How to hire remote employees in

Austria

Want to know how you can hire in Austria, legally, without wading into months of paperwork and thousands of dollars in fees? In the next few minutes, we’ll teach you.

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Employment requirements

Country snapshot

CURRENCY

Euro (EUR)

EMPLOYER TAXES

21.08%

PAYROLL FREQUENCY

Monthly

OFFICIAL LANGUAGE

German

Why hire independent contractors in Austria

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 Austria.

It’s the fastest way to hire globally

Hiring employees takes months, at the minimum. When you hire with Thera'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’s a lot cheaper

It costs just $0 to sign up for Thera, then $25 per month to hire your contractors with Thera. 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.

It’s more flexible for you & your team

HHiring contractors in Austria 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.

Can be less risky than hiring employees

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.

Some people want to be employees

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.

You might not have as much control over your talent

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.

What to know before you hire in Austria

Hiring in Austria? That’s excellent. There are two options: You can hire your talent as employees, or you can hire them as contractors. Because of Austria’s labor law structure, there are benefits and disadvantages to each approach.

If you want to successfully hire in Austria, you have two options:

Hire talent as contractors

Laws about hiring contractors are significantly more simple in Austria. 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 Thera for.

Hire talent as employees

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 Austria is expensive—it can often be $500 per month per employee—and sometimes prone to lengthy onboarding times.

Hire contractors in a couple clicks with Thera

How can I pay people in Austria

If you’re hiring contractors in Austria, you can pay them with Thera 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 want to hire employees in Austria

If you’ve read up until this point, you’ll know that it’s easier, cheaper, and more flexible to hire contractors in Austria 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 Austria.

Taxes in Austria

Employer tax

Sickness

Unemployment

Pension

Accident Insurance

Miscellaneous

Leave

Paid Time Off (PTO)

PTO is calculated by the:

After 6 months of employment, employees are entitled to 25 days of paid annual leave.
After 25 years of employment with the same employer, the entitlement is 30 days of paid annual leave.

Public Holidays

There are 13 public holidays.

Sick Days

The duration of sick leave entitlement provided to workers is dependent on how long they have been employed by their employer:

1 year of employment- 6 weeks
2-15 years of employment- 8 weeks
16-25 years of employment- 10 weeks
26+ years of employment- 12 weeks

Any sick leave beyond the above entitlement is covered by social security.

Maternity Leave

Maternity leave is for 16 weeks in Austria and can start from 8 weeks prior to the expected due date. For high-risk births, leave after the birth is extended to 12 weeks.

Maternity leave is paid by social security and is based on the average earnings of the last 3 months before the maternity leave begins.

Paternity Leave

Fathers are entitled to 1 month of unpaid paternity leave and can be taken until the child reaches the age of 24 months.

Parental Leave

There are 2 options that parents can choose:

One parent can take 12-28 months
Both parents can take 15- 35 months

Parental leave can be taken until the child reaches the age of 24 months. During parental leave, parents are entitled to payment under the Child Care Payment Act from social security.

Other Leave

None.

Marriage Leave

None.

Bereavement Leave

None.

Termination

Termination Process

There are several types of termination in Austria:

Fixed-term contract- if a fixed-term contract is expiring, no action is needed.
Termination by mutual consent- when employment ends by mutual consent, no notice period is required and can be in writing or verbally, however, termination in writing is recommended.
Unilateral termination– Can be verbal or in writing and no reason for the termination needs to be provided.
Dismissal- This terminates the employment agreement with immediate effect and a reason must be given. If the employee deems the dismissal unjustified, they are able to make a claim with the labor and social security courts.
Resignation – If the employee chooses to resign, this terminated the employment relationship with immediate effect.

Notice Period

The notice period in Austria is based on the length of employment:

Up to 2 years of employment- 6 weeks’ notice
2-5 years of employment- 2 months’ notice
5-15 years of employment- 3 months’ notice
15-25 years of employment- 4 months’ notice
25+ years of employment0 5 months’ notice

Severance Pay

The Severance Pay in Austria depends on:

Every month starting from the 2nd month of employment, the employer is obligated to contribute 1.53% towards a provision fund. When the employment relationship is terminated, the employee is entitled to severance pay unless:

The termination was initiated by the employee
The employer terminated the employment agreement based on misconduct on the part of the employee

If the employee would like to draw the amount from the provision fund, they must submit a letter in writing within 6 months of termination.

Probation Period

Probation period is 1 month.

Employee requirements in Austria

Working Hours

Full-time employment is considered 8 hours daily, and 40 hours weekly.

Overtime

Anything over 40 hours per week is paid at a rate of 150% of the regular pay.

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