Employer of Record in Egypt: A Complete Guide for 2026

Introduction

Hiring in Egypt has become more appealing and more complicated at the same time. With a labour force of roughly 34.8 million, Egypt gives you access to a large, young, multilingual talent pool and a growing tech and services sector.

However, in 2025, it also rewrote the rulebook. Labour Law No. 14 of 2025 replaced a framework that had stood for two decades, changing how termination, leave, notice, and foreign-worker permits all work, with executive regulations still bedding in.

That leaves foreign employers with two real options. You can set up a local entity through GAFI and take on the registration, capital rules, and ongoing filings yourself, or you can hire through an employer of record in Egypt and skip the entity altogether.

This guide walks through what the new law actually requires, what hiring costs, and how an EOR compares with incorporating, so you can decide which route fits your team.

Egypt at a glance

Population: 120.04 million

Currency: Egyptian pound (EGP)

Capital: Cairo

Languages spoken: Arabic

Gross Domestic Product (GDP): USD 389.06 billion

Employment in Egypt

Egypt’s employment laws are largely governed by the following sources of legislation.

• Civil servants are governed by the Civil Service Law No. 81 of 2016.
• Public-sector employees fall mainly under the Civil Service Law No. 81 of 2016. The older Public Sector Employees Law No. 48 of 1978 now applies only to certain administrative disciplinary matters.
• State-owned commercial entities are governed by the Public Business Sector Companies Law No. 203 of 1991, as amended by Law No. 185 of 2020.
• Private-sector employment is governed by Labour Law No. 14 of 2025, which took effect on 1 September 2025.

In addition to the Labor Law, several ministerial decrees are deemed complementary. When no explicit regulations apply to a certain problem in an employment context, the Egyptian Civil Code’s provisions are applied to the employment contract.

Egypt's employment rules changed substantially under Labour Law No. 14 of 2025, from new leave entitlements and overtime notification to court-approved dismissals, and the executive regulations are still settling in. Keeping contracts, payroll, and statutory entitlements aligned with all of it is ongoing work.

Skuad supports this without requiring you to set up an entity:

• Acts as the legal employer across 160+ countries, so you can hire in Egypt without registering locally
• Supports employment contract generation aligned with local labor laws and statutory requirements across supported markets
• Facilitates statutory contribution workflows covering applicable social insurance and pension obligations
• Supports payroll processing in 70+ currencies with accurate tax withholding and statutory deductions
• Helps administer paid leave, maternity, and other entitlements in line with local requirements

Book a demo to see how Skuad supports compliant EOR in Egypt.

Contractor vs full-time employees

Egyptian employers hire both full-time employees and independent contractors, and the right choice depends on the nature of the work.

Full-time employees are covered by Labour Law No. 14 of 2025, including sick leave, four months of maternity leave, the newly introduced paternity leave, statutory notice periods, protection against arbitrary dismissal (now subject to judicial oversight), and severance on economic termination. Most of these scale with length of service, so an employee's entitlements build up the longer they stay.

A contractor sits outside the Labour Law as they are self-employed individuals engaged under a commercial or civil contract. They usually work project to project for more than one client, filing and paying their own taxes, and operating as freelancers or registered sole proprietors. They are not on your payroll and are not entitled to employee benefits like paid leave, severance, or minimum wage.

The catch is that Egyptian law does not spell out a clear statutory test for the difference. It looks at the substance of the relationship: if you control how, when, and where the work is done, or fold the person into daily operations, authorities can treat them as an employee regardless of what the contract says.

Misclassification can mean back-payment of social insurance, income tax, and fines. To avoid this risk, many companies hire through an EOR or a contractor-management setup rather than engaging contractors directly.

Whether you bring someone on as a full-time employee or engage them as a contractor in Egypt, the classification has to hold up if the authorities look, and the cost of getting it wrong sits with you.

Skuad supports both hiring models from a single platform:

EOR for full-time employees

• Acts as the legal employer across 160+ countries, so you can hire full-time staff in Egypt without setting up a local entity
• Supports employment contract generation aligned with local labor laws across supported markets
• Facilitates statutory contribution workflows covering applicable social insurance and pension obligations
• Supports payroll processing in 70+ currencies with automated tax withholding and statutory deductions
• Helps administer statutory benefits, paid leave, and parental entitlements in line with local requirements

Contractor management

• Helps onboard contractors with locally compliant agreements that reduce misclassification exposure
• Supports invoice generation, approval workflows, and payment processing
• Helps flag classification risk before it becomes a compliance issue with built-in worker classification checks
• Facilitates multi-currency payouts across 70+ currencies with no manual reconciliation
• Helps manage contractor records, contracts, and payment history from a single dashboard alongside full-time employees

Full-time or contractor? Skuad supports both. See pricing.

