Hire in Lebanon: A Comprehensive Guide for 2026

Introduction

Every foreign employer looking to hire in Lebanon must account for three compliance layers upfront: The Labour Code (1946, amended in 2025), personal income tax (PIT) withholding, and mandatory enrollment in the National Social Security Fund (NSSF). Engagement is possible through a local entity, an Employer of Record (EOR), or an Agent of Record (AOR) for contractors.

What catches foreign employers off guard is the Ministry of Labor's annually updated list of roles restricted to Lebanese nationals. Before hiring, employers need to verify the role is not on that list. For all other roles, foreign nationals must have an approved work permit before starting. Employing someone without one exposes both the employer and the employee to criminal liability under immigration law.

This guide covers hiring routes, work permit rules, payroll and tax obligations, leave entitlements, compliance risks, and the cost of hiring in Lebanon.

How to hire in Lebanon?

Foreign companies have three main ways to engage workers in Lebanon: Set up a local entity, partner with an Employer of Record (EOR), or use an Agent of Record (AOR) for independent contractors. The right route depends on the type of engagement and whether the company plans a long-term operational presence in the country.

How to hire in Lebanon by setting up a local entity?

A local entity gives an employer direct control of employment and is the right structure for companies building a long-term presence in Lebanon. Once registered, the company hires directly, manages payroll, and complies with the Labour Code 1946, as amended in 2025. The process requires adequate management resources and takes longer than the other routes.

How to hire employees via EOR in Lebanon?

An EOR lets a company hire employees in Lebanon without registering a local entity. The EOR acts as the legal employer, helping with the employment contracts, payroll, statutory contributions, and local compliance. The engaging company retains day-to-day management of the employee's work. This is the faster route for market-entry hires or smaller distributed teams.

How to hire contractors via AOR in Lebanon?

An AOR is the appropriate route when engaging independent contractors rather than employees. The AOR handles contractor onboarding, payments, classification, and compliance with local labour law. This works well for project-based or specialist engagements where full employment is not required.

What type of employment contract do you need?

Lebanon's Labour Code recognises both indefinite (non-fixed-term) and definite (fixed-term) employment contracts. Service contracts and freelance arrangements also exist but sit outside the employment relationship and carry different obligations.

An indefinite contract has no stated end date and continues until terminated by notice or mutual agreement. It is the default structure for ongoing employment and carries the full set of statutory rights described throughout this guide.

A definite contract is concluded for a specified period or specific task. The Labour Code sets limits on the duration and renewal of fixed-term contracts, after which the arrangement may be treated as indefinite by operation of law.

An employer planning to use a fixed-term structure should verify the current limits with the Ministry of Labor before the contract. Both contract types may include a probationary period, the permitted length of which is defined in the Labour Code.

What does the employment contract need to include?

Under the 1946 Labor Law, both written and oral contracts are legally valid. Written contracts are standard practice and strongly advisable. At minimum, a well-drafted contract should cover:

• Names and details of the employer and the employee
• Job title and description
• Place of work
• Working hours
• Salary and other allowances
• Leave entitlements
• Notice period and termination conditions

How do work permits work for foreign hires?

The Ministry of Labor publishes an annual list of jobs restricted to Lebanese nationals only. For roles not on that list, a foreign national may be employed with a valid work permit. Foreign nationals who manage a business in Lebanon must apply for an employer work permit and a residency permit through the Ministry of Labor, which also administers the work permit process.

Hiring in Lebanon means deciding upfront whether you need full-time employees or independent contractors, since each carries different compliance obligations. Full-time employee hires need a written contract aligned with the Labour Code, and any foreign national requires a valid work permit from the Ministry of Labor before starting. Setting up a local entity to manage this adds lead time before the first hire can begin.

Skuad supports both hiring models from a single platform:

EOR for full-time employees

• Acts as the legal employer across 160+ countries, so your company can hire in Lebanon 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
• Helps administer statutory leave entitlements and benefits in line with local requirements
• Assists with termination and offboarding, including notice periods and severance calculations as required locally

Contractor management (AOR)

• 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 contractor payouts across 70+ currencies
• Helps manage contractor records, contracts, and payment history from a single dashboard alongside full-time employees

What are the employment laws in Lebanon?

Lebanon's employment framework is governed by the Labour Code (1946, amended in 2025). The Labour Code applies to private sector employees and covers contracts, working hours, leave, wages, and termination. Agricultural workers, domestic workers, and civil servants fall outside its scope.

What are the standard working hours in Lebanon?

The Labour Code specifies a maximum workweek of 48 hours, typically structured as eight hours per day across a six-day week. Employees are entitled to at least nine consecutive hours of daily rest and at least 36 consecutive hours of uninterrupted weekly rest.

Overtime is paid at 1.5 times the employee's regular hourly rate. The total working day, including overtime, must not exceed 12 hours.

How does termination work in Lebanon?

A probationary period of up to three months may be agreed. During probation, an employer may cancel the contract without notice or indemnity.

