Hire and pay employees in
Guatemala, hassle-free

With Deel, your business can easily hire employees in Guatemala. 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 Guatemala is 10 days with Deel.

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Onboard, pay and manage employees in Guatemala with Deel.

Usually, to hire in Guatemala, 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 Guatemala 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.

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All the necessary benefits for Guatemala
built right in

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

National Industrial Training Fund
Social Security
Private Healthcare - Unisure (optional)
Private Healthcare - Allianz (optional)

Our quickstart guide to hiring in Guatemala

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

Minimum Wage Requirements

The minimum wage is GTQ 2959.24 per month.

Individual Income Tax

The individual income tax ranges from 5% to 7%. Income tax is calculated according to progressive rates.

Payroll Cost

The employer cost is generally estimated at 29.3% of the employee's salary.

Social Security (IGSS): 10.67%
Workers Recreational Institute (IRTRA): 1%
Professional Training Institute (INTECAP): 1%
13th Bonus: 8.33%
Christmas bonus: 8.33%
One-off administrative registration costs: USD 45
One-off Mandatory Wet Ink Employment Agreement Handling Fee - 80 USD

Overtime Pay & Maximum Hours

Standard working hours are 8 hours per day, 40 hours per week. The standard work week is from Monday to Friday. However, it is also common practice for employees to have a working week of 44 hours.

Overtime payment is mandatory and may be included in the salary. Hours outside of standard work hours are considered overtime. Employees can work a maximum of 4 hours of overtime a day. For additional hours, employees are paid:

150% of the hourly rate
200% of the hourly rate for work on official holidays, annual leaves, or regular leaves and an additional day of leave

Maternity Leave

Employees who have worked for four consecutive months are entitled to 84 days of paid leave. 30 days must be taken before the child's birth. The employee will receive 100% of the salary during this period, and Social Security will be responsible for this pay.

Paternity Leave

Employees are entitled to 3 days of paid paternity leave. The employee will receive 100% of the salary during this period, and the employer will be responsible for this pay.

Parental Leave

In Guatemala, no law covers parental leave. However, employees are entitled to maternity leave and paternity leave.

Sick Leave

Sick leave in Guatemala is complex. Employees are entitled to paid sick leave. This leave is paid at different rates depending upon the length of the sickness and the employee's salary. Employees will be paid a maximum of Q150 a day directly by the Social Security.

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 Guatemala are complex. There is no at-will termination in Guatemala for employers outside the probation period, and termination must be done for just cause.

Compliant terminations include:

Voluntarily by the employee
By mutual agreement
Unilaterally by the employer based on:
- probation period
- objective grounds
- disciplinary dismissal
- performance due to unsuitability for the job
By the expiration of the contract

Notice Period

The minimum notice period will vary according to the length of the employment and type of termination, between 1 week to 1 month.

Severance for Employees

In Guatemala, there are no statutory requirements for severance payments. During the notice period, the employee will receive standard salary wages. However, if an employee is terminated without just cause, then they have 30 days to claim the court. If this succeeds, the employee will be entitled to 1 year of severance pay.

Paid Time Off

Full-time employees are entitled to 15 working days of paid time off (PTO) a year after a year of continuous work. PTO accrues monthly at 1.25 days per month. Employees are eligible for annual leave after 12 months of work. Part-time employees’ leave is pro-rata to the time worked.

PTO in Guatemala includes public holidays

Public Holidays

Guatemala celebrates 12 national holidays:

New Years Day
Maundy Thursday
Easter Friday
Easter Saturday
Labour Day Holiday
Army Day
Independence Day
Revolution Day
All Saints' Day
Christmas Eve (Half Day)
Christmas Day
New Year's Eve (Half Day)

In Guatemala, all cities have their own holiday for their patron saint

Onboarding

Onboarding takes 10 business days. Documents must be completed 1 day before the start date.

Employment Contract Details

Contracts must be in Spanish and can be bilingual. They must be in writing and signed by both parties.

A contract must include:

name
start date
length of the employment
job description
termination conditions

Probation Period

Probation periods are mandatory. The probation period lasts 60 days.

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Hiring in Guatemala, hassle-free

With Deel, your business can easily hire employees in Guatemala 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 Guatemala and 150+ countries.

Starting at 599 USD

Management fee

29.3%

Estimate Employer Cost

*of employee salary

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

View our Employee Cost Calculator

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Hire and pay employees in Guatemala, hassle-free