Turkey · Employer of Record · Payroll Services · PEO
You have found the person you want to hire in Turkey — now you need a compliant way to employ them. JN Recruitment is the expansion partner that connects international companies with vetted Employer of Record and payroll partners in Turkey — plus the employment lawyers, tax advisors, payroll bureaus and accountants a Turkish expansion actually needs — and delivers the boutique recruitment that finds the candidate in the first place.
for an EOR to issue a compliant Turkish employment contract once documents are complete
employer SGK and unemployment contributions — before the treasury incentive that can cut up to 5 points
no Turkish company required — with an Employer of Record, the partner is the legal employer in Turkey
our recommendation is free — the best specialist from our vetted Turkish network, matched to your case
Payroll partner Turkey
Turkey is one of the world’s great manufacturing economies — and a payroll environment unlike anywhere in the EU. Employer SGK and unemployment contributions add roughly 22.5% to gross salary (less with the standard treasury incentive), statutory severance (kıdem tazminatı) accrues at about one gross monthly salary per year of service, salaries to Turkish residents are generally paid in lira, and the minimum wage is re-set at least annually against inflation — sometimes dramatically. Companies that have already found their candidate lose weeks here, or budget a Turkish hire like an EU hire and discover the severance accrual two years too late.
There are two clean routes. If you have (or will build) a Turkish entity, a payroll service provider in Turkey runs the monthly payroll, SGK filings and tax withholding for you. If you have no entity and don’t want one yet, an Employer of Record (EOR) employs your hire legally in Turkey while you direct the day-to-day work — what many US companies would call a PEO. The market for both is large and opaque; structures, service depth and pricing vary enormously, and in Turkey the provider’s legal construct genuinely matters. Sooner or later a Turkish expansion also needs an employment lawyer, a tax advisor and an accountant. We vet all of it for you.
JN Recruitment is a boutique recruitment firm headquartered in Mannheim, with offices in Poland and Cyprus — Turkey is covered from our Eastern Mediterranean base in Larnaca, a short flight from Istanbul. Years of placing people in Turkey have built us a network of the best employment lawyers, tax advisors, payroll bureaus, accountants and EOR providers in the market. 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 Turkey that international machinery, industrial-technology and recycling companies already use to enter the market.
What we arrange
Whatever stage your Turkey plans are at — first hire without an entity, or a full team on an existing Turkish company — this is what our vetted Turkish 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 Turkey — Turkish employment contract, SGK registration, lira payroll with income tax and stamp duty withheld, severance accrual managed — while you manage the work day-to-day. Live within days, no Turkish company required. The standard route for a first hire in Turkey.
For companies with a Turkish entity: a specialised payroll bureau runs the monthly bordro, SGK e-declarations, income-tax and stamp-duty withholding, payslips, severance and leave accruals and year-end reporting — no in-house Turkish payroll expertise needed.
Searching for a “PEO Turkey”? The US-style PEO doesn’t exist 1:1 under Turkish law — the compliant equivalents are EOR employment through a provider’s Turkish entity or outsourced payroll on your own company. We translate what you actually need into the right Turkish construct.
Specialised employment lawyers for watertight Turkish contracts, terminations and severance strategy under the Labour Law, tax advisors (mali müşavir) for registrations and filings, accountants for the books — the advisory bench every Turkish expansion eventually needs, already vetted and briefed.
Onboarding paperwork, SGK notifications, absence tracking and statutory registrations — plus audits of Turkish freelance setups: SGK inspectors reclassify disguised employment with back-dated premiums, and partners convert contractors into compliant employment before that happens.
The part we deliver ourselves: executive search for technical sales and leadership roles in Turkey. If you don’t have the candidate yet, we find them — then plug employment and payroll in behind the signed offer.
Market knowledge
Turkish employment is fast to start and generous to leavers — a combination that rewards planning. The essentials we brief every company on before a Turkish hire:
Employer contributions run at roughly 20.5% SGK plus 2% unemployment insurance on capped gross salary. The standard treasury incentive for compliant employers has historically cut up to 5 points off the SGK share — a discount any serious payroll or EOR quote should already reflect. We check that it does.
Employees with over a year of service earn statutory severance (kıdem tazminatı) of roughly one gross monthly salary per year served, payable on most terminations and capped by a ceiling that is re-set with inflation. On a five-year employment, that is nearly half a year’s salary — an accrual to budget from day one, not discover at exit.
Salaries to Turkish residents under local contracts are generally required to be paid in lira, so senior packages are typically benchmarked or indexed in euros or dollars and converted at payment. A payroll partner who handles the FX mechanics cleanly is worth real money in a high-inflation market — it is one of our vetting criteria.
Turkey’s gross minimum wage is renegotiated at least annually — around TRY 26,000 per month in 2025 after years of double-digit increases, with mid-year hikes in high-inflation years. The floor drives SGK bases and junior packages, so Turkish budgets need review dates built in. Notice, by contrast, is short: two to eight weeks by tenure, with two months’ probation.
