How to hire remote employees in

Qatar

Thinking about hiring in Qatar? You’re in the right place. In the next five minutes, we’ll cut through the noise on hiring in Qatar and teach you how you can onboard the talent you need—without paying thousands in legal fees or spending months buried in paperwork.

Book demo

Employment requirements

Country snapshot

CURRENCY

Qatari Riyal (QAR)

EMPLOYER TAXES

10.0%

PAYROLL FREQUENCY

Monthly

OFFICIAL LANGUAGE

Arabic

Why hire independent contractors in Qatar

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 Qatar.

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 Qatar 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 Qatar

Laws about hiring are complicated, and the same is true in Qatar. But there are ways to sidestep the headaches—if your company hasn’t already established a physical presence in Qatar, you have two real options when it comes to hiring. We’ll detail both below.

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

Hire talent as contractors

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

If you’re hiring contractors in Qatar, 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 Qatar

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

Taxes in Qatar

Employer tax

Pension

Leave

Paid Time Off (PTO)

PTO is calculated by the:

15 days of paid leave after a year of service;
20 days after 5 years of service.

Public Holidays

There are 11 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:

2 weeks of paid sick leave, after 3 months of service.
A medical certificate is required.

Maternity Leave

Employees receive 50 days paid leave which can begin before baby is born.

Paternity Leave

No paternity leave.

Parental Leave

No parental leave.

Other Leave

Hajj pilgrimage leave for Muslim employees only: 2 weeks unpaid, available once during employment period.

Marriage Leave

None.

Bereavement Leave

None.

Termination

Termination Process

In the event of a termination of a local employee, the employee’s salary must be paid:

Employees with indefinite contracts can be terminated at will with one-month notice for those with less than 5 years’ service, and 2 months for those with more than 5 years’ service.

Notice Period

The notice period in Qatar is:

Those employed for 1-5 years are required to provide one month’s notice.

Those employed for over 5 years must provide two months’ notice.

Severance Pay

Employees leaving a position are entitled to EOSB (end of service benefits).

These benefits are agreed upon mutually between employer and employee and must equal at least 3 weeks of employees’ gross salary for each year employed.

Probation Period

Not more than 6 months.

Employee requirements in Qatar

Working Hours

Maximum of 6 days, 8 hours per day, for 48 hours.

During Ramadan, the workday drops to 6 hours. Day off is generally Friday.

Overtime

Hours worked above 48 are paid at an additional 25%.

Night work is paid at an additional 50%.

Run your global workforce on autopilot with Thera

Book a demo to get started.

Get started