Hiring in Egypt

Egypt now regulates how employers handle personal data. Under the Personal Data Protection Law No. 151 of 2020, whose executive regulations took effect in November 2025, you need explicit consent to collect personal data and can use it only for stated purposes, usually covered through contract clauses and onboarding sign-offs.

Within those limits, keep a personnel file for each employee that includes credentials, ID or passport copy, prior-employment certificates, and work, performance, and disciplinary records, retained only as long as needed.

Contracts must be in Arabic for Egyptian and international employees, now in four copies (employer, employee, social insurance authority, and Labour Office). Employment is presumed indefinite unless a fixed-term arrangement is justified.

Fixed-term contracts can be renewed, but the cumulative limit before they convert to permanent is read differently by practitioners, so confirm it against the law text. The old carve-out for foreign employees has also narrowed, so a foreign hire's fixed-term contract can convert to indefinite if work continues past expiry.

The following list includes some of the best job posting sites in Egypt:

• Wuzzuf
• Jobzella
• Akhtaboot
• Indeed
• Wzayef

When you're hiring fast, Skuad supports background checks at onboarding, covering identity, employment history, criminal records, and education, so you can confirm a candidate before signing.

Probation & termination

Probation

In Egypt, the probation period is restricted to three months.

Compensation upon termination

• If an employer terminates a fixed-term employment contract without cause at any time during its duration, the employer is obliged to cover the full wage that the employee would have received for the whole period of the contract. The applicable notice period is determined by the terms of the definite-term employment contract.
• If an employer terminates an indefinite-term employment contract without cause, the employee is entitled to compensation, which includes no less than two months' full income for each year of service, as well as entitlements such as earned leaves, bonuses, and other benefits.

Notice period

The notice period for indefinite-term contracts is three months, regardless of the employee's length of service.

Special causes for termination

The employer has no right to cancel an employment contract unless the employee commits a severe fault or violation. The following are examples of such violations.

• Continuous breach of safety regulations
• Assumption of a fake identity or submission of falsified papers
• Absence from work for more than 20 days in a row or more than 10 days in a row in a year
• Tangible loss as a result of the employer's trade secrets being revealed
• Competitors in the same field of employment as the employer
• Inebriation during working hours
• Assault on the employer, general manager, or any of the superiors

In Egypt, disciplinary dismissals for grave fault must now be approved by the specialised labour courts, which have handled labour disputes since 1 October 2025, rather than by the Ministry. The employee retains the right to challenge the decision.

Resignation

The new law abolished the pre-signed "Form No. 6" resignation that employers once used to terminate staff at will. A resignation is now valid only if it is in writing, signed by the employee, and authenticated by the Labour Office, and the employee can retract it within about ten days of acceptance.

Termination in Egypt now runs through formal procedures that cover court-approved disciplinary dismissals, statutory notice, and a set severance formula. Skuad acts as the legal employer and supports termination and offboarding in line with these requirements, so your team stays aligned as the rules settle in.

Book a demo to see how Skuad supports compliant offboarding in Egypt.

EOR solution in Egypt

The Employer of Record (EOR) model is a smart solution for companies seeking to enter and expand in Egypt quickly and agilely. Setting up your own entity means registering with GAFI, clearing security checks for foreign founders, securing a notarized local address, and committing to ongoing tax and social insurance filings before your first hire even starts.

Skuad's end-to-end solutions help with employment contracts, payroll and income tax, statutory benefits, and the overall administration of backend HR processes.

Here is what Skuad helps with:

• Acts as the legal employer across 160+ countries, so you can hire in Egypt without registering a local entity
• Supports employment contract generation aligned with local labor laws and statutory requirements across supported markets
• Facilitates statutory contribution workflows covering applicable social insurance and pension obligations
• Supports payroll processing in 70+ currencies with accurate tax withholding and statutory deductions

Types of visas in Egypt

Egypt provides a variety of visa options, such as the following.

• Work Visa: When a foreign national obtains a work permit, their temporary/tourist visa is changed to a work visa. The work permit is granted for up to one year and is renewable.
• Temporary/Tourist Visa: A 30-day tourist visa is available on arrival at Egyptian airports for eligible nationalities, and it is the entry route most foreign hires use before a work permit is in place. Egypt also offers a longer multiple-entry tourist visa, but note that there is no dedicated digital nomad visa, so anyone actually working in Egypt needs a work permit.
• Ordinary Visa: An ordinary visa is valid for three to five years and grants a residence permit to an employee’s spouse for the time specified on their work permit.

In practice, a foreign hire follows a clear sequence. Enter on a tourist or entry visa, have the employer secure a work permit, convert that into a work visa, and then obtain a residence permit.

The permit and residence process runs across several authorities and can add weeks to an international hire. Skuad supports work permit and visa coordination as part of onboarding.

