Tanzania
If you’ve found someone in Tanzania that you’d like to hire remotely, you’re in the right place. In the next 5 minutes, we’ll teach you how you can legally hire remote talent in Tanzania—without dealing with huge fees and lengthy legal red tape.
Country snapshot
CURRENCY
Tanzanian Shilling (TZS)
EMPLOYER TAXES
15%
PAYROLL FREQUENCY
Daily/ Weekly / Bi-Weekly / Monthly
OFFICIAL LANGUAGE
Swahili and English
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. If your company hasn’t already established a physical presence in Tanzania, you have two real options when it comes to hiring. We’ll detail both below—and tell you which one most companies 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 Tanzania 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 Tanzania.
Employer tax
Skills Development Levy
Workers Compensation Fund
Paid Time Off (PTO)
In Tanzania, the Employment and Labour Relations Act 2004 provides for annual leave on completion of a year of continuous service with an employer.
Employees who have been employed for at least 6 months are entitled to 28 days of consecutive leave per year inclusive of any public holidays that may fall during the period of leave.
The annual leave may be reduced by the number of days during a leave cycle, which are granted as paid occasional leave by the employer on worker's consent.
Public Holidays
There are 15 paid public holidays in Tanzania.
Sick Days
In accordance with Employment and Labor Relation Act 2004, every worker certified by a medical practitioner is entitled to paid sick leave (sickness benefit) for a period of 126 days in a leave cycle of 36 months.
The first 63 days of sick leave are paid at 100% of the regular salary and thereafter, 50% of the regular salary.
In order to be entitled to sick leave and pay, the employee must provide a medical certificate.
Maternity Leave
Female workers are entitled to at least twelve weeks (84 days) of fully paid maternity leave or 100 consecutive days (in case of multiple births) within a leave cycle of 36 months
A worker is entitled to 84 days paid maternity leave within a leave cycle if the newborn dies within a year of birth.
Paternity Leave
Employment and Labor Relations Act 2004 provides for paid paternity leave of at least 3 days (in a leave cycle of 12 months) for a new father if this leave is taken within the 7 days of the birth of a child.
The employer may require reasonable proof of birth of child prior to paying for paternity leave.
Parental Leave
There is no parental leave.
Other Leave
No Info.
Marriage Leave
The law does not have a specific provision for family/ social gatherings or activities of that type, but they can request some days off taken from their annual leave.
Bereavement Leave
Employees can request some days off taken from their annual leave.
Termination Process
Termination of employment can be initiated by any of the parties to a contract of employment. Lawful termination of employment under common law includes:
Termination of employment by agreement:
- When the employer and employee agree to bring a contract of employment to an end in accordance with an agreement.
- For example, if there is a contract for a period of one year and the agreed period expires then the contract will obviously come to an end.
Automatic Termination:
- A contract of employment may be terminated automatically in circumstances such as death or loss of business of the employer.
Termination of employment by the employee/Resignation:
- This happens when an employee due to material breach of the contract by the employer decides to resign from her employment.
Termination of employment by an employer:
- An employer may also terminate the employment of an employee but there is a need to comply with the provisions of the law and contract relating to termination.
Notice period lasts one week if it is served in one month of employment.
After first month an employee working on daily basis should be served notice four days before termination and if an employee works on monthly basis, the notice period should be 28 days.
Worker is entitled to the severance pay if he/she has completed at least a year of a service with the employer.
Severance pay in Tanzania is equal to at least 7 days’ basic wage for each completed year of employment up to a maximum of ten years.
Notice Period
The notice period in Tanzania is:
- Notice period lasts one week if it is served in one month of employment.
- After first month an employee working on daily basis should be served notice four days before termination and if an employee works on monthly basis, the notice period should be 28 days.
Severance Pay
Worker is entitled to the severance pay if he/she has completed at least a year of a service with the employer.
Severance pay in Tanzania is equal to at least 7 days’ basic wage for each completed year of employment up to a maximum of ten years.
Probation Period
There is no explicit provision in the Employment and Labor Relations Act 2004 about probation period.
However, this act implicitly requires a probationary period of 6 months by saying that a worker with less than 6 months of employment may not bring an unfair termination claim against the employer.
Working Hours
According to the law, your normal working hours per day are 8 hours and these should not be more than 48 hours per week.
By including the lunch and prayer time in hours of work, working hours should not be greater than 9 hours a day.
Lunch break is applicable only if the employee works continuously for five hours.
Overtime
Overtime is compensated at 150% of the salary for anything over 48 hours or 200% for working on a designated holiday or rest day.
In Tanzania, an employee can continuously work for 6 days but the 7th day must be a rest day.
%5B1%5D.avif)
Run your global workforce on autopilot with Thera
Book a demo to get started.