How to hire remote employees in

The Philippines

The Philippines is an excellent, and wildly popular, place to hire people. But if you’re not acquainted with the local labor laws, it can get confusing, fast. Fortunately, we are acquainted with those labor laws. On this page, we’ll teach you how to hire in The Philippines—without spending thousands of dollars on EOR fees and legal red tape:
Book Demo

Country snapshot

CURRENCY
Philippine Peso (PHP)
EMPLOYER TAXES
11.46%
PAYROLL FREQUENCY
Bi-Monthly
OFFICIAL LANGUAGE
Filipino, English

What to know before you hire in 

The Philippines

Laws about hiring are complicated, and the same is true in The Philippines. But there are ways to sidestep the headaches—if your company hasn’t already established a physical presence in The Philippines, you have two real options when it comes to hiring. We’ll detail both below.

If you want to successfully hire in 

The Philippines

, you have two options:

Hire talent as contractors

Laws about hiring contractors are significantly more simple in 

The Philippines

. 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.

Hire talent as employees

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 

The Philippines

 is expensive—it can often be $500 per month per employee—and sometimes prone to lengthy onboarding times.

Why hire independent contractors in 

The Philippines

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 

The Philippines

.

It’s the fastest way to hire globally

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’s a lot cheaper

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.

It’s more flexible for you & your team

Hiring contractors in 

The Philippines

 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.

Can be less risky than hiring employees

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.

Some people want to be employees

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.

You might not have as much control over your talent

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.

How can I pay people in 

The Philippines

?

If you’re hiring contractors in 

The Philippines

, 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.

Hiring and paying your team in 

The Philippines

Hire and pay with Panther

Pay everyone with a single click
Get great currency conversion rates
Pay $0 in platform fees
Run payroll in seconds
Let Panther automatically create & store invoices
Let Panther automatically write locally-compliant contracts
Let Panther automatically file local tax documents

Hire and pay without Panther

Pay all your contractors individually
Do all currency conversions yourself
Shoulder the burden of platform fees
Spend hours each month making payments
Manually track & store invoices
Manually write & sign contracts
Manually file relevant tax documents

If you want to hire employees in 

The Philippines

If you’ve read up until this point, you’ll know that it’s easier, cheaper, and more flexible to hire contractors in The Philippines 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 The Philippines.

Taxes in 

The Philippines

Employer tax

Employer Contributions

  • 11.46%

Individual tax

Leave

Paid Time Off (PTO)

Every employee who has worked for a minimum of one year is entitled to five days of leave. These days can be taken as a holiday or sick leave.

If the leave is not used by the end of the year, employees can receive money to cover the unused days.

Public Holidays

There are 21 holidays with 9 non-working holidays.

Sick Days

Every employee who has worked for a minimum of one year is entitled to five days of leave. These days can be taken as a holiday or sick leave.

Maternity Leave

Post childbirth, the following applies:

105 days of leave if the employee has paid at least three monthly contributions within the 12-month period before the birth.

Mothers who gave birth to twins or triplets are not entitled to any additional maternity leave.

The mother can file her maternity benefits for up to 10 years.

In the event of a miscarriage, the following applies:

60 days of leave

The employee has paid at least three monthly contributions within the 12-month period before the miscarriage.

The leave will be paid by the employer who can later request reimbursement from Social Security.

Paternity Leave

Seven days of full pay to all married male employees in the private and public sectors for the first four deliveries of the legitimate spouse with whom they are cohabiting.

Parental Leave

Single parents are permitted to take additional leave of 7 working days per year with full pay and benefits.

Other Leave

None.

Marriage Leave

None.

Bereavement Leave

None.

Termination

Termination Process

An employee may be terminated for just and authorized causes as per Labor Code and for any serious violation of company rules and regulations or the commission of further infractions or violations of the Code of Conduct.

Notice Period

Employees must provide a minimum of 30 days notice.

Severance Pay

Severance pay or separation pay shall only apply if the employee was terminated by the employer (not resigned) for authorized causes. The employee will receive up to 1 month’s salary multiplied by their length of service per year.

Probation Period

The maximum length of a probationary period shall be six months. Once the probation period is completed, the employment contract becomes permanent.

Employee requirements in 

The Philippines

Working Hours

Working hours are a maximum of 8 hours per day 6 days a week.

Overtime

Persons whose work is supervisory or managerial are specifically excluded from the overtime pay.

On regular days, all hours worked above the standard 8 hours a day must be compensated by providing a daily salary plus a minimum of 25% additional pay.

On Special holidays, all hours worked above the standard 8 hours a day must be compensated by providing the daily salary plus a minimum of 30% additional pay.

On legal holidays, all hours worked above the standard 8 hours a day must be compensated by providing double the daily salary.