See how Skuad supports Egypt visas and permits.

Work permit

The Egyptian Companies Law states that foreigners may make up no more than 10% of a company's employees, with wages not exceeding 20% of total compensation. Companies created in any of the free zones can hire foreign personnel who make up no more than 25% of the total workforce, according to the Investment Law. Therefore, foreign employees are not authorized to work in Egypt unless they have received residency and work permits.

Foreign technical specialists must be accompanied by two Egyptian employees. To get a work permit, employees in particular industries, such as tourism and education, must submit supplementary papers and obtain special authorization.

Foreign-worker employment is now governed by Ministerial Decree No. 279 of 2025, which took effect at the end of December 2025 and implements the foreign-worker provisions of Labour Law No. 14 of 2025. It keeps the 10% cap, sets the procedures and fees for issuing, renewing, and cancelling permits, caps permit fees at EGP 100,000, requires electronic payment in the foreign worker's name, and limits short-term or task-based work to 14 days.

Some categories, such as diplomats, international organization staff, and foreign journalists, are exempt from the permit requirement, while roles like tour guides and customs clearance are closed to foreign nationals.

The Labor Office issues a temporary slip that is connected to the employee's passport and allows them to begin working in Egypt when they have submitted all the appropriate paperwork. The work permit and residence permit are granted once the security clearance processes are completed, which usually takes several weeks to a few months.

Foreign nationals cannot work in Egypt without a residence and work permit, foreign staff are capped at 10% of headcount, and security clearance adds real lead time to any international hire. Skuad supports the work permit process, including:

• Supporting work permit applications for foreign employees joining your team
• Helping coordinate visa and residence documentation with the relevant immigration authorities
• Assisting with residence or work permit conversions as required by local immigration law
• Helping track documentation, fees, and renewal deadlines across the full permit lifecycle

Book a demo to see how Skuad supports Egypt work permits end-to-end.

Payroll and taxes in Egypt

Various Egyptian payroll solutions are available for your firm, including the following.

• Remote: If a firm wants to add the employees of a subsidiary to an existing payroll, it can run remote payroll through its parent company. Each country's employees remain subject to their own local rules.
• Internal: You can set up internal payroll at your Egyptian subsidiary, but that means budgeting for local HR and finance headcount to run it.
• Payroll processing firm: You can outsource to a local Egyptian payroll provider. Keep in mind you remain accountable for your employees' pay and statutory obligations.
• EOR: An EOR such as Skuad supports payroll on your behalf and takes on the compliance work, so you can hire and pay in Egypt without setting up an entity.

Employers in Egypt withhold income tax at source and remit it to the tax authority within 15 days after the end of the payment month. Employers also deduct social insurance from employee wages and remit it to the Social Insurance Authority. Residency status affects how employees are taxed. Residents are taxed on worldwide income, while non-residents are taxed only on Egyptian-source income.

Egypt applies a progressive personal income tax with the following annual brackets:

Employee taxation

Both residents and non-residents are entitled to an annual salary tax exemption of EGP 20,000, and the 0% band on the first EGP 40,000 applies only to residents whose annual income does not exceed EGP 1,200,000.

As of January 2026, the insurable salary runs from a minimum of EGP 2,700 to a maximum of EGP 16,700 per month, and the cap is adjusted annually. Social insurance covers retirement, disability, accidents, death, and unemployment.

Between income tax withholding, two layers of statutory contributions, and an insurable-salary cap that moves every year, getting Egyptian payroll right takes ongoing attention.

Skuad supports payroll processing in 70+ currencies with accurate tax withholding and statutory deductions, and helps factor employer statutory costs into the total cost of employment before you make an offer. Before you commit to a salary, it helps to see the fully loaded cost, salary plus contributions, in one place.

Estimate your total cost of hiring in Egypt with Skuad's cost calculator.

Bonuses

Although bonuses are customary, there is no legal necessity for firms to offer annual bonuses to their employees.

Incorporation: How to set up a subsidiary in Egypt

To execute payroll, a firm must have a legal entity formed in Egypt. To incorporate, the investor completes the process at the General Authority for Investment and Free Zones (GAFI), which acts as a one-stop shop for business services. Foreigners are allowed to start or buy Egyptian businesses.

