Rwanda
Rwanda is home to some great remote talent. Want to hire someone there, but not sure how to do it—maybe because your company’s HQ is located somewhere else? Then, welcome: You’re in the right place. In the next few minutes, you’ll learn how to hire remote talent in Rwanda, quickly, without wading into months and thousands of dollars of legal red tape.
Country snapshot
CURRENCY
Rwandan Franc (RWF)
EMPLOYER TAXES
5%
PAYROLL FREQUENCY
Monthly
OFFICIAL LANGUAGE
Kinyarwanda
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.
Hiring abroad is difficult: New labor laws, entities, a lot of words you’d rather not hear again. But we’ve got good news. It doesn’t need to be that way. Below, we’ll break down your two main options for hiring in Rwanda (and the one we think you’ll prefer).
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 Rwanda 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 Rwanda.
Employer tax
Gross salary
Paid Time Off (PTO)
Employees under the age of 18 receive 24 days of paid annual leave. Employees are entitled to 18 days of paid annual leave after a year of service.
Additionally, paid leave allotments increase for adult employees with the length of service.
Public Holidays
There are 14 public holidays.
Sick Days
Sick leave entitlement is up to six months (subject to evidence). The first three months are paid and the last three months are unpaid.
Long-term sickness is determined by a committee of three recognized medical practitioners and is granted for no more than three months with pay and three months without pay.
Maternity Leave
Female employees are entitled to 12 weeks of paid maternity leave. This leave may be taken up to two weeks before the due date.
Certificate of delivery needs to be furnished before starting the maternity leave.
Paternity Leave
Male employees are entitled to four days of paternity leave.
Parental Leave
No Info.
Other Leave
No Info.
Marriage Leave
No Info.
Bereavement Leave
No Info.
Termination Process
A contract for employment can be terminated either by either mutual consent of the employer or the employee, expiry of the term of the contract or unilateral termination of employment.
Notice Period
The minimum notice period is 15 days for service up to a year and 30 days for service beyond a year where the employee is entitled to an additional day off per week to look for alternate employment.
Employments in Rwanda may be terminated upon written notice, as follows:
- Less than one year of service: 15 days’ notice
- More than one year of service: one month’s notice
Severance Pay
Severance pay in Rwanda as follows:
- Less than five years of service: one month’s salary
- 5-10 years of service: two months’ salary
- 10-15 years’ service: three months’ salary
- 15-20 years’ service: four months’ salary
- 20-25 years’ service: five months’ salary
- 25+ years’ service: six months’ salary
Probation Period
The probation period is six months, while there is no limit on the length or the number of renewals of a fixed-term contract.
Working Hours
The standard workweek in Rwanda 45 hours per week with a standard workday of 7.5 hours over six days.
Overtime
Overtime compensation is determined in the employment contract.
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