Hire and pay employees in
Serbia, hassle-free

With Deel, your business can easily hire employees in Serbia. 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 Serbia is 5 days with Deel.

Currency

Serbian Dinar RSD

Capital

Belgrade

Official Language

Serbian

Payroll Cycle

Monthly

Onboard, pay and manage employees in Serbia with Deel.

Usually, to hire in Serbia, 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 Serbia 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 Serbia
built right in

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

  • Meal Allowance
  • Public Health Insurance
  • Disability Insurance

Our quickstart guide to hiring in Serbia

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

Minimum Wage Requirements

The national minimum wage for full-time employees is RSD 308 net per hour.

Individual Income Tax

Income taxes are collected by the Tax Administration according at a flat rate of 10%. 
Taxpayers with annual incomes of 3 or more times the average annual salary are subject to supplementary taxes of between 10 and 15%.
Taxes are offset by a personal tax deduction equal to 40% of the average annual salary. Additional tax relief applies to taxpayers with dependents.

Payroll Cost

The employer cost is generally estimated at 15.15% of the employee’s salary:

  • Pension Insurance - 10% 
  • Health Insurance - 5.15%
  • Employment Agreement Handling Fee - US$ 80 (one-off)

Pension and health insurance contributions are calculated on a minimum salary of RSD 45,950 per month and are capped at a maximum salary of RSD 656,425 per month.  

After 1 year of service with the same employer, employees are entitled to receive the seniority pay at 0.4% multiplied by their years of service.

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 and 40 hours per week from Monday to Friday.
Overtime payment is not mandatory and may be included in the salary. Overtime may also be paid as leave in-lieu. Hours outside of standard work hours are considered overtime. For additional hours, employees are paid:

  • 126% of the hourly rate, for work from 22:00-06:00
  • 126% of the hourly rate, for work outside of normal hours.
  • 210% of the hourly rate, for work on a public holiday.
  • For each completed year spent in employment with the Employer in the amount of 0.4% of the base salary.

Maternity Leave

Pregnancy leave

Pregnant employees are entitled to 30 days of pregnancy leave. The leave can start as early as the beginning of the pregnancy if the employee and the child’s health need to be monitored. Employers pay 100% of the regular salary for the 30 days of leave. If pregnancy leave extends beyond 30 days, the leave will be fully paid by the government and employers will be reimbursed by the government from the 31st day of leave.

Maternity leave

Employees are entitled to maternity leave, which varies in length depending on the number of children: 

  • 1st and 2nd child: 1 year 
  • 3rd and subsequent children: 2 years 

28 days must be taken before the child's birth.

For the entire period, the employee will be paid their average salary from the 18 months preceding the first day of pregnancy leave. For the first 3 months, the employee cannot be paid less than minimum wage. For the following 9 months or 21 months if it is the employee's third or subsequent child, the minimum wage restriction does not apply.

Paternity Leave

Employees are entitled to 9-21 months of paid paternity leave. The length of the leave depends on the employer. Additionally, employees are eligible for another 5 days of company-paid leave when their legal spouse gives birth. This leave is paid for by the government at 100% of the employee’s salary.

Parental Leave

In Serbia, no law covers parental leave. However, employees may be entitled to maternity leave and paternity leave.

Sick Leave

Sick leave in Serbia is complex. Employees are entitled to paid sick leave for up to 12 months. This leave is paid at different rates and by different payers depending upon length and type of sickness:

Period Pay Payer
0 - 30 days 65% of the base salary Employer
30 days - 12 months. Can be less depending on the sickness Depending on Sickness 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 Serbia can be complex. There is no at-will termination in Serbia for employers 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

If an employee is being terminated due to breach of work duty or inability or lack of qualifications, they have the right to continue working for a notice period of between 5 and 30 days (depending on the period of paid pension insurance).
Otherwise, the notice period is as follows:
During probation period: At least 5 days
After probation period: Between 15 and 30 days

Severance for Employees

In Serbia, all employees who are terminated due to redundancy are entitled to severance pay. Severance pay is 1/3 of the employee's monthly salary per year of service.

Paid Time Off

Both full-time and part-time employees are entitled to 20 working days of paid time off (PTO) a year. PTO accrues monthly at 1.67 days per month. Employees are eligible for annual leave after 1 month of work.

Public Holidays

There are 7 national public holidays in Serbia, some of which last more than 1 day. There are also multiple religious holidays that are not listed below.

  • New Year (2 days)
  • Orthodox Christmas
  • Statehood Day (2 days)
  • Orthodox Easter Friday
  • Orthodox Easter Monday
  • Labor Day (2 days)
  • Armistice Day in World War I

Onboarding

5 business days after signing SOW.

Employment Contract Details

Contracts must be in Serbian and can be bilingual. Bonuses should be noted as an Annex. They must be in writing and signed by both parties.

A contract must include:

  • Name and last name of the employee
  • Address from the ID
  • JMBG (personal Citizen Number)
  • Level of education
  • Occupation based on education
  • Employer's name
  • Employers' PIB and MB number
  • Employers address
  • Name of the employer's legal representative
  • Start date
  • Length of the employment
  • Job description
  • Job title in Serbian corresponding to the Serbian codebook of occupations
  • Working hours
  • Holiday pay
  • Bonuses (Annex)
  • Termination conditions
  • Notice period

Probation Period

Probation periods are not mandatory. The maximum probation period is 180 days.
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Hiring in Serbia, hassle-free

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

Group (8)

Starting at 599 USD

Management fee

Group (9)

17%

Estimate Employer Cost

*of employee salary

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

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