How much does an employer of record cost per employee?

The advertised fee pays for the service rather than for the employment itself. An employer of record hires your worker through its own legal entity in that worker's country, so your invoice carries the whole cost of the job: gross salary, every employer contribution local law imposes, statutory benefits, and the provider's charge for holding the contract. Deel's own cost calculator splits a quote into exactly those parts, returning salary, employer costs, benefits, the platform fee, and severance accrual as separate fields [6].

The layer that actually moves the total

Mandatory employer contributions are the swing factor, because national law sets them and they vary by roughly a factor of six across common hiring destinations. A United States employer pays 7.65 percent of wages in Social Security and Medicare tax, with the Social Security portion applying up to USD 184,500 of earnings in 2026 [9], while a French employer pays social contributions worth about 45 percent of gross salary [11]. Holding the salary and the provider constant, that gap alone can be worth tens of thousands of dollars a year.

What the platform fee works out to in practice

At Deel's published USD 599 per employee per month, the platform fee costs USD 7,188 a year [1]. Against a USD 100,000 salary, that lands under 6 percent of total employer outlay in most countries and below 5 percent in high contribution countries. Safeguard Global puts total EOR service fees for mid-market companies at USD 7,000 to USD 18,000 per employee per year once country surcharges are counted [14]. A budget built on the fee alone also misses the cash tied up in deposits and severance accrual [3][6].

Gross salary

Salary is set by the local market rather than by the provider, and it dwarfs everything else on the invoice. Because every other layer is calculated as a percentage of gross pay, one salary decision at hiring compounds through contributions, severance accrual, and any percentage-based fee.

Mandatory employer contributions

Statutory contributions are the layer buyers underestimate most, because they barely register in a US-anchored view of payroll. OECD data for 2025 puts employer contributions and payroll taxes at 26.7 percent of total labor cost in France, the highest in the OECD, with eight other countries above 20 percent, including Austria, Belgium, Italy, Spain, and Sweden [7]. Ask for the country-specific employer burden before you agree a salary.

Statutory benefits and mandated insurance

Benefits arrive as their own line because many countries require cover a US employer would treat as discretionary. Deel's cost calculator returns a benefits array with a plan name, a cost, and any attached fees, separate from employer costs and the platform fee [6], and providers differ on whether a medical top-up is bundled or billed.

The EOR platform fee

The platform fee buys the entity, the compliance work, and the payroll operation. Deel describes its fee as covering onboarding and local compliance, payroll processing and tax filings, benefits administration, and ongoing HR and legal support [1], while Remote charges no separate platform or setup fee [2] and Oyster includes setup, onboarding, and offboarding [3].

Severance accrual and security deposits

Cash gets tied up here long before anyone is terminated. Oyster requires a refundable deposit to start an engagement [3] and Remote collects reserves only in rare, high risk circumstances [2], while Deel treats severance accrual as its own field, so where termination pay scales with service the accrual is billed as you go [6].

Currency conversion and payment fees

You pay the provider in your billing currency and the provider pays the worker in theirs, and the gap between those rates is a real cost. Remote states that its FX rate varies over time and by currency pair [2], Oyster charges conversion only when the payment currency differs from the contract currency [3], and Safeguard Global lists FX markups and wire fees among charges outside the base rate [14].

Onboarding, offboarding, and administrative charges

One-time charges vary more between providers than the monthly rate does. RemoFirst publishes no setup, onboarding, or termination fees [4] and Oyster folds setup and offboarding into its rate [3], while Safeguard Global names setup fees, off-cycle payroll charges, and termination processing fees as common extras [14].

Two pricing models dominate, and which one is cheaper depends almost entirely on the salaries you pay. A flat model charges a fixed amount per employee per month regardless of salary, which Safeguard Global calls the easiest structure for mid-market companies to forecast, while a percentage model takes 8 to 15 percent of gross compensation [14]. At Deel's USD 599 flat fee [1] against a 10 percent percentage fee, the two cost the same near a USD 72,000 salary. Below that the flat fee costs more, and above it the percentage keeps climbing with every raise while the flat fee holds still, which is why teams hiring senior staff usually prefer flat pricing.

Commitment length is the second lever. Oyster offers seat-based annual billing at reduced rates and lets an unused seat be reused for a backfill at no extra charge [3], which suits a stable headcount plan, while Deel bills month to month with no long-term commitment [1] and Remote sets no minimum headcount [2], which suits a pilot in a country you may exit. Hybrid and tiered structures also exist, with the per-employee cost falling as volume rises [14].

Country is the third lever and the one buyers forget to ask about, because a published rate assumes a straightforward market while complex jurisdictions carry a higher effective rate. RemoFirst states that its USD 199 starting fee may vary based on local country requirements [4], and Pebl confirms that its pricing varies by country while publishing no figures [5].

Ask for a full employment cost breakdown in the destination country before you discuss the platform fee. Deel exposes salary, employer costs, benefits, the platform fee, and severance accrual as separate values through its own cost API [6], so any provider should be able to produce the equivalent on request.

Confirm the deposit position in writing, since it is a cash cost that never appears in a pricing table. Oyster requires a refundable deposit to begin an engagement [3], while Remote takes reserve payments only in rare, high risk situations [2], and across a team of ten in a country with generous statutory severance that difference can tie up a meaningful share of a quarter's cash. Ask how severance is funded too, because accruing it monthly keeps the final invoice predictable while settling at exit produces a large and poorly timed charge [6].

Read the currency terms next, because the provider sets the exchange rate you pay. Remote notes that its FX rate varies over time and by currency pair [2], and Oyster charges conversion only where the payment currency differs from the contract currency [3]. Over a year, a spread of one percentage point on a USD 100,000 salary costs more than the gap between two mid-market vendors.

Price the exit alongside the entry by asking about termination processing fees, off-cycle payroll charges, and annual salary review adjustments, which Safeguard Global lists as costs sitting outside the base rate [14]. Providers that fold these into the monthly fee, as Oyster does with offboarding [3] and RemoFirst with termination [4], are easier to forecast even where the headline is higher.