Hire and pay employees in
Bulgaria, hassle-free

With Deel, your business can easily hire employees in Bulgaria. No more worrying about local laws, complex tax systems, or managing international payroll. Deel takes care of everything in 150+ countries.

The average onboarding time frame in Bulgaria is 5 days with Deel.

Currency

BGN

Capital

Sofia

Official Language

Bulgarian

Payroll Cycle

Monthly

Onboard, pay and manage employees in Bulgaria with Deel.

Usually, to hire in Bulgaria, your business needs an entity. That means a local office, an address registered as a subsidiary, and an account with a local bank. All of this, plus navigating regional benefits, payroll, tax, and HR laws, can take months.

Deel lets you hire employees in Bulgaria quickly, easily, and compliantly. We even automate tax document collection, payroll, benefits, and more. For your existing direct employees, we can manage your entire payroll operation from end-to-end.

Download the Guide

All the necessary benefits for Bulgaria
built right in

Deel allows you to provide localized benefits for employees in Bulgaria within minutes. All in one manageable online dashboard.

  • Work Accident Insurance
  • Private Healthcare - Unisure (optional)
  • Optional global health insurance - Allianz

Our quickstart guide to hiring in Bulgaria

Navigate the tabs below to learn everything you need to know about hiring an employee in Bulgaria

Minimum Wage Requirements

The minimum wage in Bulgaria is 933 BGN.

Individual Income Tax

The individual income tax is a flat rate of 10%.

Note: apart from this income tax, employees will have to contribute 13.78% to Social Security.

Payroll Cost

The employer cost is generally estimated between 19% of the employee's salary.

  • Health insurance - 4.80%*
  • Occupational accident and disease fund - 0.50%*
  • Common sickness and maternity fund - 2.10%*
  • Unemployment fund - 0.60%* 
  • Pension Fund in NSSI - 8.22%*
  • Supplementary Compulsory Pension Insurance in Universal Pension Fund - 2.80%*
  • Medical exam evaluation and Health & Safety - BGN 5

*The maximum salary for the calculation of the contribution is BGN 3,750.

One time fees

  • Courier Cost for EA Delivery - BGN 20
  • Mandatory Wet Ink Employment Agreement Handling Fee - USD 80

Annual fees

  • Risk Assessment - BGN 35
  • Labor Safety Company Insurance - BGN 25

These costs are provided as estimates and are intended solely for general informational purposes. To fully comprehend all associated costs and fees related to the terms of any employment agreement for this country, please contact our Sales team for a quote.

Overtime Pay & Maximum Hours

Standard working hours are 8 hours per day, 40 hours per week. The standard workweek is from Monday to Friday.

Maternity Leave

Pregnant employees, who have worked for 12 consecutive months are entitled to 410 days of paid leave. The employee must take 45 days before the child's birth and 45 days after the birth. The remaining days can be taken at the employee’s discretion until the child is two years old.

The employee will receive different compensation during this period depending on when the leave was taken. The National Insurance Institute is responsible for payment and will directly pay the employee.

Period (Child’s Age) Pay Payer
0 - 1 year 90% of salary National Insurance Institute
1 - 2 years BGN 380,00 per month National Insurance Institute

Paternity Leave

Employees, who have worked for 12 months, are entitled to 15 days of paid paternity leave. The employee will receive 90% of their salary during this period paid directly by the National Insurance Institute.

The employee can extend leave an additional 6 months which is unpaid.

Parental Leave

In Bulgaria, no law covers parental leave. However, employees may be entitled to maternity leave and paternity leave. Employees can extend leaves by:

  • Transferring maternity leave, including cash benefits, to the partner after six months of leave.
  • Requesting Raising Child Benefits that the National Insurance Institute will cover.

Sick Leave

In Bulgaria pay for sick leave is determined and made in two ways:
1. The employer pays for the first three days of sick leave at approximately 70% of the salary

2. From the 4th consecutive sick day onward, sick leave is paid by the government (NSSI National Social Security Institute). Pay for those days is 80% of the average daily income from the last 18 months.

