Austria · Employer of Record · Payroll Services · PEO
You have found the person you want to hire in Austria — now you need a compliant way to employ them, with the right Kollektivvertrag classification and all fourteen salary payments. JN Recruitment is the expansion partner that connects international companies with vetted Employer of Record and payroll partners in Austria — plus the employment lawyers, tax advisors and accountants an Austrian expansion actually needs — and delivers the boutique recruitment that finds the candidate in the first place.
for an EOR to issue a compliant Austrian employment contract once documents are complete
employer social contributions plus payroll levies on an Austrian gross salary — budgeted before you make the offer
Austrian salaries are paid in 14 instalments — your partner structures the offer so annual gross stays comparable
our recommendation is free — the best specialist from our vetted Austrian network, matched to your case
Payroll partner Austria
Austria looks familiar from Germany — same language, similar bureaucratic instincts — but its payroll runs on different rails. Nearly every employee is covered by an industry Kollektivvertrag that dictates minimum salary by classification, salaries are paid in fourteen instalments with Urlaubsgeld and Weihnachtsgeld, registration with the ÖGK health fund must happen before the first minute of work, and on top of roughly 21% social insurance the employer pays a stack of levies — severance fund, municipal tax, family-burden fund — that first-time employers in Austria routinely forget to budget. Companies that have already found their candidate lose weeks here, or make an offer that quietly violates the KV.
There are two clean routes. If you have (or will build) an Austrian entity, a payroll service provider in Austria runs the monthly Lohnverrechnung, ELDA notifications and filings for you. If you have no entity and don’t want one yet, an Employer of Record (EOR) employs your hire legally in Austria while you direct the day-to-day work — what many US companies would call a PEO. Austrian EOR runs under the labour-leasing rules of the Arbeitskräfteüberlassungsgesetz (AÜG), so licence status, correct KV pay and cross-border notifications all have to be right. And sooner or later an Austrian expansion also needs an employment lawyer for the contract, a Steuerberater for the registrations and an accountant for the books. We vet all of it for you.
JN Recruitment is a boutique recruitment firm headquartered in Mannheim, with offices in Poland and Cyprus — and the expansion partner international companies use for the Austrian market. Years of placing people in Austria have built us a network of the best employment lawyers, tax advisors, payroll bureaus, accountants and licensed EOR providers in the country. We recommend exactly the specialists your case needs — free of charge, at the partner’s standard rates — and stay your single point of contact. What we deliver ourselves is the headhunting: the sales recruitment agency for Austria that international machinery, industrial-technology and recycling companies already use to enter the market.
What we arrange
Whatever stage your Austria plans are at — first hire without an entity, or a full team on an existing GmbH — this is what our vetted Austrian network delivers: EOR providers, payroll bureaus, employment lawyers, tax advisors and accountants, matched and introduced by us:
The partner becomes the legal employer of your hire in Austria — Austrian employment contract with the correct KV classification, 14-payment payroll, ÖGK registration, social insurance and wage tax — while you manage the work day-to-day. Live within days, no GmbH required.
For companies with an Austrian entity: a specialised payroll bureau runs the monthly Lohnverrechnung including Urlaubs- and Weihnachtsgeld, ELDA notifications to the ÖGK, wage-tax filings to the Finanzamt, municipal-tax returns and BMD/DATEV-compatible reporting — no in-house Austrian payroll expertise needed.
Searching for a “PEO Austria”? The US-style PEO doesn’t exist 1:1 under Austrian law — the compliant equivalents are EOR employment under the AÜG or outsourced payroll on your own entity. We translate what you actually need into the right Austrian construct.
Specialised employment lawyers for watertight Austrian contracts, KV classification and terminations with quarter-end notice dates, tax advisors (Steuerberater) for registrations and filings, accountants for the books — the advisory bench every Austrian expansion eventually needs, already vetted and briefed.
Onboarding paperwork, absence tracking, statutory registrations before day one — plus audits of Austrian freelance setups: the health fund actively reclassifies disguised employment (Scheinselbstständigkeit), and partners convert contractors into compliant employment before that happens.
