Hire Employees in Vatican City

This page is an exception, and it is worth saying so plainly at the top.

Every other guide in this series answers the question "how does a foreign company employ someone here, and what does it cost?". In Vatican City that question has no answer, because a foreign company cannot be the employer.

All employment is with one of two sovereign legal persons: the Holy See, meaning the Apostolic See and the Roman Curia, or Vatican City State, meaning the Governorate. There is no third category, and no company registration regime through which a commercial employer could take on staff.

So there is no Employer of Record route, no entity route, and no employer on-cost. We have kept this page rather than dropping it because the question gets asked, and because the honest answer is more useful than a missing page.

If you are trying to employ someone whose work is physically performed in Rome, the jurisdiction you need is Italy.

No employer contribution applies, and this is not a data gap.

Elsewhere in this series, where we could not verify a rate we said so and gave a range. Here there is nothing to verify: a foreign company cannot be the employer, so there is no contribution base, no remittance obligation and no on-cost.

Social protection for Vatican employees does exist, there is a Pension Fund and the FAS, the Fondo Assistenza Sanitaria or health insurance fund. Both are internal to the Holy See’s own system, and their rates are not published as public schedules in the way every other jurisdiction’s are.

We have deliberately switched off the cost calculator, salary benchmarks and break-even analysis on this page. Publishing them would imply a transaction that cannot take place.

Vatican labour law treats employment with the Holy See and employment with Vatican City State as two separate subjects, not one.

They are distinct sovereign legal persons with their own frameworks, and the distinction is foundational rather than technical. The postgraduate curriculum in Vatican labour law lists "labour relations with the Holy See" and "labour relations with the Vatican City State" as separate fields of study, alongside the Vatican legal system itself, the social doctrine of the Church, the pension system, the health care fund, questions of jurisdiction and disciplinary proceedings.

That gives a sense of the specialism involved. It is a self-contained legal order, not a variant of Italian employment law, and advice on one does not transfer to the other.

No salary benchmarks are published for Vatican City. Remuneration is set internally by the Holy See and the Governorate and is not comparable to a commercial market.

The Labour Office of the Apostolic See, known by its Italian initials ULSA, Ufficio del Lavoro della Sede Apostolica, is the labour relations office for Vatican employees and a department of the Roman Curia.

Its president is Marco Sprizzi, appointed 31 January 2025.

ULSA received a new statute very recently. Pope Leo XIV approved it through a Rescriptum signed on 25 November 2025, the same day as the new General Regulation of the Roman Curia.

The new statute broadens the ULSA Council to include, for the first time, representation from the Secretariat of State, the Vicariate of Rome, the FAS health fund and the Pension Fund. It provides for a more synodal involvement of those bodies, and gives ULSA a consultative role assisting Dicasteries, the Governorate and other bodies in drafting regulations and normative acts.

There is no personal income tax in the sense other jurisdictions levy it, and no public payroll tax schedule is published.

Remuneration and any deductions are set internally by the Holy See and the Governorate.

The euro is used as currency, under a monetary agreement with the European Union.

Vatican City observes the principal solemnities of the liturgical calendar, together with the anniversary of the Lateran Treaty in February and the anniversary of the Pope’s election.

Two social protection bodies exist, and both gained a seat at the table in November 2025.

The Pension Fund provides retirement provision for Vatican employees. The FAS, Fondo Assistenza Sanitaria, is the health insurance fund, listed among the institutions connected with the Holy See.

Under the new ULSA statute, both are represented on the Council for the first time, a structural change that brings healthcare and pensions into the body that shapes labour policy rather than leaving them alongside it.

Their contribution rates and benefit rules are internal to the Vatican system and are not published as public rate schedules.

Employment disputes are handled by the Conciliation and Arbitration Board.

The new ULSA statute introduced a notable requirement here. Lawyers involved in disputes brought by employees and former employees must now hold expertise in both labour law and Vatican law.

That is a meaningful signal about the specialism: general employment law experience is expressly not sufficient to act in these matters.

If the work is physically performed in Rome for a commercial employer, the jurisdiction is Italy, not Vatican City. That is the single most common confusion this page exists to resolve.

Vatican City has a population of roughly 800. Its workforce consists of clergy, members of religious institutes, and lay staff engaged directly by the Holy See or the Governorate. There is no private sector labour market.

Entry to work for the Holy See is through its own appointment processes, not through a commercial hiring route or a work permit regime of the kind other jurisdictions operate.

See our Italy guide for employer costs, contracts and payroll in Rome.

The single most common error is treating Vatican City as a hiring jurisdiction at all. It is not one for commercial employers.

The second is conflating it with Italy. The Vatican legal order is self-contained; Italian employment law does not apply inside it, and Vatican rules do not apply to a role in Rome.

The third is assuming the Holy See and Vatican City State are interchangeable. They are separate legal persons with separate employment frameworks.

If a role is described as "at the Vatican", establish first whether the employer is the Holy See, the Governorate, or an Italian entity operating in Rome. The answer determines everything else.

Establish who the actual employer is before anything else: the Holy See, Vatican City State, or an Italian entity in Rome.

If it is either of the first two, this is not an Employer of Record engagement and no commercial route exists. If it is the third, use the Italy guide.

Treat Vatican labour law as a distinct specialism, the new ULSA statute now requires lawyers in employee disputes to hold expertise in it.