Employer cost benchmarks
Payroll quotes in Turkey are built on SGK social security on capped gross salary, plus withholdings the employer administers. The current picture — the source of the “roughly 22.5% on top, less with incentives” rule every employer budget should use:
| Contribution | Employer pays | Employee pays |
|---|---|---|
| Social security (SGK) — pension, health, short-term risks | ≈20.5% | 14% |
| Unemployment insurance | 2% | 1% |
| Treasury incentive (compliant employers, on SGK share) | −up to 5% | — |
| Severance accrual (kıdem tazminatı, ≈1 month/year) | ≈8.3% | — |
| Income tax (progressive, withheld via payroll) | — | 15–40% |
| Stamp duty on salary | — | ≈0.76% |
Orientation figures, rounded: the SGK base is capped at a ceiling of several times the minimum wage, the incentive requires clean filings, hazardous sectors pay short-term risk surcharges, and the severance line is an accrual rather than a monthly payment — but it is real money at exit. Rule of thumb: budget roughly 25–30% on top of gross all-in. Your payroll or EOR partner’s lira quote is the binding number.
Yes. An Employer of Record (EOR) employs your candidate in Turkey on your behalf: the EOR holds the Turkish employment contract, registers the employee with SGK, runs the lira payroll with income tax and stamp duty withheld, accrues severance, and you direct the day-to-day work. No Turkish A.Ş. or Ltd. Şti., no local bank account, no registrations on your side. It is the standard route for a first hire in Turkey — and the one most of our clients use while they test the market.
The EOR is the legal employer under Turkish labour law. It issues a compliant Turkish employment contract, registers the employee with SGK before the start date, pays salaries in lira, withholds progressive income tax and stamp duty, remits employer SGK and unemployment contributions, claims the treasury incentive where eligible, tracks the kıdem tazminatı severance accrual, administers leave and sick pay, and handles terminations with the correct notice and severance. You remain in charge of the work itself — targets, tasks, tools — and reimburse the EOR for gross salary, employer costs and a service fee.
Typical Turkish EOR pricing is a flat €300–600 per employee per month, or a percentage of gross salary — on top of the salary itself, roughly 22.5% employer contributions before incentives, and the severance accrual. Compare that with the alternative: forming and running a Turkish company means formation costs, a mandatory accountant (mali müşavir), monthly 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 22.5% employer contributions — SGK at about 20.5% plus 2% unemployment insurance on capped gross — reduced by up to 5 points where the standard treasury incentive applies. Then add the item EU budgets forget: statutory severance accrues at roughly one gross monthly salary per year of service (≈8.3% of payroll), payable on most terminations. All-in, plan for roughly 25–30% on top of gross. We put both numbers in every Turkish benchmark before you make the offer.
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. Turkish law has no 1:1 equivalent of the US PEO model — the compliant Turkish constructs are EOR employment through a provider’s own Turkish entity, or outsourced payroll and HR administration on your own company. Providers use both labels loosely, and in Turkey the underlying structure genuinely matters — which is precisely why we check what a partner actually delivers before we introduce them.
Yes — with the right structure. Classic labour leasing through private employment agencies is licensed by İŞKUR and restricted to narrow cases and durations, so serious EOR providers in Turkey instead employ your hire directly through their own Turkish entity under a service arrangement. That distinction is not cosmetic: an improper construct exposes you to a deemed employment relationship and back-dated SGK premiums. Provider structure is the first thing we verify in our partner vetting — and a question you should ask any EOR you talk to.
Yes. If your Turkish company or branch already exists, a payroll partner takes over the monthly bordro: payslips, SGK e-declarations, income-tax and stamp-duty withholding to the tax office, incentive management, severance and leave accrual tracking and year-end reporting — typically priced per payslip per month. The same partners handle employer registration with SGK if your entity has never employed anyone in Turkey before.
Via EOR: the Turkish employment contract and SGK registration are typically ready within three to five working days once the candidate’s documents are complete — the fastest compliant route into the Turkish market. Building your own entity first takes weeks to months. On the candidate side Turkey is quick too: statutory notice runs two to eight weeks by tenure, so a Turkish hire often starts months earlier than an equivalent hire in Germany — a timeline we actively manage for you as recruiters.
Only if they are genuinely self-employed. SGK polices disguised employment: a “freelancer” with one client, fixed hours and integration into your team risks reclassification, with back-dated SGK premiums, penalties and — the Turkish twist — retroactive severance and notice entitlements landing largely on you. In a market where employment can start within days via EOR, the contractor shortcut saves little and risks much. Our partners audit and convert existing contractor setups before an inspection does it for you.
No — and that is deliberate. JN Recruitment is a boutique recruitment firm and your expansion partner for Turkey: over years of placing candidates here we have built a vetted network of the best employment lawyers, tax advisors, payroll bureaus, accountants and 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 Turkish 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