The part we deliver ourselves: executive search for technical sales and leadership roles in Austria. If you don’t have the candidate yet, we find them — then plug employment and payroll in behind the signed offer.
Market knowledge
Austrian employment is KV-driven and levy-heavy but predictable — if you know the numbers before you sign. The essentials we brief every company on before an Austrian hire:
EOR employment in Austria is legally Arbeitskräfteüberlassung under the AÜG: the provider needs a labour-leasing trade licence, cross-border leasing into Austria must be notified, and the employee is entitled to at least the pay of the user company’s Kollektivvertrag. Unlike Germany there is no fixed 18-month cap — but equal-pay compliance is audited, and licence status is the first thing we verify.
Austria has no legal minimum wage. Instead, near-universal collective agreements (Kollektivverträge) set binding minimum salaries by role classification and experience — in most sectors effectively €2,000+ per month — plus annual increases. Every contract, including an EOR contract, must carry the correct KV classification, and candidates will check it.
Austrian gross salaries are paid in 14 instalments — twelve monthly payments plus Urlaubsgeld in summer and Weihnachtsgeld at year-end, both taxed favourably. Budgets and offers made in twelve-payment logic confuse Austrian candidates and understate the monthly cost; your payroll or EOR partner structures the package so annual gross stays comparable across Europe.
Probation in Austria is capped at one month — far shorter than Germany’s six. After it, employer-side notice runs from six weeks up to five months with tenure, traditionally effective at quarter-end unless the contract says otherwise. Getting the notice clause right on day one is cheap; getting it wrong is a five-month problem.
Employer cost benchmarks
Payroll quotes in Austria are built on social insurance both sides pay — plus employer-only levies that push the true on-top figure to roughly 30%. The current picture every employer budget should use:
| Contribution | Employer pays | Employee pays |
|---|---|---|
| Pension insurance (Pensionsversicherung) | 12.55% | 10.25% |
| Health insurance (Krankenversicherung, ÖGK) | ≈3.9% | ≈3.9% |
| Unemployment insurance (Arbeitslosenversicherung) | ≈2.95% | ≈2.95% |
| Accident insurance (Unfallversicherung, AUVA) | 1.1% | — |
| Severance fund (Betriebliche Vorsorge, “Abfertigung Neu”) | 1.53% | — |
| Payroll levies (family fund DB/DZ, municipal tax) | ≈7% | — |
Orientation figures, rounded: the family-burden fund surcharge varies slightly by province, social-insurance items are capped by the monthly contribution ceiling (Höchstbeitragsgrundlage), and the levies apply without a ceiling. Rule of thumb: a €70,000 annual gross salary (14 payments consolidated) costs the employer roughly €90,000 all-in. Your payroll or EOR partner’s quote is the binding number.
Yes. An Employer of Record (EOR) employs your candidate in Austria on your behalf: the EOR holds the Austrian employment contract, registers the employee with the ÖGK before the first working day, runs the 14-payment payroll and pays social insurance — while you direct the day-to-day work. No GmbH, no Austrian bank account, no registrations on your side. It is the standard route for a first hire in Austria; the EOR operates under Austria’s labour-leasing act (AÜG), so licence status and correct KV pay are the compliance points to verify.
The EOR is the legal employer under Austrian law. It issues a compliant Austrian employment contract with the correct Kollektivvertrag classification, registers the employee with the ÖGK, withholds wage tax, pays social contributions and the employer levies, contributes 1.53% to the statutory severance fund, pays Urlaubsgeld and Weihnachtsgeld at the right times, and handles ELDA notifications and year-end filings. You remain in charge of the work itself — targets, tasks, tools, day-to-day management — and reimburse the EOR for gross salary, employer costs and a service fee.
Typical Austrian EOR pricing is a flat €300–700 per employee per month, or a percentage of gross salary — on top of the salary itself and roughly 30% employer contributions and levies. Compare that with the alternative: forming and running an Austrian GmbH means formation costs, share capital, accounting, annual filings and a local payroll setup — rarely worth it below three to five employees. We match you with a partner whose pricing fits your head-count and flag the all-in monthly number before you commit.
