Benin
Want to know how you can hire in Benin, legally, without wading into months of paperwork and thousands of dollars in fees? In the next few minutes, we’ll teach you.
Country snapshot
CURRENCY
Cfa Franc Bceao
EMPLOYER TAXES
16.4%-19.4%
PAYROLL FREQUENCY
Monthly
OFFICIAL LANGUAGE
French
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
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.
Hiring in Benin? That’s excellent. There are two options: You can hire your talent as employees, or you can hire them as contractors. Because of Benin’s labor law structure, there are benefits and disadvantages to each approach.
Hire talent as contractors
Hire talent as employees
If you’ve read up until this point, you’ll know that it’s easier, cheaper, and more flexible to hire contractors in Benin 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 Benin.
Employer tax
Pension
Family allowance
Industrial Injury Insurance
Paid Time Off (PTO)
Employees choose when to take their vacation, but they must take 14 consecutive days. Employees receive two working days of leave per month after a year of service.
After 20 years of service, employees receive an extra two days of vacation each year. After 25 years, they receive a further four days of vacation and after 30 years of employment, they receive an extra six days of vacation.
Public Holidays
There are 16 public holidays.
Sick Days
In Benin, Employees’ contracts are protected while they are unwell, but they can be dismissed if they are declared unfit for work after their sick leave ends.
Employees receive one month of sick leave with less than a year of service. Those with tuberculosis, mental illnesses, AIDS, cancer, central nervous system diseases and leprosy receive six months of fully paid leave after one year of service.
Sick leave is paid in Benin depending on the term of an employee’s service in a company.
- More than 12 months of service: One month of paid leave
- 1 - 5 years of service: Three months paid leave and three months of half paid leave
- More than 5 years of service: Six months paid leave
Maternity Leave
Female employee would be entitled to:
- 6 weeks before the expected delivery date;
- 8 weeks after that. If a woman experiences any postpartum complication; and
- maternity leave can be extended by 4 weeks.
The employee is eligible to receive free healthcare and required benefits in kind during this period.
The employer must pay her normal wage during maternity leave. Social Security Funds will work with the employer to manage this financial expense of the company.
Paternity Leave
In Benin, male employee has 3 days leave.
Parental Leave
There are no statutory provisions for parental leave.
Other Leave
No Info.
Marriage Leave
No Info.
Bereavement Leave
No Info.
Termination Process
Employment contracts must be terminated in writing, but employers must provide a reason.
Employees can defend themselves and if the dismissal is unfair, the labor court can award compensation to the employee, if they have a year of service.
Notice Period
The notice period in Benin is 30 days. However for senior workers and executives the notice period is three months.
In the case of an employee serving their notice period, a break of two days per week is permitted to allow them to search for a new job.
Severance Pay
The statutory severance pay in Benin is as follows:
- For 1-5 years of service: 30% of average monthly salary
- For 6-10 years: 35% of average monthly salary
- For more than 10 years: 40% of average monthly salary
Probation Period
The probation period is 3 months.
Working Hours
The standard working hours in Benin is Monday to Friday from 8 a.m. - 12:30 p.m. and 3:30 p.m. - 7 p.m and Saturday from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m.
Overtime
In Benin, overtime is paid at specific percentages above the regular rate, depending upon the time worked.
Employees receive at least 24 hours of rest a week, typically on a Sunday.
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