How to hire remote employees in

Senegal

Senegal 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 Senegal, quickly, without wading into months and thousands of dollars of legal red tape.

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Employment requirements

Country snapshot

CURRENCY

West African CFA franc

EMPLOYER TAXES

19.5%

PAYROLL FREQUENCY

Weekly/ Fortnightly/Monthly

OFFICIAL LANGUAGE

French

Why hire independent contractors in Senegal

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 Senegal.

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 Senegal 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 Senegal

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 Senegal (and the one we think you’ll prefer).

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

Hire talent as contractors

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

If you’re hiring contractors in Senegal, 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 Senegal

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

Taxes in Senegal

Employer tax

Social security

IPM Health Fund

Industrial Accident Fund

Pension fund

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Leave

Paid Time Off (PTO)

In general, employees are entitled to 24 days of paid annual leave.

Public Holidays

There are 14 public holidays.

Sick Days

Employees are generally entitled to a minimum of five paid sick days per year.

Maternity Leave

Women are entitled to 14 weeks of paid maternity leave.

Maternity leave is granted with pay at 100% of previous earnings, paid by the government.

Paternity Leave

Male employees are entitled to one day of paternity leave if they are covered by the inter-professional collective agreement.

Parental Leave

No Info

Other Leave

No Info

Marriage Leave

No Info

Bereavement Leave

No Info

Termination

Termination Process

Employees can terminate a contract with 15 days’ written notice, although technicians must provide two months’ notice.

Employers may terminate employees for just cause with written notice as follows:

Executives and similar: 3 months’ notice

Monthly paid white-collar workers, blue-collar workers and permanent hourly, daily, or weekly paid staff: 8 days to one month, depending on length of service.

Notice Period

Notice period is 15 days, during the notice period, employees are generally entitled to the equivalent of two paid days off per week to seek alternate employment.

Severance Pay

Workers are generally eligible for severance pay for each year of service of 25 to 40% of their average wages over the past 12 months.

The percentage is based on length of service and the collective bargaining agreement.

Probation Period

Probationary periods of 3 months for executives and one month for non-executives are permitted and may be renewed.

Employee requirements in Senegal

Working Hours

The standard workweek is 40 hours.

Overtime

The overtime is also capped at 100 hours per year. The overtime pay is calculated by multiplying the hourly salary by the following rate:

Day Hours - Overtime is paid at 110% of the employee’s standard hourly rate for the first eight hours and 135% for additional hours.
Night Hours - Night work (between 10 p.m. and 5 a.m.) is paid at 150% of the employee’s basic hourly rate or 200% for night work on Sundays or holidays. Night work (between 10 p.m. and 5 a.m.) is paid at 150% of the employee’s basic hourly rate or 200% for night work on Sundays or holidays.
Weekends or public holidays - The rate for work during the day on a weekend or holiday is 150% of the employee’s standard hourly rate.

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