How to hire employees in Hungary with an Employer of Record

Hungary gives foreign companies access to a skilled, cost-competitive workforce inside the EU, and you can hire there without setting up a local company. An Employer of Record becomes the legal employer of your worker, handling the contract, payroll, tax, and social contributions under the Hungarian Labour Code.

There is one structural detail worth knowing up front. The classic Employer of Record model does not formally exist in Hungarian law, so compliant providers employ through a temporary agency licence instead. The effect for you is the same. The provider is the legal employer and you direct the work.

This guide explains how hiring through an Employer of Record works in Hungary, what it costs in 2026, and the employment rules that shape the arrangement. For the full statutory detail, our guide to hiring and compliance in Hungary covers the country rules in depth.

An Employer of Record holds the legal infrastructure to employ people in Hungary on your behalf. The provider signs the Hungarian employment contract, registers the worker with the tax authority, runs payroll in forint, withholds the employee’s 18.5% social security contribution and 15% income tax, pays the 13% employer social contribution tax on top, and administers statutory leave and benefits. Your team directs the day-to-day work.

The structural point matters for compliance. Because Hungarian law does not recognise the standard Employer of Record arrangement, a provider must hold a temporary agency licence to employ a worker for another company’s use.

A compliant provider operating under that licence is the legal employer as far as the Hungarian government, tax authority, and employment authorities are concerned. A provider without the correct licensing is a compliance risk, which makes the choice of provider in Hungary more important than in markets where the model is simple and well established.

Once you have chosen your candidate and agreed the salary and start date, the process moves quickly.

The Employer of Record drafts a written Hungarian employment contract. Hungarian law requires the contract to be in writing and to include at least the salary and the job role, without which the agreement is invalid. The contract is commonly in a language both parties understand, and in practice sets out working hours, place of work, notice terms, and start date. The worker is then registered with the National Tax and Customs Administration, known as NAV, and payroll is set up.

From the first pay cycle, the Employer of Record withholds the employee’s contributions and income tax, pays the employer social contribution tax, and remits everything to NAV by the 12th of the following month. The provider then manages the employment lifecycle, including leave, sick pay, benefits, and any changes to terms. You keep direction of the work throughout.

Hungary is one of the lower-cost EU markets to employ in, largely because the employer social contribution tax is a flat 13% of gross salary, well below the rates in Western Europe. On top of that sits the gross salary itself and any benefits.

A few 2026 figures anchor the budgeting. The statutory minimum wage is 322,800 forint per month, and the guaranteed minimum wage for roles requiring at least a secondary qualification is 373,200 forint per month.

The employee bears a 15% flat personal income tax and an 18.5% social security contribution, both withheld from gross pay, though these reduce the employee’s net rather than adding to your employer cost. For 2026, the base used to calculate the employer social contribution tax was reduced from 112.5% to 100% of the relevant figure, which slightly lowers the effective employer burden.

We do not publish a fixed cost table here because the total depends on the salary and benefit structure, and the figures move. To model a specific salary, use the Boundless cost calculator, which breaks down employer cost and employee net pay for Hungary. For the full tax detail, see our tax guide for Hungary.

A few rules under the Hungarian Labour Code shape what hiring through an Employer of Record looks like in practice.

The standard working week is 40 hours, and overtime is capped and compensated under the Labour Code and any applicable collective agreement. Annual leave starts at 20 working days and increases with the employee’s age, so a long-tenured or older worker accrues more.

Employees are entitled to 15 working days of sick leave per year, during which the employer pays 70% of salary. Maternity provision is generous, with 24 weeks of maternity leave and the option to take up to three years off with state benefits.

Notice periods start at 30 days and increase with seniority, and probation is permitted. The full detail on these rules sits in our guide to working hours, leave and employment law in Hungary and in the Boundless country guide.

An Employer of Record fits when you want to employ a small number of people in Hungary without committing to a local entity, when you need to hire quickly, or when you want the licensing and compliance risk carried by a specialist. Given that the standard model relies on temporary agency licensing, using a provider that holds the correct licence is the cleanest compliant route for most foreign employers.

It is less suited to very large, long-term headcounts in Hungary, where the ongoing cost of an Employer of Record eventually outweighs the cost of running your own entity. A good provider will be honest about where that crossover sits for your numbers.

In Hungary the provider choice carries an extra compliance dimension, so a few questions matter.