How to hire remote employees in

Belarus

On this page, you’ll learn how to hire remote talent in Belarus without having to trudge through months of legal paperwork and shell out thousands of dollars. Shall we?

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Employment requirements

Country snapshot

CURRENCY

Belarusian Ruble (BYN)

EMPLOYER TAXES

34%

PAYROLL FREQUENCY

Monthly

OFFICIAL LANGUAGE

Belarusian

Why hire independent contractors in Belarus

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 Belarus.

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 Belarus 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 Belarus

So you want to hire in Belarus. You’ll have to make a decision: Do you want to hire your new remote talent as employees, or do you want to hire them as contractors? Conventional wisdom might say employees, but hiring abroad is hardly conventional—below, we’ll cover what you need to know about your options.

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

Hire talent as contractors

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

If you’re hiring contractors in Belarus, 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 Belarus

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

Taxes in Belarus

Employer tax

Pension

Health Insurance

Leave

Paid Time Off (PTO)

PTO is calculated by the:

Employees are entitled to at least 24 paid vacation days.

Public Holidays

There are 9 non-working 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:

Employees receive 80% of their average daily earnings for the first 12 days of incapacity.

Maternity Leave

Current maternity leave in Belarus is:

126 days’ paid maternity leave (140 days if there are medical complications or if two and more kids are born),

3 years’ unpaid maternity leave during which time the job position must be kept open (the mother can resume work earlier if she wants to),

If another child is born during these 3 years, the maternity leave entitlement starts again.

Paternity Leave

Fathers can receive up to 14 days of unpaid leave in the first six months after the birth of a child.

Parental Leave

See paternity leave.

Other Leave

Family Care Leave -An employee can take leave to care for a sick child under 14 years of age or a disabled child under 18.

Marriage Leave

None.

Bereavement Leave

Employees are entitled to up to 2 days of paid leave following the death of a close family member.

Termination

Termination Process

In Belarus, an employment contract can be terminated in the following circumstances:

Agreement by both parties
If the contract’s term expires except when neither of the parties wants the employment relations terminated.
If initiated by any party (the employer or employee).
If the employee agrees to be transferred to an elective position.
If the employee disagrees with moving to another location to follow the employer, if the employee disagrees with new labor conditions, anew owner, or re-organization of the company.
If circumstances independent of the will of the parties.
If the contract is terminated after a probationary period. However, it is difficult for employers to terminate employees, and they must provide valid reasoning. The notice period must be 2 months unless otherwise stated in agreement.

Notice Period

The notice period in Belarus is:

One month notice is required.

Severance Pay

Severance payments are determined in the employment contract but generally should amount to 2 weeks of the employee’s average salary.

Probation Period

Employers can establish a probationary period of up to 3 months. For early termination during the probationary period, a minimum of 3 days’ notice is required.

Employee requirements in Belarus

Working Hours

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

Overtime

Overtime should not exceed 12 hours daily, 10 hours weekly, and 180 hours annually. Time off is given in lieu of payment for overtime.

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