Budget roughly 29–31% on top: employer social insurance of about 21% (pension 12.55%, health ≈3.9%, unemployment ≈2.95%, accident 1.1%), the 1.53% severance-fund contribution, plus employer-only payroll levies — the family-burden fund surcharge and 3% municipal tax — that together add roughly 7% with no ceiling. Social-insurance items are capped by the Höchstbeitragsgrundlage for high earners. As a rule of thumb, a €70,000 annual gross salary costs the employer roughly €90,000 all-in per year, before any bonus, car or EOR fee.
In the US, a PEO co-employs your staff while you keep your own entity; an EOR employs them fully so you don’t need one. Austrian law has no 1:1 equivalent of the US PEO model — the compliant Austrian constructs are EOR employment under an AÜG labour-leasing licence (no entity needed) or outsourced payroll and HR administration on your own GmbH. Providers use both labels loosely, which is precisely why we check what a partner actually delivers before we introduce them.
Yes — if it is done properly. EOR in Austria is legally Arbeitskräfteüberlassung under the AÜG: the provider needs the labour-leasing trade licence, cross-border leasing must be notified to the authorities, and the employee must receive at least the pay of the applicable Kollektivvertrag at the user company. Unlike Germany there is no fixed 18-month time limit, but equal-pay compliance is enforced and an unlicensed provider exposes you to fines. Licence status is the first thing we verify in our partner vetting.
Yes. If your GmbH or branch already exists, an Austrian payroll partner takes over the monthly Lohnverrechnung: 14-payment payslips including Urlaubs- and Weihnachtsgeld, wage-tax filings to the Finanzamt, ELDA notifications to the ÖGK, municipal-tax and levy returns, and year-end certificates. Typical pricing runs per payslip per month. The same partners handle the employer registrations if your entity has never employed anyone in Austria before.
Via EOR: the Austrian employment contract is typically ready within three to five working days once the candidate’s documents are complete — and the ÖGK registration must simply be filed before the first working minute, which the partner handles routinely. Building your own entity first takes weeks to months. In practice the binding constraint is usually the candidate’s notice period — Austrian employer-side notice runs up to five months with tenure, traditionally to quarter-end — which, as recruiters, is the part we actively manage for you.
Only if they are genuinely self-employed. Austria polices disguised self-employment hard: the health fund and tax authority run status audits, and a reclassified freelancer means back-dated social contributions and levies — paid largely by you — plus a deemed employment relationship under the applicable KV. One client, fixed working hours and integration into your team are classic red flags. If the working reality is employment, EOR employment costs little more and removes the risk; our partners also audit and convert existing contractor setups.
No — and that is deliberate. JN Recruitment is a boutique recruitment firm and your expansion partner for Austria: over years of placing candidates here we have built a vetted network of the best employment lawyers, tax advisors (Steuerberater), payroll bureaus, accountants and licensed EOR providers — and we recommend exactly the specialists your case needs. You contract directly with the partner at their standard rates; the recommendation costs you nothing, and we stay your single point of contact. What we deliver ourselves is the search: if the candidate doesn’t exist yet, our Austrian headhunting finds them.
Across Europe
The same specialised technical sales search opens every market on the continent — pick the country you are expanding into.
Hiring in several markets at once?
Hiring at leadership level? Our executive search practice:
Candidate found — and now need a compliant way to employ them?
Talk to us — no strings attached. We get back to you within 24 hours.
Our mission is simple: placements that open new markets.
30-minute intro call
Two quick steps — tell us what you need and how to reach you. Within one business day you get an intro call and, where it fits, a direct introduction to the right specialists from our vetted network.
Your contact person Jonas Strambach Director & Senior Recruiter, JN Recruitment +49 1525 2077583 [email protected] Thank you — we’ll get back to you within one business day to schedule your intro call.
An honest read on your vacancy & market — in your first call.
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Before you go
Every month a key sales seat stays empty pushes your expansion plans back — and leaves serious revenue on the table. We fill technical sales positions within weeks, so you hit your expansion targets on schedule.
Jonas Strambach Director & Senior Recruiter, JN Recruitment Free vacancy check · reply within 24 hours