Procedures for holding a company in Egypt

• The incorporation file is submitted in line with Egypt's Investment Law. It typically includes:
  
  • The company's data form: purpose, capital, investment expenses, statement of partners, location, and projected labour.
  • A company-name clearance (non-confusion) certificate from the Commercial Registry, available through GAFI's one-stop service and the Digital Egypt platform.
  • A bank deposit certificate, where one is required. For a joint stock company, at least 10% of the issued capital must be deposited at incorporation, rising to 25% within three months and 100% within five years, with a minimum issued capital of EGP 250,000. A limited liability company has no minimum capital requirement and no pre-incorporation deposit.
• The file is reviewed and, once complete, GAFI issues the incorporation decree. The incorporating lawyer's signature is authenticated by the Cairo Bar Association as part of the process. GAFI's one-stop process is designed to be fast, though actual timelines vary in practice.
• GAFI issues the official decree and contract copies, along with a letter to the competent commercial register office. After registration, the investor files a copy of the commercial register back with GAFI.

Setting up a subsidiary means committing to GAFI registration, capital and deposit rules, security clearance for foreign founders, a notarized local address, and ongoing tax and social insurance filings, before your first hire starts work. For a small or early team, that overhead is hard to justify.

Customer Story: How RemoteLock built a cross-border tech team with Skuad

RemoteLock, an access control software company, needed to hire across Europe, Africa, and South Asia, including Egypt, without opening an entity in each market. Skuad supported the hire of 26 full-time and contract tech professionals across six countries, with locally compliant onboarding, multi-currency payroll, and protection against worker misclassification.

The result was a distributed engineering team built without local incorporation in any of those markets.

“Partnering with Skuad has transformed our international hiring and onboarding processes. Their streamlined approach has enabled our tech team to scale effortlessly and efficiently.” - Jon Santavy, Managing Partner, RemoteLock.

Read the full case study.

Professional Employer Organization (PEO)

A PEO operates as a co-employer. It takes on HR responsibilities and shares the organization's HR obligations and liabilities, and it's typically used by firms with at least five to ten employees. The key point is that a PEO does not remove the need for your own legal entity: you must still have a registered presence in each country or state where you employ people.

An EOR works differently. It acts as the full legal employer on your behalf, carrying the statutory employment relationship: compliant contracts, payroll, tax, and social insurance contributions, and offboarding. You still direct the day-to-day work, but the EOR holds the legal employment. That is what lets a company hire in a new country without forming a local entity.

As a company grows across multiple regions, employment rules become more complex and varied. With a PEO, you need a legal entity in every state or country where you hire. With an EOR operating across geographies, you can legally employ people in those markets without setting one up.

Start hiring in Egypt without setting up an entity

Egypt rewrote its employment framework in 2025, and the details matter: four-month maternity leave, court-approved dismissals, a flat three-month notice period, a new foreign-worker decree, and social insurance and tax rules that shift every year. Getting any of it wrong sits with the employer, and the executive regulations are still settling in.

That is where the right EOR partner makes the difference. Skuad supports the operational complexity of hiring in Egypt, so your team can focus on the work, not the paperwork.

Companies across SaaS, technology, BPO, and professional services use Skuad to support their entry into the Egyptian market, stay aligned with regulations as they change, and scale their team without building local HR infrastructure from scratch.

Book a demo to see how Skuad gets your first Egypt hire onboarded in weeks.

FAQs

1. What is an employer of record in Egypt?

An employer of record (EOR) in Egypt is a company that legally employs staff on your behalf, allowing you to hire locally without registering an Egyptian entity while you direct the employee's day-to-day work.

2. How much does an employer of record in Egypt cost?

EOR pricing in Egypt usually ranges from USD 300 to 500 per employee per month, or as a percentage of payroll, depending on the provider. On top of that, you cover the salary and employer statutory costs, which include social insurance of about 18.75% plus 3.25% health insurance.

3. Can a foreign company hire in Egypt without a local entity?

A foreign company can hire in Egypt without setting up an entity by using an employer of record, which becomes the legal employer for your staff. The EOR registers employees with the social insurance authority, issues Arabic-language contracts, and handles tax withholding, so you skip the GAFI incorporation process while keeping full control over the work itself.

4. What did Egypt's 2025 labor law change for employers?

Labour Law No. 14 of 2025, effective 1 September 2025, reshaped several obligations. Maternity leave rose to four months, paternity leave was introduced, the notice period became a flat three months, and disciplinary dismissals now require approval by the specialised labour courts that began operating on 1 October 2025. A separate decree also caps foreign workers at 10% of a company's headcount.

5. Is an EOR or entity setup better for hiring in Egypt?

For a small or early-stage team, an EOR is usually faster and cheaper. Incorporating through GAFI involves registration, capital rules, security clearance for foreign founders, and ongoing tax and social insurance filings. An EOR removes that setup and onboards your hire in weeks. An entity tends to make sense only once your Egyptian headcount is large and permanent.

6. How long does it take to onboard an employee in Egypt through an EOR?

Onboarding through an EOR in Egypt typically takes one to two weeks, depending on how quickly the employee's documents, tax number, and bank details are ready and how fast social insurance registration clears. That compares with the weeks to months an entity setup can take.