How to hire remote employees in

Kazakhstan

Found someone in Kazakhstan you’d love to hire, but less excited about the prospect of spending the next three months buried in legal paperwork and fees? You’re in the right place. In the next few minutes, you’ll learn how you can hire remote talent in Kazakhstan without all the fees and headaches.

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Employment requirements

Country snapshot

CURRENCY

Tenge (₸) (KZT)

EMPLOYER TAXES

20.0%

PAYROLL FREQUENCY

Monthly

OFFICIAL LANGUAGE

Kazakh, Russian

Why hire independent contractors in Kazakhstan

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 Kazakhstan.

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 Kazakhstan 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 Kazakhstan

Want to hire someone in Kazakhstan? Excellent. You’ve got two options: You can hire your team as employees, or you can hire them as contractors. Below, we’ll elaborate on the details between those two, plus the option we think you’ll prefer.

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

Hire talent as contractors

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

If you’re hiring contractors in Kazakhstan, 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 Kazakhstan

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

Taxes in Kazakhstan

Employer tax

Social Insurance

Health Insurance

Pension

Social Tax

Leave

Paid Time Off (PTO)

PTO is calculated by the:

Employees are entitled to 24 calendar days of paid leave.

Public Holidays

There are 12 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:

Sick leave entitlement is 3 days (up to 6 days for severe illness).

Maternity Leave

Mothers are entitled to 126 days of maternity leave, divided into 70 days before the expected due date and 56 after the birth of a child.

In the event of a difficult birth, leave after the birth can be extended by 14 days.

If a mother resides in an area where nuclear tests are performed, maternity leave is 160 days and is divided by 90 days before the expected due date and 70 after the birth.

Maternity leave is paid by the employer.

Paternity Leave

There are no provisions in the law regarding paternity leave.

Parental Leave

Parents or relatives are entitled to unpaid leave to care for a child until the child reaches the age of 3.

Other Leave

Birth of a child - Up to 5 calendar days of unpaid leave

Marriage Leave

Up to 5 calendar days of unpaid leave.

Bereavement Leave

Up to 5 calendar days of unpaid leave.

Termination

Termination Process

An employer or employee must provide written notice to the employee notifying them of the termination of the employment agreement.

On the last day of employment, the employer must provide a termination letter and include the reason for termination.

If the employee requests it, the employer must provide an employment certificate and include information such as dates employed, nature of the job, salary, and recommendation.

This letter must be provided within 5 working days from the date of request.

Notice Period

The notice period is 1 month. If the employee agrees, payment in lieu of notice can be given.

Severance Pay

There are no provisions in the law regarding severance pay.

Probation Period

Probation period is 3 months.

Employee requirements in Kazakhstan

Working Hours

A full-time work week is 40 hours or 6 hours per day.

Overtime

In general, overtime work must be agreed on in writing by the employee and employer. Overtime cannot exceed 2 hours per day or 1 hour for dangerous work. In addition, overtime cannot exceed 12 hours per month.

Overtime is paid at the rate of 150% of the regular pay. It is also possible to give 1 hour over paid leave for every hour of overtime.

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