to as a PEO or professional employment organization, and these terms are frequently used interchangeably.

Save Money And Time with A North Macedonia EOR

What Are the Benefits of a North Macedonia EOR?

Hiring workers in North Macedonia on your own can be a real challenge. By partnering with an EOR instead, you can make recruiting and managing employees easy and efficient. EORs typically provide the following benefits:

Not needing an entity: By acting as their sole legal employer in Macedonia, an EOR can enable you to hire local employees without needing an entity in the country. Otherwise, you’d need to come to Macedonia, spend a lot of time and money setting up a limited liability company or a corporation, and put up with a lot of headaches while doing so. Partnering with an EOR saves you time, money, and hassle while also helping you find top Macedonian talent.
Language skills: The official languages of North Macedonia are Macedonian and Albanian. At the same time, Turkish, Romani, Serbian, Bosnian, and Aromanian are all recognized regional languages. German and English are also widely spoken, especially by the younger population. These language skills make Macedonian employees very valuable for companies doing business in the region.
Fast recruitment and onboarding: If you try to recruit in North Macedonia on your own, you’ll likely find that it takes months to fill all of your vacancies with passable talent. With an EOR, this can be pared down to days or just a few weeks. This is because the EOR has its own networks and is experienced with successful recruitment strategies in the country. This allows it to find top talent in a very limited time.
Affordability: North Macedonia is an upper-middle-income country with salaries below the global average. While employer contributions to social programs are somewhat high at 28%, this percentage comes from low gross salaries, keeping Macedonian workers affordable.
Constant compliance: An EOR’s staff will prepare legal contracts, monitor working conditions, and handle payroll and tax payments to ensure they’re correct and paid on time. They use their experience and extensive knowledge of local tax and employment laws to ensure that your workers are always treated fairly and equitably in the eyes of the law.

Horizons is Best IN Class

Why Choose Horizons?

Horizons stands out as a North Macedonia EOR through:

A strong regional presence in Europe, 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 North Macedonia 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 North Macedonia EOR

How Does a North Macedonia EOR Work?

If you want to work with an EOR in North Macedonia, you can engage its services and pay it a fee for each worker it recruits and manages. In exchange, the EOR will generally provide all of the following services:

Hiring your employees: To start your relationship with the EOR, you’ll need to inform it of your recruiting needs, including the number and types of vacancies you need to fill and the requirements you have for employees. The EOR will use this information to form a recruitment strategy that will normally entail looking in its labor pool and advertising vacancies publicly (this is mandatory according to Macedonian law). You may also put forward your own recruits if you have specific people in mind. Once you accept candidates, the EOR will contract them to work for you, becoming their sole legal employer in North Macedonia.
Managing employment contracts and onboarding: The EOR will help you negotiate terms with the candidates it suggests by offering advice on working conditions and compensation. Once you have agreed on terms, the EOR will write them in the employees’ contracts and enter into these contracts with the employees. When they are officially hired, the EOR will begin onboarding the employees for you. This can involve collecting their information, entering them into databases, and registering them with the social security and tax authorities.
Processing payroll and handling employment taxes: Your company will transfer funds to the EOR each pay period to pay salaries, taxes, and social contributions. You will also need to provide data on each employee’s worked hours to help the EOR calculate their gross salary. It will calculate and withhold taxes and also calculate your mandatory contributions to social security. After paying these taxes, it will disperse the net salaries to your employees along with detailed pay slips for their records.
Administering benefits: The EOR will track and manage mandatory benefits like rest days and annual leaves. If you choose to offer additional benefits like private pensions or insurance, the EOR can also administer these benefits for you. It will calculate the necessary contributions and make regular payments to these programs on your behalf.
Taking care of exit procedures: If you wish to terminate workers for individual or economic reasons, the EOR will have to perform this function for you as their legal employer. It will calculate notice periods and severance pay and provide these as necessary.

stay compliant with North Macedonia labor laws

Labor Laws

North Macedonia has an extensive body of law with statutes that provide protections for both employers and employees. These laws exist in legal instruments such as the Labor Relations Law of 2007, the Constitution of North Macedonia, the Law on Employment and Insurance, the Health Insurance Law, and many other orders and decrees. The EOR will focus on compliance with all of these statutes. However, as an employer, it’s useful to know the main points of law that let you know what you’ll need to provide for your Macedonian workers.

Employment contract types

Contracts in North Macedonia must be made in writing and a signed copy must be held by each of the employer and employee. Contracts may be permanent or for fixed terms of up to five years. Collective agreements may also be followed if they apply to your employees.

Project-based

Fixed-term

Indefinite

Working hours in North Macedonia

Normal hours in North Macedonia are eight hours per day and forty hours per week. Any additional hours are considered overtime. These overtime hours are limited to a maximum of eight hours per week or 190 hours in a year.

Overtime must be compensated in the following way:

Holiday Schedule in North Macedonia [2024]

North Macedonia normally has 11 paid public holidays each year.

The North Macedonia public holiday schedule for 2024 is:

Date	Holiday name
1 Jan, 2024	New Year’s Day
8 Jan, 2024	Orthodox Christmas Day
10 Apr, 2024	Eid al-Fitr
1 May, 2024	Labor Day
6 May, 2024	Orthodox Easter Monday
24 May, 2024	Saints Cyril and Methodius Day
2 Aug, 2024	Republic Day
9 Sep, 2024	Independence Day
11 Oct, 2024	People’s Uprising against Fascism Day
23 Oct, 2024	Day of the Macedonian Revolutionary Struggle
9 Dec, 2024	St. Kliment Ohridski’s Day

Paid time off

Employees who work four hours are entitled to an unpaid break of 15 minutes. Workers who work six hours are entitled to a 30-minute unpaid break. Workers are entitled to rest at least 12 hours between periods of work and must be given at least one 24-hour period of rest each week.

