The minimum wage for employees in Moldova is MDL 25/hour, or MDL 4,000/month for full-time employeees.

In Moldova, employees are taxed at a flat rate of 12%

The employer cost is generally estimated at 24% of the employee salary.

• Social Security - 24.0%
• One-off Mandatory Wet Ink Employment Agreement Handling Fee - USD 80

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

Overtime payment is mandatory. Hours outside of standard work hours are considered overtime. Employees can work a maximum of 2 hours of overtime. For additional hours, employees are paid:

• 150% of the hourly rate, the first 2 hours a week.
• 200% of the hourly rate, the following hours.

Employees are entitled to up to 36 months of parental leave. Both parents can decide how to distribute the time off, which should be taken after paternity and maternity leave. Either parent can take parental leave. Social Security will pay the salary during this period and it will vary depend.

Parental leave can't be extended.

Employees are entitled to paid sick leave for up to 210 days. This leave is paid at different rates and by different payers depending upon length:

Additional leave 

Employees are also entitled to leave for the following cases:

• Casual leave. Employees may be granted a casual leave of up to 120 calendar days with the consent of the employer to use for family and other good reasons. Casual leave is unpaid
• Parents with two or more children under 14 years are entitled by law to at least four additional calendar days of paid leave each year.
• Special cases paid leave:
  • Newlyweds - 3 days, starting from the date of marriage registration.
  • in case of death of parents, in-laws, or children - 3 days.
  • in case of death of relatives II degree - 1 day.
  • Parents (both mother and father) with children in 1st and 2nd grade - 1 day at the beginning of the school year and 1 day at the end of the school year.

Terminations in Moldova can be complex. There is no at-will termination in Moldova 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

The minimum notice period is 30 days and will be increased according to the type of termination.

• 30 days if the termination is for repeated non-fulfillment
• 60 days if the termination is due to a reduction in the number of staffing levels

In Moldova, all employees who are terminated with no cause are entitled to severance pay. Severance pay 1 week of salary per year of service up to 6 months base compensation.

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.

Moldova celebrates both 13 national and 1 regional holiday based on the location of the employee.

National public holidays include:

• New Year's Day
• Orthodox Christmas Day
• Orthodox Christmas Holiday
• International Women's Day
• Orthodox Easter Sunday
• Orthodox Easter Monday
• Easter of Blajini
• Labour Day
• Victory Day
• Children's Day
• Independence Day
• National Language Day
• Christmas Day

Contracts can be in English 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 title

  • This must be picked from the appropriate title in accordance with the Moldovan Occupational Classifier. The Classification is available only in Romanian and Russian.

• job description

• termination conditions