Hire Employees in Cambodia

Your own entity is normally a private limited company registered with the Ministry of Commerce. It commits you to Cambodian corporate tax, monthly GDT filings and NSSF registration once headcount reaches eight.

An Employer of Record inverts the sequence: the Cambodian entity signs the Khmer contract, registers with the NSSF, withholds Tax on Salary and disburses the seniority payment in June and December, while you direct the day-to-day work.

The NSSF framework is still expanding. The pension scheme rate is scheduled to rise, so a multi-year model built on current rates will understate the later years.

Cambodia's employer rate is widely misreported as 4.1%, and the correct figure is about 5.4%. The gap is healthcare: the contribution is nominally 1.3% from each side, but the employer has borne the full 2.6% since 1 January 2018. Sources still showing the nominal split understate cost by more than a percentage point.

NSSF contributions are calculated within contributory wage bands rather than on the whole salary, so they plateau. There are two bands, not one: occupational risk and healthcare run from KHR 200,000 and pension from KHR 400,000, both capping at KHR 1,200,000. The pension rate also doubles to 4% from each side in October 2027 under Phase 2, so a multi-year model needs that step built in. A USD 2,000 engineer and a USD 500 support lead attract broadly the same NSSF.

The seniority payment does not plateau, and it is the item most often missed. Employees on undetermined duration contracts receive 15 days' wages a year, disbursed in two instalments in June and December. It replaced the old accumulated severance arrangement, so it is a recurring cash requirement rather than an exit cost, and it scales with salary.

That makes the contract-type decision consequential. A fixed duration contract carries a different obligation, severance of at least 5% of wages paid at the end of the term, but letting it run past the statutory limit converts it to undetermined duration and brings the seniority payment with it.

Break-even rule of thumb: EOR fees begin to exceed the running cost of a small Cambodian 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.

Cambodia’s employer rate is widely misreported as 4.1%; the correct figure is about 5.4%. The gap is healthcare, nominally 1.3% from each side, but the employer has borne the full 2.6% since 1 January 2018. Sources still showing the nominal split understate cost by more than a percentage point.

Occupational risk adds 0.8% employer-only and the pension scheme 2% from each side.

NSSF is calculated within a contributory wage band of KHR 400,000 to 1,200,000 rather than on the whole salary, so contributions plateau. A USD 2,000 engineer and a USD 500 support lead attract broadly the same NSSF, but the seniority payment does not plateau, and it scales with salary.

What the percentage does not tell you. Employer contributions of 5% 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. Cambodian 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.

Watch the on-cost percentage rather than the absolute figure. 6 of the charges here are capped and 1 are not, so the effective employer rate falls as salary rises, but it flattens rather than disappearing. The senior rows below show where it settles.

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

Payroll runs monthly in riel or US dollars, both of which circulate freely. Tax on Salary is filed with the General Department of Taxation by the twenty-fifth of the following month, and NSSF contributions separately.

Employee NSSF contributions are not deductible for Tax on Salary purposes. Only the dependent allowance reduces the taxable base. KHR 150,000 a month for each qualifying child and the same for a non-working spouse, under Sub-Decree No. 48 of 11 March 2024.

Tax on Salary is progressive from 0% to 20% for residents, with the first KHR 1,500,000 a month exempt. Non-residents and fringe benefits are taxed at a flat 20%.

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 are 2 such rows 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.

Written contracts are standard, in Khmer with English translations common. The contract type is the consequential decision.

An undetermined duration contract carries the seniority payment; a fixed duration contract does not. The latter instead attracts a severance payment at the end of the term, generally at least 5% of the wages paid. But letting a fixed contract run past the statutory limit converts it to undetermined duration and brings the seniority obligation with it retrospectively.

Probation is capped by category, three months for regular employees, two for specialised workers and one for unskilled roles, and is shorter than most markets allow.

Eight hours a day and forty-eight a week. Overtime carries a 150% premium, rising to 200% for night work and work on rest days or public holidays.

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 24 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.

Cambodia observes 24 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: 90 days at half pay. For employees with at least a year of service. NSSF maternity benefit supplements this for members. Nursing breaks: 1 hour a day for a year after returning. Paid. Sick leave: Up to 6 months on a graduated scale. 100% for the first month, 60% for months two and three, unpaid thereafter. Special leave: 7 days a year. For family events, chargeable against annual leave where already taken.

Seniority payment: 15 days’ wages a year. Paid in June and December for undetermined duration contracts.

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.

The seniority payment is paid as you go rather than at exit: 15 days' wages a year for undetermined duration contracts, in June and December. By the time an employee leaves, most of the entitlement has already been settled.

Employees on fixed duration contracts instead receive a severance payment at the end of the term, generally at least 5% of the wages paid during the contract. That obligation applies even where the contract simply expires rather than being terminated.

Dismissal without valid cause exposes the employer to damages, and the Labour Law sets out the grounds. Notice runs by length of service and the contract type.

Probation is capped by category, three months for regular employees, two months for specialised workers and one month for unskilled roles, so it is shorter than most markets and needs setting correctly at the outset.

A foreign national needs a work permit from the Ministry of Labour and Vocational Training, renewed annually, alongside a business visa extension.

Foreign staff are generally capped at 10% of the workforce, with exemptions requiring ministry approval. The quota is calculated against Cambodian employees, so it constrains small teams disproportionately.

Allow one to two months. Companies holding Qualified Investment Project status through the Council for the Development of Cambodia access streamlined arrangements.

The seniority payment is paid as you go, not at exit, and that catches employers who provision it as a termination cost. Fifteen days’ wages a year is disbursed in two instalments each June and December regardless of whether anyone leaves, so it is a recurring cash requirement.

The employer healthcare rate is the second recurring error. 2.6% rather than the nominal 1.3%, since the 2018 change made the employer liable for the whole contribution.

Practical controls: register with the NSSF within forty-five days of reaching eight employees, accrue the seniority payment monthly and diarise both disbursement dates, apply Tax on Salary to gross less dependent allowances only, and track fixed-term contract duration against the conversion limit.

Work backwards from the start date. For a Cambodian national through an EOR, one to two weeks is realistic. A foreign national needs a work permit from the Ministry of Labour and Vocational Training renewed annually, adding one to two months, and foreign staff are generally capped at 10% of the workforce.

Confirm before making an offer: whether the contract will be fixed or undetermined duration, since that decides the seniority payment; whether headcount has reached eight, which triggers mandatory NSSF registration within 45 days; and that payroll uses 2.6% employer healthcare rather than 1.3%.

Employee NSSF contributions are not deductible for Tax on Salary, only the dependent allowance reduces the base, at KHR 150,000 a month per qualifying child and for a non-working spouse. Tax on Salary is filed by the 25th and NSSF separately.