How to hire remote employees in

Bahrain

Want to hire someone in Bahrain, but don’t already have a physical HQ there? We’re here to cut through the noise about hiring abroad. In the next few minutes, you’ll learn how you can legally hire in Bahrain without wading into months of legal paperwork and thousands in fees.

Book demo

Employment requirements

Country snapshot

CURRENCY

Bahraini Dinar (BHD)

EMPLOYER TAXES

12%

PAYROLL FREQUENCY

Arabic

OFFICIAL LANGUAGE

Spanish

Why hire independent contractors in Bahrain

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 Bahrain.

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 Bahrain 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 Bahrain

When you hire remotely in another country, you normally get put in a sticky situation: You’re not physically established in that country, so it’s not as easy as sending over a contract and getting things signed. At least, if you hire employees, that’s the case—below, we’ll cover the details about hiring employees or hiring contractors remotely in Bahrain.

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

Hire talent as contractors

Laws about hiring contractors are significantly more simple in Bahrain. 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 Bahrain 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 Bahrain

If you’re hiring contractors in Bahrain, 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 Bahrain

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

Taxes in Bahrain

Employer tax

Pension

Work Injury

Unemployment

Leave

Paid Time Off (PTO)

PTO is calculated by the:

An employee with at least one year of service is entitled to annual leave of no less than 30 paid days at the rate of 2.5 days for each month.

Public Holidays

There are 8 public holidays amounting to 14 days of leave.

Sick Days

Employees receive 55 days of sick leave.

The first 15 days are fully paid, the 16th to the 35th days are half-pay, and the 36th to the 55th day is unpaid.

Maternity Leave

Pregnant employees receive 75 days of maternity leave. The first 60 days are fully paid, and the last 15 days are unpaid.

Paternity Leave

Fathers do not receive paternity leave.

Parental Leave

Only mothers receive leave for maternity leave.

Other Leave

None.

Marriage Leave

None.

Bereavement Leave

None.

Termination

Termination Process

To terminate an employee, an employer must have sufficient grounds for the termination as well as provide a notice period.

Notice Period

The notice period in Bahrain is:

Either party to the contract may terminate this contract following the notification of the other party at least 30 days before the date of the termination.

The labor contract remains in force during the notice period and its parties shall execute all of the obligations arising from it. If notice is not given, payment in lieu must be made.

Severance Pay

The Severance Pay in Bahrain:

Employees shall receive:

First three years: 15 days salary for each year.
From the fourth year: 30 days salary for each year.

Probation Period

Probation period is 3 months.

Employee requirements in Bahrain

Working Hours

Standard working hours are 8 hours per day and 40 hours per week.

During Ramadan, Muslim workers may not work more than 6 hours per day or 36 hours per week.

Overtime

Employees receive their wage plus at least 25 % for each additional working hour for hours worked during the day, and at least 50% for hours worked during the night.

Workers are not to be present at the workplace for more than 11 hours per day; This includes working hours plus rest breaks.

Run your global workforce on autopilot with Thera

Book a demo to get started.

Get started