Pakistan
Pakistan is home to some of the best remote talent on the planet. But, hiring that talent can seem confusing. That’s what we’re for. In the next five minutes, we’ll cut through the noise on hiring in Pakistan and teach you how you can onboard the talent you need—without paying thousands in legal fees or spending months buried in paperwork.
Country snapshot
CURRENCY
Pakistan Rupee (PKR)
EMPLOYER TAXES
11%
PAYROLL FREQUENCY
Monthly
OFFICIAL LANGUAGE
Urdu
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 Pakistan. But there are ways to sidestep the headaches—if your company hasn’t already established a physical presence in Pakistan, 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 Pakistan 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 Pakistan.
Employer tax
Healthcare
Pension
Paid Time Off (PTO)
PTO is calculated by the:
- Employees in Pakistan are entitled to 14 days of paid leave. They gain this right after they have completed 12 months of service.
- Employees are paid their normal wages during leave. Factory workers receive half of their pay due before the beginning of the leave.
- Annual leave cannot be divided into parts and should be taken in its entirety. Unused leave is transferred to the following year. The maximum amount of transferable days is 14.
Public Holidays
There are 10 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:
- 10 days of casual leave upon contingent situations such as sudden illness or any other urgent purpose.
- Employees receive 16 days on full pay and 8 days on half pay for the sick leave but should provide a medical certificate certified by a Doctor.
- After the initial 16 days of sick leave, employers can offer employees sickness benefits for a period of 121 days at 75% of their last salary.
- If employees are ill with tuberculosis or cancer, they are given a maximum of 365 days and receive their full wages.
- To receive benefits, the employee must have at least 90 days of contributions in the six months before sickness or injury.
Maternity Leave
Female employees are eligible to take 3 months of paid maternity leave.
The six-week post-natal leave is obligatory. In order to receive maternity leave, the employee should be working for the same employer for at least 4 months before she gives birth.
No employer is permitted to terminate the female employee while she is on maternity leave.
In order to receive benefits, the employee must have at least 180 days of contributions in the year before the expected birth of the child.
Paternity Leave
Fathers who are eligible will receive one-month leave for each of their first three children.
Parental Leave
No statutory law for parental leave.
Other Leave
None.
Marriage Leave
None.
Bereavement Leave
If a female employee’s husband dies, the employer must provide paid Iddat leave. This is a waiting period that the employee receives a normal wage.
Termination Process
A written letter should be provided when terminating a contract and reasoning for the termination must be sufficient.
Notice Period
The notice period in Pakistan is:
Both employee and employer should provide a months’ time notice.
Advanced notice is not required for temporary workers. If advance notice is not provided, a monthly salary in its lieu shall be provided.
Severance Pay
When employees are discharged from work, they are given severance pay.
The pay amounts to 30 days’ wages for each completed year of service. Employees do not receive severance pay if they are dismissed for misconduct.
Probation Period
The probationary period typically lasts 3 months.
Working Hours
Normal working hours are a maximum of 9 hours a day and 48 hours a week. Anything over this is considered overtime.
Overtime
If employees work more than stipulated 9 hours per day and 48 hours per week, they are entitled to overtime pay.
Overtime pay in Pakistan is 200% the employees’ regular pay. During holidays employees receive 300% the pay rate.
%5B1%5D.avif)
Run your global workforce on autopilot with Thera
Book a demo to get started.