Employees are entitled to paid sick leave for up to 180 days. Sick leave can be extended beyond 180 if the employee is evaluated by a Special Medical Commission (ТЕЛК).

Termination Requirements

Terminations must respect complex rules and the rules of an employee’s employment country. The off-boarding is always handled by the Employer with the primary stakeholders. It may include ad-hoc fees as well as required or recommended steps on specific termination cases.

Terminations in Bulgaria can be complex. There is no at-will termination and it is not possible to terminate a contract without cause.

Compliant terminations include:

  • Voluntarily by the employee
  • By mutual agreement
  • Unilaterally by the employer based on:
    • Probation period
    • Disciplinary dismissal
    • Business closure
    • Reduction of work.
  • By the expiration of the contract

Untaken holidays must be paid out upon termination as well as any unpaid commission or bonuses.

Notice Period

The minimum notice period for both parties is 30 days and can be increased up to 90 days.

Severance for Employees

In Bulgaria, employees are entitled to severance pay. Severance pay varies according to the grounds on which the agreement is terminated:

  • The employer closes the entity or reduces the staff: one-month severance must be paid.
  • The employer terminates the employment relationship due to health issues, or risk to the health of the employee if they work for at least five years: two months of severance must be paid.
  • The employee reached the age of retirement:
    • Length of employment is less than 10 years: three months of severance
    • Length of employment is 10 or more years: six months of severance
  • The contract is terminated against payment of compensation by mutual agreement on the initiative of the employer: at least four months of severance must be paid.
  • The employer terminates the contract without providing the proper notice: three months of severance pay.

To protect you from unforeseen financial risks arising from terminations, Deel applies a Severance Accrual to all employment agreements in this country.  Deel has extensive expertise in managing litigation risk globally and our Severance Accrual calculation is based on the prevailing common-law or statutory entitlements and local best practices. In the event your employee resigns or is not entitled to severance, all unused amounts will be returned to you.

Paid Time Off

Both full-time and part-time employees are entitled to 20 days of paid time off (PTO) a year. PTO accrues monthly 1.67 days per month.

If a part-time employee works less than four hours per day, the PTO will be calculated proportionally to the time worked.

Public Holidays

Bulgaria celebrates 13 public holidays per year. These include:

  1. New Year's Day
  2. Bulgaria Liberation Day
  3. Good Friday
  4. Labour Day
  5. Orthodox Easter
  6. Orthodox Easter Monday
  7. Đurđevdan
  8. Day of Slavonic Alphabet, Bulgarian Enlightenment, and Culture
  9. Unification Day
  10. Independence Day
  11. Eastern Orthodox Christmas Eve
  12. Orthodox Christmas Day
  13. 2nd Day of Christmas

Onboarding

Employees cannot sign the contract on their start date. 
Onboarding takes 7 business days after the SOW is signed.
Wet ink copies of the signed employment agreement and NRA registration are required. 
The employee needs to be registered in social security within 3 days after signing the employment agreement.

Employment Contract Details

Contracts must be in Bulgarian and can be bilingual. They must be in writing and signed by both parties. A contract must include:

  • Name and PIN of the employee
  • Basic Monthly Salary
  • Date of signing
  • Start date
  • Probation period
  • Notice period
  • Job position: name and national job position code
  • Working time
  • Workplace

Probation Period

Probation periods are not mandatory. The minimum probation period is 30 days. The maximum probation period is 180 days (6 months).
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Hiring in Bulgaria, hassle-free

With Deel, your business can easily hire employees in Bulgaria with our EOR solution. If you have an entity, our Global Payroll solution takes care of payroll and compliance for your direct employees. Our 250+ in-house experts handle everything from managing local laws, complex tax systems, or your payroll in Bulgaria and 150+ countries.

Group (8)

Starting at 599 USD

Management fee

Group (9)

19%

Estimate Employer Cost

*of employee salary

Want to learn the cost of hiring an employee in Bulgaria?

View our Employee Cost Calculator

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