Sick leave in North Macedonia

Employees are entitled to up to 30 days of paid sick leave annually. Workers availing themselves of sick leave must inform their employers within 24 hours of taking leave.

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 North Macedonia

Expecting mothers are entitled to nine months of maternity leave. Fathers can take over this leave in the case of the death of the mother or child abandonment.

Annual leave in North Macedonia

Employees are entitled to at least 18 days of annual leave and not more than 26 days. Employees who have not worked for one full year are entitled to two days of leave for each month worked to a maximum of 18 days.

Termination & severance in North Macedonia

Employees may terminate their contracts at any time by providing their employers with a minimum of 30 days’ notice.

Employers may terminate workers for serious misconduct. For other justifiable reasons, they must give between 30 days’ and six months’ notice depending on the employee’s period of service and relevant collective agreements. During the notice period, employees must be allowed time away from work to look for new employment.

Severance payments are calculated based on years of service to the employer. Employees should receive a severance payment equal to one month’s salary for every two years of service. Severance pay cannot exceed 12 monthly salaries (for 24 years of service).

North Macedonia's compulsory social security contributions

Social security contributions cover various aspects such as pension and disability insurance, health insurance, and unemployment insurance.

Employers might also contribute to other mandatory funds as required by law, which can include contributions for professional training and development.

North Macedonia social security for foreigners

These social security contributions apply to both local employees and foreigners working in North Macedonia, provided they are employed under the same conditions and are part of the national social security system.

Individual income tax

In North Macedonia, individual income tax is applied at a flat rate of 10%.

Health insurance

All employed individuals, self-employed persons, and pensioners are required to be covered by the Public Health Insurance Fund (PHIF). The PHIF provides comprehensive health coverage, including primary care, specialist care, hospital treatment, prescription medications, maternity care, and preventive services.

Individuals may choose to purchase private health insurance to complement the public system. Private insurance can offer additional benefits such as faster access to specialists, private hospital rooms, and coverage for services not fully covered by the PHIF.

hassle-free Macedonians compensation & benefits

Compensation & Benefits

North Macedonia compensation laws

The minimum wage in North Macedonia, updated in 2024, is 22,567 MKD (Macedonian denar)/month (about 400 USD/month). The average salary for Macedonians is significantly higher at 41,141 MKD/month (about 730 USD).

Overtime must be paid at a rate of at least 135% of normal wages.

13 month salary in North Macedonia

A 13th-month annual bonus is not mandatory in North Macedonia. However, any employee who works more than 150 hours of overtime in a year while being absent for less than 21 days (not including annual leave) is entitled to a mandatory bonus. This bonus is equal to one month’s average national salary.

Social security for Macedonians nationals

Employers in North Macedonia pay significant contributions for pension and disability insurance (18.8%), health insurance (7.5%), occupational health insurance (0.5%), and unemployment insurance (1.2%). In total, employers pay the equivalent of 28% of each worker’s gross salary to social security programs.

North Macedonia Employer Of Record Peo

Navigation

Hire in North Macedonia

What Is a North Macedonia EOR?

What Are the Benefits of a North Macedonia EOR?

Why Choose Horizons?

How Does a North Macedonia EOR Work?

Labor Laws

Employment contract types

Working hours in North Macedonia

Compensation & Benefits

Frequently asked questions

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Frequently asked questions

How does an EOR in North Macedonia handle local labor law compliance?

The EOR’s staff must have expert knowledge of all relevant employment and tax laws. It creates contracts in accordance with these statutes and continuously monitors the employees’ working conditions. By managing their pay and benefits, the EOR ensures that the workers are treated equitably and that all taxes and social contributions are correctly paid.

What are the advantages of using an EOR for hiring in North Macedonia?

Employers of record are skilled recruiters that normally maintain their own labor pools, letting them fill your vacancies quickly with top talent. They then manage this talent, letting you outsource the HR functions of contract management, payroll, benefits administration, and even termination to them. However, the biggest advantage they provide is enabling your company to hire employees in North Macedonia without needing to register an entity in the country.

North Macedonia EOR & PEO

Start hiring in North Macedonia

Simple, compliant hiring with Horizons EOR & PEO

Hire in North Macedonia

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hire employees in North Macedonia

What Is a North Macedonia EOR?

Save Money And Time with A North Macedonia EOR

What Are the Benefits of a North Macedonia EOR?

Horizons is Best IN Class

Why Choose Horizons?

Step-by-step North Macedonia EOR

How Does a North Macedonia EOR Work?

stay compliant with North Macedonia 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 North Macedonia

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 North Macedonia

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 North Macedonia

Annual leave in North Macedonia

Termination & severance in North Macedonia

North Macedonia's compulsory social security contributions

North Macedonia social security for foreigners

Individual income tax

Health insurance

hassle-free Macedonians compensation & benefits

Compensation & Benefits

North Macedonia compensation laws

13 month salary in North Macedonia

Social security for Macedonians nationals

Hire in North Macedonia in 24h without your own local entity.

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