Hire Employees in Ghana

Your own entity is normally a company limited by shares registered with the Registrar-General, with GIPC registration where foreign shareholding applies and a minimum capital requirement attached to it.

An Employer of Record inverts the sequence: the Ghanaian entity issues the written contract within two months of engagement, registers the employee with SSNIT, routes the Tier 2 portion to a licensed trustee and withholds PAYE, while you direct the day-to-day work.

Accra has a growing technology and business services sector, and GIPC-registered companies receive an automatic quota of expatriate positions scaled to paid-up capital, a material advantage for foreign-invested businesses.

Ghana's employer cost is 13% of basic salary and nothing else, there are no other significant national payroll levies on the employer. Two things about that figure are commonly got wrong.

First, several published guides report 18% by adding Tier 2 on top. That double-counts. The employer pays 13% and the employee 5.5%, giving a combined 18.5%, which SSNIT then splits 13.5% to the Tier 1 defined benefit scheme and 5% to the employee's private Tier 2 trustee. Tier 2 comes out of the 18.5%, not in addition to it.

Second, contributions are calculated on basic salary, not gross. Housing, transport and medical allowances are excluded, so on a typical package the real employer cost is nearer 8.7% of gross than 13%. Package structure therefore changes the contribution materially, and applying 13% to gross overstates cost significantly.

Accra has a growing technology and business services sector. Tier 3 is a voluntary provident fund carrying tax advantages, and foreign employers increasingly include it as a retention measure since the mandatory tiers are modest.

Break-even rule of thumb: EOR fees begin to exceed the running cost of a small Ghanaian entity somewhere between 15 and 20 employees. Model both before committing, see EOR vs Entity for the full comparison, and plan any later migration so employees keep seniority.

Employer cost is 13% of basic salary and nothing else, there are no other significant national payroll levies on the employer. Two things about that figure are commonly got wrong.

First, several published guides report 18% by adding Tier 2 on top. That double-counts. The employer pays 13% and the employee 5.5%, giving a combined 18.5%, which SSNIT then splits 13.5% to the Tier 1 defined benefit scheme and 5% to the employee’s private Tier 2 trustee. Tier 2 comes out of the 18.5%, not in addition to it.

Second, contributions are calculated on basic salary, not gross. Housing, transport and medical allowances are excluded, so on a typical package the real employer cost is nearer 8.7% of gross than 13%. Package structure therefore changes the contribution materially.

What the percentage does not tell you. Employer contributions of 13% are the statutory floor, not the cost of a hire. Add deferred pay that accrues monthly but is paid later, any sector agreement that raises the minimum, and the administrative cost of registering and filing. A quote built on the headline rate alone will be short.

Where the number moves. Ceilings, floors and eligibility conditions change the effective rate at different salary levels, so the percentage that applies to a junior hire is rarely the percentage that applies to a senior one. The calculator below applies each component separately, with its own ceiling where one exists, rather than a single blended rate.

Before you commit. Confirm the current schedule against the sources listed at the foot of this page. Ghanaian figures were verified on 17 August 2026, but contribution ceilings and minimum wages are revised on their own timetables and not always in January.

Four representative profiles, costed with the 2026 contribution rates above. Salaries are illustrative market midpoints, not GX operating data, use them to see how the on-cost percentage behaves as pay rises, not as a salary benchmark for a specific role. For real market data on your roles, ask for a costing.

Because the main charges are capped, the on-cost percentage falls sharply above the ceiling. Model a senior hire explicitly rather than scaling the junior figure, the error runs in your favour but it distorts the comparison against uncapped markets.

Four representative profiles costed on 2026 statutory rates. Salaries are illustrative market midpoints, not GX operating data.

Payroll runs monthly in cedis. PAYE is remitted to the Ghana Revenue Authority by the fifteenth of the following month through the taxpayer portal, and SSNIT contributions by the fourteenth, two deadlines a day apart.

PAYE runs across seven bands from 0% to 35%, with the tax-free threshold at GHS 5,880 a year. Bands are revised in the annual Budget Statement each November and take effect the following January.

The employee’s 5.5% SSNIT contribution is deducted before PAYE, the GRA lists it among the items removed from income before the tax bands are applied, alongside mortgage interest on one residential premise and provident fund contributions up to 16.5% of basic. Applying PAYE to full gross over-withholds on every payslip.

Thresholds and ceilings are uprated periodically, so a figure correct in January may not hold later in the year. Where a row below is flagged, published sources disagreed and the conflict is recorded rather than resolved.

Thresholds move on a local cycle that does not always fall in January, so a figure correct at the start of the year may not hold through it. Where a row below carries a flag, published sources disagreed and the conflict is recorded rather than resolved, there is 1 such row on this page.

The sections that follow set out contracts and probation, working time, leave, termination and immigration in that order. Where an entitlement comes from a collective agreement rather than statute it is marked as such, because that distinction determines whether it is negotiable.

