Hire Employees in Mauritania

Two routes exist. Registering a Mauritanian entity gives direct employment; an Employer of Record removes that setup and acts as legal employer.

There is no single social security registration. Four separate bodies collect contributions: the CNSS for old age, invalidity, death, work accidents, occupational disease and family benefits; the CNAM for health; the ONMT for occupational medicine; and the CNASS for health cover of self-employed and informal workers.

That fragmentation is the main administrative burden here. A payroll built around one fund will miss obligations owed to the others.

Employer contributions total 20%, and they are collected by three different bodies for salaried staff:

Health, to the CNAM: 5% employer and 4% employee, calculated on the whole salary.

Old age, invalidity, death, work accidents, occupational disease and family benefits, to the CNSS: 13% employer and 1% employee, capped at MRU 70,000 a month.

Occupational medicine, to the ONMT: 2%, employer only, under the same MRU 70,000 ceiling.

Employees contribute 5% in total.

The split ceiling changes the shape of employer cost. Because health is uncapped and everything else stops at MRU 70,000, the effective rate falls sharply and then flattens towards 5% rather than continuing down. At the ceiling it is the full 20%; at double that, about 12.5%; at four times, around 8.75%.

Break-even rule of thumb: EOR fees begin to exceed the running cost of a Mauritanian entity somewhere between 12 and 20 employees. See EOR vs Entity.

Only the health branch is uncapped. The 5% employer and 4% employee health contributions apply to the totality of the salary. Every other branch is capped at MRU 70,000 per month.

That matters most for senior roles. Health cost keeps rising with salary while pension, injury and family contributions stop entirely, so the marginal contribution on a high salary is 5%, not 20%.

The ceiling sits far above the minimum wage. The SMIG is MRU 4,500 a month, so the contribution ceiling is roughly fifteen times the wage floor, a wide band within which the full 20% applies.

The guaranteed minimum hourly wage has been MRU 25.962 for the 40-hour week since 1 January 2023, with MRU 24.612 for agricultural and equivalent workers.

Gross monthly salaries in ouguiya. Employer cost falls steeply past the MRU 70,000 ceiling and then flattens towards the uncapped 5% health contribution.

Benchmarks below are gross monthly salaries in ouguiya. Because only health is uncapped, employer cost as a share of salary falls steeply and then flattens towards 5%.

Contributions are payable quarterly. That is the single most important operational point on this page, and it is easy to get wrong, most comparable systems collect monthly.

Payroll itself runs monthly, but the contribution cycle does not follow it. A calendar built on monthly remittance will either file returns that are not due or miss the quarterly deadline that is.

Each of the collecting bodies has its own channel, with the CNAM operating an electronic declaration system.

Income tax on salaries is withheld at source. Confirm the current bands with the tax authority before configuring payroll.

Income tax is withheld at source on a progressive scale. Confirm the current bands before configuring payroll.

Employment is governed by the Labour Code, with social security administered across the four collecting bodies.

Affiliation has been compulsory since February 2021 for employees under the Labour Code or the Merchant Marine Code, State and local authority staff without a special scheme, and, notably, students in vocational schools, trainees and apprentices.

That last category is worth checking against any internship or apprenticeship programme, since these are often assumed to sit outside social security.

The standard week is 40 hours.

Contracts should record pay, hours, leave, notice and termination terms.

Register across all applicable bodies before the first payroll run, and set the contribution calendar to quarterly from the outset.

Check whether the applicable collective agreement sets a sick pay period, see below.

The standard week is 40 hours, with a separate hourly minimum for agricultural work.

Because health is uncapped, overtime and bonuses raise the 5% health charge at every salary level, unlike the capped branches, which stop contributing above MRU 70,000.

Mauritania observes national holidays alongside Islamic dates that follow the lunar calendar and shift each year relative to the Gregorian calendar used for payroll.

Mauritania observes national holidays alongside Islamic dates that follow the lunar calendar and shift each year. Dates are set out below.

There is no unemployment cover. The Mauritanian social security scheme does not cover the unemployment risk at all, so redundancy carries no state income replacement for the employee.

Sick pay is an employer liability with a variable duration. The employer pays daily sickness benefits under the Labour Code, for a number of days defined by the applicable collective agreement, so the exposure depends on which agreement covers the role, not on a single statutory figure.

Pensions are bounded at both ends: not less than 60% of the SMIG, and not more than 80% of the insured person’s average pay. Where third-person assistance is needed, the pension is increased by 50%.

Retirement age is 63. Those who do not meet the pension conditions receive a lump sum of one month’s salary per year of contributions, calculated on the average of the last three or five years and capped at the contribution ceiling.

Retirees continue contributing to the CNAM for health at 2.5% of their pension.

Termination follows the Labour Code, with notice and severance set by statute and any applicable collective agreement.

Remember there is no unemployment benefit, which tends to raise the practical importance of notice and severance terms in negotiation.

Final pay including accrued leave is due on separation and must be reflected in the quarterly contribution return covering the period.

Work authorisation for foreign nationals is employer-sponsored; confirm current requirements before committing to a start date.

Non-salaried workers sit largely outside the scheme. They are not covered for old age, invalidity, death, work accidents, occupational disease or family benefits at all.

Since September 2023 they may join health cover voluntarily through the CNASS, either as a family of at least six people or through collective membership, groups of artists, students, pupils or villages, and socio-professional groups such as herders, farmers, fishers, artisans, gold panners, traders and the self-employed.

The contribution is MRU 700 a year per person, of which the insured pays 250 and the State finances 450. The State therefore carries close to two thirds of the cost, a deliberate subsidy to widen coverage.

Running a monthly contribution cycle is the most likely process error. Mauritania collects quarterly, and a monthly calendar will misfile in both directions.

Registering with one body only is the second. Four collect contributions, and a payroll built around the CNSS alone will miss CNAM and ONMT obligations.

Applying one ceiling to everything is the third, health is uncapped while the rest stops at MRU 70,000.

Note also that trainees and apprentices have been within compulsory affiliation since February 2021; that sick pay duration comes from the collective agreement rather than statute; and that there is no unemployment cover to fall back on.

Register across all four collecting bodies as applicable, and set the contribution calendar to quarterly before the first run.

Configure health as uncapped and the remaining branches at the MRU 70,000 ceiling, check the applicable collective agreement for sick pay duration, and include any trainees or apprentices in affiliation.

Factor the absence of unemployment cover into severance discussions rather than assuming a state safety net.