Russia
If you’ve found someone you’d like to hire remotely in Russia, you’re in the right place. In the next few minutes, we’ll teach you how to hire in Russia (without getting yourself wrapped up in thousands of dollars of legal red tape).
Country snapshot
CURRENCY
Russian Ruble (RUB)
EMPLOYER TAXES
30.02%
PAYROLL FREQUENCY
Bi-Monthly
OFFICIAL LANGUAGE
Russian
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.
No matter where you’re based out of, we can tell you one thing: Russia has different labor laws than your home country (unless your home country is Russia, that is). If you don’t do things right, you’ll be putting your company at the risk of fines—and risk losing the talent you brought onboard. Fortunately, doing things right is pretty easy if you take the right route.
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 Russia 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 Russia
Employer tax
Employer Contributions
- 30.02%
Paid Time Off (PTO)
28 calendar days per year, all unused days are carried over.
Employees may be entitled to additional paid leave if they work in harmful and dangerous working conditions, have irregular working hours, work in the far North regions and in some other cases stipulated by the law.
Public Holidays
There are 7 public holidays.
Sick Days
Sick leave allowance is paid by the employer for the first 3 days of sickness and by the Social Insurance Fund from the 4th day onwards.
Sick leave allowance varies depending on the overall length of service, but it does not exceed 2,301 RUB per day.
Maternity Leave
Maternity leave is paid for 140 calendar days and additional paid childcare leave till the child reaches the age of 18 months. The allowance is covered by the Social Security Fund.
Paternity Leave
Paternity leave falls under parental leave.
Parental Leave
The relative or guardian who takes care of the child can take paid parental leave till the child reaches the age of 18 months. The allowance is covered by the Social Security Fund.
Only one parent can take the childcare leave.
Other Leave
Study leave: Employees gaining higher education are entitled to 40 days paid leave during the first two years of study and 50 days paid leave during consequent years of study. The allowance is paid by the Employer.
Termination Process
Labor contracts can be terminated on the following grounds:
- Mutual agreement of the parties
- Expiry of the fixed term contract
- At employee’s initiative;
- At employer’s initiative – reasons are limited by legislation (e.g. staff reduction, if employee fails to fulfill hisher working duties or absent without good explanation, the company’s owners change (applicable only for director, chief accountants and deputies etc)
All termination settlements are to be finalized during the employee’s last working day.
Notice Period
- 3 days’ written notice is mandatory when terminating due to probation period failure.
- 3 days’ written notice is mandatory when terminating due to the expiry of the fixed term contract
- Indefinite employment agreement- 2 week’s written notice is required when the employee initiates the termination of the employment agreement
- Termination due to redundancy or liquidation- 2 months’ written notice is required
Severance Pay
When terminating due to staff redundancy or a company’s liquidation, severance pay is one month’s salary plus payment of their average month’s earnings for a 2-month period post dismissal when the employee is searching for alternative work.
If the employee fails to find an alternative job after two months, they can obtain a letter from the Employment Fund which entitles them to receive an additional month’s salary.
When termination is a result of the employee’s refusal to transfer to a different available position within the company or due to the loss of the ability to work (additional reasons might also apply), two weeks’ salary is paid.
Probation Period
The probation period is 3 months. It can be extended to 6 months for directors, chief accountants, and their deputies.
Working Hours
Full-time employment is considered 8 hours per day and 40 hours a week.
Overtime
Hours worked over 40 hours per week are considered as overtime and are paid at a higher rate. Overtime should not exceed 4 hours in 2 successive days and 120 hours per year.
Overtime is paid at a rate 150% of the regular pay rate for the first two hours and at 200% for all subsequent hours worked within a day.
When an irregular working regime is stipulated in the contract, overtime is compensated by additional paid leave and cannot be less than 3 calendar days per year.
Work during weekends and on public holidays is paid at a minimum of 200% of the regular pay rate. However, the employee can agree to be compensated by receiving regular pay plus an additional day off.
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