Hire Employees in Antigua and Barbuda

Antigua and Barbuda is a sovereign twin-island state in the Eastern Caribbean and a member of the OECS and CARICOM.

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

Employers must register with the Social Security Board within seven days of hiring their first employee. The Board began operations on 2 April 1973 and manages contributions and cash benefits.

Foreign nationals working legally are generally required to contribute to the scheme, and they accrue pension entitlements in the same way as local workers, based on the number of weekly contribution weeks paid.

There are two separate employer contributions, to two separate schemes.

Social Security: the private sector total is 16% of insurable earnings for 2026, approximately 9.5% employer and 6.5% employee, capped at EC$6,500 a month, EC$3,000 a fortnight or EC$1,500 a week. That is a maximum annual insurable figure of EC$78,000.

Medical Benefits Scheme: a further 3.5% from the employer, matched by 3.5% from the employee, on gross earnings.

So a standard private sector hire costs roughly 13% above gross in employer contributions, and the two schemes must be administered separately.

The public sector total is lower, at 15%, with the employee at 6% and the employer at 9%. Self-employed persons pay a flat 10% of monthly covered earnings direct to the Board.

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

The Social Security Board’s own contributions FAQ is not current, and that is the single most important caution on this page.

It states that effective 1 January 2021 the private sector rate increased to 14% of insurable earnings, 6% employee and 8% employer. That was accurate then. But the rate was on a scheduled escalation, rising by 0.25 percentage points a year on each side, and current guidance puts the private sector total at 16% for 2026, with no further increases planned.

So an official page can be authoritative about a past position while being out of date on the present one. Confirm the current rate with the Board directly before quoting, rather than relying on either the FAQ or a secondary summary.

The ceiling is stable and well corroborated: EC$6,500 a month, EC$3,000 a fortnight, EC$1,500 a week, EC$78,000 a year. The minimum earnings used to calculate contributions align with the legal monthly minimum wage.

Whether the Medical Benefits contribution is subject to the same ceiling is not clearly stated in the sources, confirm that too, since it materially affects cost on higher salaries.

Gross monthly salaries in East Caribbean dollars, which are pegged to the US dollar. Social Security caps at EC$6,500 a month.

Benchmarks below are gross monthly salaries in East Caribbean dollars. Social Security caps at EC$6,500 a month, so employer cost falls as a share of salary above that point.

Contributions must be deducted from wages at the end of each pay period and remitted to the Board.

There is no personal income tax on salaries in Antigua and Barbuda, which makes it unusually attractive for higher-earning remote staff, the contribution ceiling caps the social security charge and no income tax follows behind it.

Corporate income tax is a flat 25% a year, administered by the Inland Revenue Department, but that is a company-level charge rather than a payroll one.

Employees can verify your compliance. An employee who attends the Social Security Office in person with proof of identity can find out whether their employer is making the required contributions on their behalf. That transparency mechanism makes under-remittance visible to staff, not just to the Board.

No personal income tax is levied on salaries. Corporate income tax is a flat 25%.

Employment is governed by the Antigua and Barbuda Labour Code, covering hiring, leave entitlements, notice periods by tenure, severance formulas and workplace safety.

The national minimum wage is EC$8.20 an hour, applying across all sectors, with penalties under the Labour Code for failure to meet it. The legal monthly minimum wage figure used for contribution purposes is EC$1,420.

Published annual leave figures conflict sharply. One current source states a Labour Code minimum of 12 working days after one year of continuous service; another states 28 days of paid leave a year. That is too wide a gap to split, confirm against the Labour Code before drafting.

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

Register with the Social Security Board within seven days of your first hire, and register separately for the Medical Benefits Scheme.

Confirm the current contribution rate and the annual leave entitlement before drafting, since both are inconsistently published.

The contribution base is wide. Beyond salaries and wages, contributions are payable on overtime payments, vacation pay, cost of living bonus, shift work, housing allowance, bonuses, holiday pay, service charges and commissions.

That breadth matters in hospitality and tourism, where service charges can form a substantial part of earnings and are easily omitted from the contribution calculation.

Because Social Security is capped at EC$6,500 a month, additional pay above the ceiling adds no further Social Security cost, though Medical Benefits may continue, which is why the ceiling question matters.

Antigua and Barbuda observes public holidays including Carnival in early August, Independence Day on 1 November and V.C. Bird Day in December.

Antigua and Barbuda observes public holidays including Carnival in early August, Independence Day on 1 November and V.C. Bird Day in December.

The Board provides six core benefits: sickness, maternity, invalidity, age pension, survivors and funeral grant. It is a single unified contributory scheme with no separate mandatory occupational pension tier.

Medical Benefits contributions fall with age. The standard rate is 3.5% each from employer and employee; for those aged 60 to 69 it drops to 2.5% each; and for those aged 70 or older no contribution is payable at all.

Pensionable age is no longer fixed. There is no national retirement age. The Social Security pensionable age moved to 63 on 1 January 2021 and increased incrementally every two years until 2025, under Statutory Instrument 2016 No. 61. An insured person can activate an early pension arrangement from age 60.

Some larger employers, particularly in financial services, offer supplementary private pension or group insurance arrangements, but these are contractual rather than statutory.

Termination follows the Labour Code, with notice periods set by tenure and severance formulas that compound with length of service.

Final pay including accrued leave enters the contribution calculation for the period.

Because severance compounds with service, the cost of exit rises faster than headcount, worth modelling before a long-tenure restructuring rather than at the point of it.

Work authorisation for non-CARICOM nationals should be confirmed before committing to a start date.

Where an employee works concurrently for more than one employer, each employer must pay contributions on the wages it pays, up to the ceiling of EC$6,500 monthly, EC$3,000 fortnightly or EC$1,500 weekly.

Excess contributions paid in error are refundable on application to the Director. As in Saint Lucia, the correct approach is to contribute in full on your own payroll and let the refund mechanism resolve any overlap, not to under-contribute on an assumption about the other employer.

The East Caribbean dollar is pegged to the US dollar.

Using the Board’s published FAQ rate is the main risk. It reflects the position from January 2021 and the scheduled escalation has since overtaken it.

Omitting service charges and allowances is the second. The contribution base includes overtime, vacation pay, bonuses, housing allowances, commissions and service charges.

Assuming one leave entitlement is the third, current sources give both 12 working days and 28 days, and the gap is too wide to guess at.

Note also that Medical Benefits rates change at 60 and stop at 70; that each concurrent employer contributes separately with excess refunded; and that whether Medical Benefits is capped needs confirming.

Confirm the current Social Security rate with the Board directly, and confirm whether the Medical Benefits contribution is subject to the same ceiling.

Register with both schemes within seven days of your first hire, include all allowances and service charges in the contribution base, and check the employee’s age for the Medical Benefits rate.

Verify the annual leave entitlement against the Labour Code before drafting contracts.