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How to hire remote employees in
Want to hire someone in Kuwait? Excellent. But, no matter where you’re from, labor laws in Kuwait are different from those in your home country (unless you’re from Kuwait, of course). Read on to learn about your options, plus as the easiest way to make remote hires in Kuwait.
If you want to successfully hire in
Kuwait
, you have two options:
Laws about hiring contractors are significantly more simple in
Kuwait
. Onboarding talent takes days, not weeks or months. Both you, the company, and your talent have more flexibility. And in many cases, since you’re remote, the talent you’re hiring is better classified as a contractor, anyway. Of course, it’s not possible in every case, but it’s what we built Thera for.
This is the long route. You can either establish a physical presence with an entity and register as an employer, or you can use an Employer-of-Record (EOR) solution. Odds are, you’ll find using an EOR to be the easier route. Still, using an EOR in
Kuwait
is expensive—it can often be $500 per month per employee—and sometimes prone to lengthy onboarding times.
Hiring contractors is normally the easier, faster, more flexible choice—but don’t just take it from us. Below are the specific benefits and drawbacks to hiring contractors in
Kuwait
.
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 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.
Hiring contractors in
Kuwait
means you’re generally not on the hook for things like health insurance and paid time off. This makes hiring flexible for you, and it gives your talent more options.
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.
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.
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.
If you’re hiring contractors in
Kuwait
, you can pay them with Thera in a single click. You won’t need to worry about complicated wire transfers, fees, or currency conversions. We’ll take care of it all. Just make a click and your contractor will get paid in their currency of choice. This is a valuable bonus for talent in countries where the local currency is particularly weak—most people appreciate the ability to receive their payment in stronger currencies.
If you’ve read up until this point, you’ll know that it’s easier, cheaper, and more flexible to hire contractors in Kuwait 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 Kuwait.
PTO is calculated by the:
There are 8 public holidays consisting of 13 days off.
The duration of sick leave entitlement provided to workers is dependent on how long they have been employed by their employer:
After the employee provides a written medical report from a doctor:
Maternity leave is 70 days paid, and up to 4 additional months unpaid.
There is no paternity leave.
There is no parental leave.
None.
None.
Three days paid leave in the event of the death of first or second-degree relatives.
A Muslim woman whose husband dies is entitled to a fully paid leave for four months and ten days. A non-Muslim woman is entitled to 21 days of paid leave.
Termination requires 3–months’ notice from either side for employees with a monthly salary or one month for all others.
A contract can be terminated without notice or compensation in the event that the employee caused significant monetary loss, committed fraud, or disclosed secrets that led to losses.
The notice period in Kuwait is:
3-months’ notice from either side for employees with a monthly salary or one month for all others.
Employees paid on a monthly basis receive 15 days remuneration for each year of employment at the company up to 5 years and a month for each after that, up to a limit of 1.5 years of salary.
Employees paid by the hour, day, or week receive 10 days’ salary for each year of employment at the company up to 5 years, and 15 days for each year after that, up to 1 year of salary.
A probation period can be no longer than 100 days.
Kuwaiti law defines the maximum workweek at 48 hours/6 days a week at 8 hours per day. Most companies work 5-day weeks, with Friday and Saturdays off. Those working 6 days get Friday off.
During the month of Ramadan, the working hours are reduced to 6 per day.
Employees are entitled to a one-hour break after working five straight hours. The hour is not part of the day’s work.
Overtime should not be more than 2 hours per day, 3 days per week, or 90 days a year. It pays 1.25x regular salary.
Working on a Friday earns 1.5x regular salary and a compensatory day off.
Working on a national holiday earns 2x regular salary.
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