India
India is one of the best places in the world to hire remote talent. But if you don’t already have a physical presence there, hiring and paying your talent in India can get complicated. In the next five minutes, we’ll teach you how you can hire remotely in India—without paying thousands in legal fees and getting caught up in legal red tape:
Country snapshot
CURRENCY
Indian Rupee (INR)
EMPLOYER TAXES
13.08%
PAYROLL FREQUENCY
Monthly
OFFICIAL LANGUAGE
Hindi, English
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.
Laws about hiring are complicated, and the same is true in India. But there are ways to sidestep the headaches—if your company hasn’t already established a physical presence in India, you have two real options when it comes to hiring. We’ll detail both below.
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 India 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 India.
Employer tax
Employer Contributions
- 13.08%
Paid Time Off (PTO)
- Employees are entitled to 15 paid annual vacation days. A maximum of 30 vacation days can be carried over to the next year.
Public Holidays
There are 3 national holidays where businesses must be closed; Republic Day, Independence Day, and Ghandi Jayanti. In addition to this, each region has their own public holidays that are observed
Sick Days
Employees are allowed a maximum of 15 paid sick leave days a year and receive 70% of their average daily wage.
Maternity Leave
Employees receive 100% of their average wage in the six months prior to childbirth. The amount of fully paid time leave depends on the number of children an employee has.
First 2 children – 26 weeks paid
3 or more children – 12 weeks paid
Paternity Leave
New fathers are entitled to 2 days’ leave for the birth of their child or a miscarriage.
Parental Leave
There are no statutory laws for parental leave.
Other Leave
Casual leave: provided for urgent and unexpected matters. Typically companies have a strict maximum of three days a month, and 6 yearly. Casual leave is not encashable. At the end of the year, unused leave lapse automatically.
Work-related injury leaves: Work injury benefits come from the contributions made towards the employees’ compensation and employees’ state insurance. Temporally disabled workers receive 50% compensation monthly.
Marriage Leave
None.
Bereavement Leave
None.
Termination Process
If termination isn’t specified in a contract, an employer must give 30 days’ notice or payment in lieu to an employee who has worked for at least 3 months. No notice is required for termination due to misconduct.
Notice Period
A 30 days’ notice period should be given.
Severance Pay
Severance payment is given to workers who have been continuously employed for 2 years and are terminated for redundancy. Severance payment reflects the duration of employment, performance, and salary.
Probation Period
None.
Working Hours
A full-time workweek is 48 hours.
Overtime
Overtime is paid double the rate of the normal pay.
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