How to hire remote employees in

The Philippines

The Philippines is an excellent, and wildly popular, place to hire people. But if you’re not acquainted with the local labor laws, it can get confusing, fast. Fortunately, we are acquainted with those labor laws. On this page, we’ll teach you how to hire in The Philippines—without spending thousands of dollars on EOR fees and legal red tape:
Sign Up

Country snapshot

CURRENCY
Philippine Peso (PHP)
EMPLOYER TAXES
11.46%
PAYROLL FREQUENCY
Bi-Monthly
OFFICIAL LANGUAGE
Filipino, English

What to know before you hire in 

The Philippines

Laws about hiring are complicated, and the same is true in The Philippines. But there are ways to sidestep the headaches—if your company hasn’t already established a physical presence in The Philippines, you have two real options when it comes to hiring. We’ll detail both below.

If you want to successfully hire in 

The Philippines

, you have two options:

Hire talent as contractors

Laws about hiring contractors are significantly more simple in 

The Philippines

. 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 Panther for.

Hire talent as employees

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 

The Philippines

 is expensive—it can often be $500 per month per employee—and sometimes prone to lengthy onboarding times.

Why hire independent contractors in 

The Philippines

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 

The Philippines

.

It’s the fastest way to hire globally

Hiring employees takes months, at the minimum. When you hire with Panther’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’s a lot cheaper

It costs just $0 to sign up for Panther, then $49 per month to hire your contractors with Panther. 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.

It’s more flexible for you & your team

Hiring contractors in 

The Philippines

 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.

Can be less risky than hiring employees

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.

Some people want to be employees

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.

You might not have as much control over your talent

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.

How can I pay people in 

The Philippines

?

If you’re hiring contractors in 

The Philippines

, you can pay them with Panther 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.

Hiring and paying your team in 

The Philippines

Hire and pay with Panther

Pay everyone with a single click
Get great currency conversion rates
Pay $0 in platform fees
Run payroll in seconds
Let Panther automatically create & store invoices
Let Panther automatically write locally-compliant contracts
Let Panther automatically file local tax documents

Hire and pay without Panther

Pay all your contractors individually
Do all currency conversions yourself
Shoulder the burden of platform fees
Spend hours each month making payments
Manually track & store invoices
Manually write & sign contracts
Manually file relevant tax documents

Let Panther save you from hiring headaches.

Sign up today for $0

If you want to hire employees in 

The Philippines

If you’ve read up until this point, you’ll know that it’s easier, cheaper, and more flexible to hire contractors in The Philippines 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 The Philippines.

Taxes in 

The Philippines

Employer tax

Employer Contributions

  • 11.46%

Individual tax

Leave

Paid Time Off (PTO)

Every employee who has worked for a minimum of one year is entitled to five days of leave. These days can be taken as a holiday or sick leave.

If the leave is not used by the end of the year, employees can receive money to cover the unused days.

Public Holidays

There are 21 holidays with 9 non-working holidays.

Sick Days

Every employee who has worked for a minimum of one year is entitled to five days of leave. These days can be taken as a holiday or sick leave.

Maternity Leave

Post childbirth, the following applies:

105 days of leave if the employee has paid at least three monthly contributions within the 12-month period before the birth.

Mothers who gave birth to twins or triplets are not entitled to any additional maternity leave.

The mother can file her maternity benefits for up to 10 years.

In the event of a miscarriage, the following applies:

60 days of leave

The employee has paid at least three monthly contributions within the 12-month period before the miscarriage.

The leave will be paid by the employer who can later request reimbursement from Social Security.

Paternity Leave

Seven days of full pay to all married male employees in the private and public sectors for the first four deliveries of the legitimate spouse with whom they are cohabiting.

Parental Leave

Single parents are permitted to take additional leave of 7 working days per year with full pay and benefits.

Other Leave

None.

Marriage Leave

None.

Bereavement Leave

None.

Termination

Termination Process

An employee may be terminated for just and authorized causes as per Labor Code and for any serious violation of company rules and regulations or the commission of further infractions or violations of the Code of Conduct.

Notice Period

Employees must provide a minimum of 30 days notice.

Severance Pay

Severance pay or separation pay shall only apply if the employee was terminated by the employer (not resigned) for authorized causes. The employee will receive up to 1 month’s salary multiplied by their length of service per year.

Probation Period

The maximum length of a probationary period shall be six months. Once the probation period is completed, the employment contract becomes permanent.

Employee requirements in 

The Philippines

Working Hours

Working hours are a maximum of 8 hours per day 6 days a week.

Overtime

Persons whose work is supervisory or managerial are specifically excluded from the overtime pay.

On regular days, all hours worked above the standard 8 hours a day must be compensated by providing a daily salary plus a minimum of 25% additional pay.

On Special holidays, all hours worked above the standard 8 hours a day must be compensated by providing the daily salary plus a minimum of 30% additional pay.

On legal holidays, all hours worked above the standard 8 hours a day must be compensated by providing double the daily salary.


Want to hire contractors, anywhere? Start with Panther today for $0.

Start for $0
No credit card required

Try Thera Today

Get started with a seamless way to run payroll.

Run your global workforce on autopilot with Thera

Book a demo to get started.