Kuwait
Found someone in Kuwait you’d love to hire, but less excited about the prospect of spending the next 3+ 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 Kuwait without all the fees and headaches.
Country snapshot
CURRENCY
Kuwaiti Dinar (KWD)
EMPLOYER TAXES
11.5%
PAYROLL FREQUENCY
Monthly
OFFICIAL LANGUAGE
Arabic
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.
Want to hire someone in Kuwait? Excellent. But, no matter where you’re from, labor laws in Kuwait are different from those in your home country (unless you’re from Kuwait, of course). Read on to learn about your options, plus as the easiest way to make remote hires in Kuwait.
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 Kuwait 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 Kuwait.
Employer tax
Pension
Unemployment
Paid Time Off (PTO)
PTO is calculated by the:
- The minimum paid leave is 30 days, beginning after 9 months of service.
- An employee working for the same employer for two consecutive weeks is entitled to 21 days leave with pay to perform Al-Hajj, as long as the employee has never performed it before.
Public Holidays
There are 8 public holidays consisting of 13 days off.
Sick Days
The duration of sick leave entitlement provided to workers is dependent on how long they have been employed by their employer:
After the employee provides a written medical report from a doctor:
- 15 days at full pay
- 10 days at ¾ pay
- 10 days at 1/2 pay
- 10 days at 1/4 pay
- 30 days without pay.
Maternity Leave
Maternity leave is 70 days paid, and up to 4 additional months unpaid.
Paternity Leave
There is no paternity leave.
Parental Leave
There is no parental leave.
Other Leave
None.
Marriage Leave
None.
Bereavement Leave
Three days paid leave in the event of the death of first or second-degree relatives.
A Muslim woman whose husband dies is entitled to a fully paid leave for four months and ten days. A non-Muslim woman is entitled to 21 days of paid leave.
Termination Process
Termination requires 3–months’ notice from either side for employees with a monthly salary or one month for all others.
A contract can be terminated without notice or compensation in the event that the employee caused significant monetary loss, committed fraud, or disclosed secrets that led to losses.
Notice Period
The notice period in Kuwait is:
3-months’ notice from either side for employees with a monthly salary or one month for all others.
Severance Pay
Employees paid on a monthly basis receive 15 days remuneration for each year of employment at the company up to 5 years and a month for each after that, up to a limit of 1.5 years of salary.
Employees paid by the hour, day, or week receive 10 days’ salary for each year of employment at the company up to 5 years, and 15 days for each year after that, up to 1 year of salary.
Probation Period
A probation period can be no longer than 100 days.
Working Hours
Kuwaiti law defines the maximum workweek at 48 hours/6 days a week at 8 hours per day. Most companies work 5-day weeks, with Friday and Saturdays off. Those working 6 days get Friday off.
During the month of Ramadan, the working hours are reduced to 6 per day.
Employees are entitled to a one-hour break after working five straight hours. The hour is not part of the day’s work.
Overtime
Overtime should not be more than 2 hours per day, 3 days per week, or 90 days a year. It pays 1.25x regular salary.
Working on a Friday earns 1.5x regular salary and a compensatory day off.
Working on a national holiday earns 2x regular salary.
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