After probation, an employer must have valid grounds to terminate. Dismissal without valid grounds is classified as abusive, entitling the employee to compensation of 2-12 months' salary. Where notice is required, the minimum statutory periods are:

On termination, employees are entitled to an end-of-service indemnity. The indemnity is calculated by multiplying the number of years of service by the employee's last monthly salary. Beyond the 20th year, an additional half-month is added for each subsequent year. The indemnity is administered through the National Social Security Fund (NSSF).

What are workers' rights in Lebanon?

The Labour Code gives private sector workers the right to form and join trade unions, to strike, and to bargain collectively, though the law places certain restrictions on these rights. It also protects against anti-union discrimination.

Salaried employees must be paid at least once a month, and wage earners at least twice a month. All monetary disputes can be brought to the labor courts, which operate in seven of Lebanon's nine governorates.

What are the payroll and tax rules in Lebanon?

Lebanon's payroll system involves two separate obligations: Personal income tax (PIT) withheld from salaries, and National Social Security Fund (NSSF) contributions split between employer and employee. Both are declared and remitted monthly. Lebanon's dollarized economy adds a layer of complexity; most professional salaries are paid in USD, and the tax authorities require conversion at a prescribed rate.

What are the income tax rates on salaries?

Payroll tax is levied at progressive rates of 2% to 25%, and the brackets apply to annual income between (Lebanese pound LBP, Symbol LL) LL 360 million and LL 13.5 billion. These brackets are updated regularly in line with Budget Law amendments.

For USD-denominated salaries, the prescribed exchange rate since April 2024 is LL 89,500 per USD 1, regardless of how the salary is paid. This rate applies uniformly for payroll tax calculation purposes.

Family exemptions are: LL 450 million for a single individual; an additional LL 225 million for a married employee with an unemployed spouse; and LL 45 million per legitimate child.

What are the NSSF contributions?

Employer and employee contributions to the National Social Security Fund (NSSF) cover four schemes. The employer funds three of them; the employee funds one:

Employer contributions:

Employee contribution:

NSSF also pays family allowances directly to employees. The allowance is LL 1,200,000 per month for a spouse and LL 660,000 per month per child, for a maximum of five children.

How is payroll reported?

Salaried employees must be paid at least once a month, and wage earners at least twice a month. Lebanon's payroll runs on two separate monthly declarations: Income tax to the Ministry of Finance and NSSF contributions filed in parallel. The two must match exactly, as any discrepancy triggers a penalty of ten times the difference.

For USD-denominated salaries, which are standard for most professional roles, tax calculations apply at a prescribed exchange rate regardless of how the salary is actually paid.

Skuad's Global Payroll platform helps teams run payroll from a single system, supporting statutory contribution workflows, payroll processing in 70+ currencies, and tax withholding across supported markets, so your team isn't tracking separate authority deadlines and reconciliation requirements manually.

For benchmarking salaries across roles before making an offer, the Skuad Salary Insights tool helps in understanding compensation data by role and seniority level across supported markets.

Explore salary benchmarks.

What are the statutory leave entitlements in Lebanon?

All statutory leave entitlements for private sector employees in Lebanon are set by the Labour Code. The NSSF funds the maternity scheme, and all other leave is an employer obligation.

How much annual leave are employees entitled to?

After completing one year of employment, every employee is entitled to a minimum of 15 working days of paid annual leave per year. The entitlement increases with length of service under the Labour Code. The employer sets the timing according to work requirements. An employee cannot be dismissed or served with notice of dismissal during annual leave.

How does sick leave work?

Sick leave is granted based on a medical report. The employer may delegate their own doctor to verify the report. If sick leave exceeds one month, the employer may reduce the annual leave entitlement to eight days for that year. The maximum paid sick leave per year scales with length of service:

What is the maternity leave entitlement?

Female employees are entitled to 10 weeks of maternity leave with full pay under Law No. 267 of 2012, which remains the law in force today. Leave may be taken before or after delivery. Maternity leave does not reduce an employee's annual leave entitlement. Dismissal of a pregnant employee or an employee on maternity leave is prohibited under the Labour Code.

The Lebanese Labour Code does not currently mandate statutory paternity leave. A draft law proposing three days of paid paternity leave was approved by Cabinet in 2018 but has not been enacted by Parliament. Any paternity leave granted by employers is at their own discretion.

Marriage leave and bereavement leave are not defined as statutory entitlements in the Labour Code. These are typically set by collective agreement or employer policy.

How many public holidays does Lebanon observe?

Lebanon observes 21 public holiday days in 2026 across 15 named holidays, reflecting its diverse Christian and Muslim calendar. The two compulsory paid holidays for all private sector employers are Labour Day and Independence Day. The remaining 13 government-recognised holidays are observed by public offices and most businesses.

What are the compliance risks of hiring in Lebanon?

Lebanon's employment framework is enforced by the Ministry of Labor, the Labour Inspectorate, and the National Social Security Fund (NSSF). The risks below are the ones most likely to catch foreign employers off guard, each carrying financial penalties, criminal liability, or void employment actions.

Since Lebanon's compliance framework runs across three separate bodies, a mismatch between payroll tax filings submitted to the Ministry of Finance and NSSF records can trigger a penalty of ten times the discrepancy. NSSF enrollment must happen within one month of starting operations, and a missed work permit for a foreign national exposes both the employer and the employee to criminal liability.