A written contract is required within two months of engagement for employment lasting six months or more. English is the working language.

The split between basic salary and allowances is the most consequential term, because only basic drives the contribution. It should be agreed deliberately at offer stage rather than assembled afterwards.

Probation is a matter of contract, commonly three to six months, and must be reasonable in the circumstances. SSNIT registration applies from day one regardless of probationary status, and the employee’s Tier 2 trustee should be nominated before the first payroll.

Eight hours a day and forty a week. Overtime requires agreement and is paid at a premium set by the contract or collective agreement rather than by a single statutory rate. A minimum of forty-eight consecutive hours of rest is required in each seven-day period.

Overtime is where payroll disputes usually start. Record hours from day one even where the role is salaried and the expectation is that overtime will not arise, reconstructing records after a complaint is far harder than keeping them.

Overtime is where payroll disputes usually begin, and the burden of proving hours worked generally sits with the employer. Record hours from the first day even for salaried roles where overtime is not expected, reconstructing a record after a complaint is considerably harder than keeping one.

Public holidays sit on top of the annual leave entitlement. Where a holiday falls at a weekend, practice varies, some markets move it, some grant a substitute day and some do neither, so check the position before assuming a day in lieu.

The 13 dates below are the statutory position. Employers in many markets grant more by policy or collective agreement, and sector agreements sometimes add local or patronal days that do not appear in a national list.

Ghana observes 13 paid public holidays in 2026. Dates that fall at a weekend and any substitution rules are set out below; entitlement is separate from annual leave.

Maternity: 12 weeks, extended to 14 for a caesarean or multiple births. Full pay, employer-funded. Nursing breaks: 1 hour a day. Paid, and treated as time worked. Paternity: Not a general statutory entitlement. Provided by contract or policy in the formal sector. Sick leave: On a medical certificate. Paid; the period is set by contract or collective agreement rather than by a single statutory figure.

Weekly rest: At least 48 consecutive hours in each 7-day period. Statutory.

The question that matters for budgeting is who funds each entitlement. Where the state or a social insurance fund pays, the employer carries administration but not cost; where the employer pays, it is a direct charge that headcount models routinely omit. Both patterns appear above.

Notice depends on the contract: one month for a contract of three years or more, two weeks for less than three years, and seven days for a week-to-week contract. Payment in lieu is permitted.

Redundancy pay is negotiated, not fixed. The Labour Act requires the employer to inform the Chief Labour Officer and the trade union and to negotiate the redundancy payment, but sets no statutory formula. That makes the outcome unpredictable compared with markets that publish a scale, and it should be modelled conservatively rather than assumed to be modest.

Unfair termination claims go to the National Labour Commission, and remedies include reinstatement and compensation.

Probation is a matter of contract, commonly three to six months, and must be reasonable in the circumstances. SSNIT registration applies from day one regardless of probationary status.

A foreign national needs both a work permit and a residence permit from the Ghana Immigration Service. Allow two to three months.

GIPC-registered companies receive an automatic expatriate quota scaled to paid-up capital, which removes the case-by-case justification that otherwise applies. For a foreign business planning more than one or two expatriate hires, structuring for that quota is worth doing at incorporation.

Free zone companies operate under a separate regime with its own arrangements, relevant for export-oriented operations.

Redundancy pay is negotiated, not fixed. The Labour Act requires the employer to inform the Chief Labour Officer and the trade union and to negotiate the payment, but sets no statutory formula. That makes the outcome unpredictable compared with markets that publish a scale, and it should be modelled conservatively rather than assumed modest.

Unfair termination claims go to the National Labour Commission, where reinstatement and compensation are both available remedies.

Practical controls: apply 13% employer rather than 18%, calculate on basic salary rather than gross, settle the PAYE base question with the GRA before the first run, nominate the Tier 2 trustee at onboarding, and file the annual employer declaration by 30 April.

Work backwards from the start date. For a Ghanaian national through an EOR, one to two weeks is realistic. A foreign national needs both a work permit and a residence permit from the Ghana Immigration Service, adding two to three months. GIPC-registered companies receive an automatic quota of expatriate positions scaled to paid-up capital.

Confirm before making an offer: the split between basic salary and allowances, since only basic drives the contribution; that payroll uses 13% employer rather than 18%; and how the PAYE base is treated, since published sources directly conflict on whether the employee's 5.5% SSNIT contribution reduces it.

Note the two separate bases. SSNIT is calculated on basic salary only, while PAYE applies to gross including allowances, less the SSNIT already deducted. The insurable earnings ceiling is GHS 69,000 a month from 1 January 2026, with a floor of GHS 587.80. SSNIT is remitted by the 14th and PAYE by the 15th, and the annual employer declaration is due by 30 April.