Skuad's Shield helps distributed teams stay aligned with statutory obligations across supported markets, supporting compliance monitoring and documentation tracking from a single platform, so teams can stay on top of multi-authority requirements without building independent local tracking capacity in each country.

How much does it cost to hire in Lebanon?

The total cost of hiring in Lebanon is the employee's salary plus mandatory NSSF contributions and the daily transportation allowance (both covered in the payroll section above). Use the figures below as your floor when building a budget.

What is the minimum wage in Lebanon?

The minimum wage was raised to LBP 28,000,000 per month (LBP 1,300,000 per day) effective 1 August 2025 under Decree no. 699. At the prescribed payroll exchange rate of LL 89,500 per USD 1, this is approximately USD 313 per month.

Other mandatory costs on top of salary

Private sector employers are required to pay a daily transportation allowance of LL 450,000 per working day, effective 15 February 2024, under Decree no. 12966. This is a mandatory cash payment on top of base salary and must be included in total employment cost calculations.

On actual market salaries: Lebanon operates a heavily dollarised economy. Most professional and technical roles are negotiated and paid in USD, while the LBP minimum wage applies as the legal floor. Actual salary levels vary significantly by sector, seniority, and location, and are largely driven by employer negotiation rather than statutory benchmarks.

The figures above give you the floor, but the actual hire cost depends on the role, compensation level, and applicable NSSF contribution brackets at that salary. Skuad's hiring cost calculator helps you model the employer cost before you make an offer.

Calculate your Lebanon hire cost.

Customer story: How OpenSolar scaled its International workforce across EMEA with Skuad?

OpenSolar, a solar energy software company, needed to grow its team across Europe, the Middle East, and Africa (EMEA) and Asia-Pacific (APAC) markets without setting up legal entities in each location. The company used Skuad's EOR platform to support cross-border onboarding, locally compliant employment contracts, and payroll processing in 70+ currencies across supported markets, enabling international team growth without local entity overhead.

Skuad has been a key partner in our international expansion. Their onboarding process and compliance support have allowed us to focus on our core mission, which is to accelerate the world's transition from fossil fuels to solar energy.

Lavinia Davison, Global Head of Talent & Operations, OpenSolar

Read the full case study.

Ready to build a compliant team in Lebanon?

Lebanon's hiring framework involves Labour Code obligations, NSSF contributions, and a dollarized economy where most salaries are paid in USD but taxed at a prescribed Lebanese Pound rate. The compliance framework runs across three separate bodies, and a mismatch between any two filings can trigger a penalty of ten times the discrepancy.

The route you choose determines how much of this sits with your team. A local entity gives you full control, an AOR works for contractors, and an EOR covers full-time employees without entity setup. Entity setup adds months before the first hire starts.

Regardless of route, NSSF enrollment, payroll tax declarations, and work permits for foreign nationals are fixed obligations from day one.

For teams looking to bring hiring, payroll, and compliance under one system, Skuad supports workforce operations across 160+ countries and payroll processing in 70+ currencies without requiring a local entity in each market.

Book a demo to see how Skuad supports hiring in Lebanon.

FAQs

1. Can a foreign company hire in Lebanon without setting up a local entity?

A foreign company can hire in Lebanon without a local entity by using an Employer of Record (EOR). The EOR acts as the legal employer, processes payroll, assists with income tax, enrolls the employee in the National Social Security Fund (NSSF), and helps with compliance, while you direct the day-to-day work.

2. Do foreign nationals need a work permit to work in Lebanon?

The Ministry of Labor publishes an annual list of jobs restricted to Lebanese nationals, so the first step is to check that the role is not on it. For roles that are open, a foreign national needs an approved work permit before starting, and working without one carries criminal liability.

3. How are salaries taxed when paid in US dollars in Lebanon?

Most professional salaries in Lebanon are paid in US dollars, but tax and social security are calculated in Lebanese pounds. Since April 2024, employers must convert USD salaries at the prescribed rate of LL 89,500 to USD 1 for payroll tax purposes, regardless of how the salary is actually paid.

4. What are the employer's NSSF costs in Lebanon?

Employer contributions to the National Social Security Fund (NSSF) cover several branches: around 8% of salary for sickness and maternity, 6% for family benefits, and a separate end-of-service contribution. The employee funds a 3% medical contribution. Each branch has its own salary ceiling, which Lebanon revises frequently.

5. What happens if payroll tax and NSSF filings don't match in Lebanon?

Lebanon reconciles the payroll tax figures filed with the Ministry of Finance against the salaries reported to the National Social Security Fund (NSSF). The two declarations must match, and a discrepancy between them triggers a penalty, so employers usually reconcile both filings before submitting each month.

6. How long does it take to onboard a hire in Lebanon?

Onboarding depends on the route and the worker. Setting up a local entity adds months before the first hire, plus NSSF and tax registration. Through an Employer of Record that already holds the entity and registrations, a hire can start faster, while a foreign national still waits on the work permit.