Peru
Found some great remote talent you’d like to hire in Peru? It’s a good thing you’re here. On this page, you’ll learn exactly what you need to know before making hires in Peru: Legal obligations, risks, and the easiest path to hiring great talent overseas.
Country snapshot
CURRENCY
Peruvian Sol (PEN)
EMPLOYER TAXES
9%
PAYROLL FREQUENCY
Monthly
OFFICIAL LANGUAGE
Spanish
It’s the fastest way to hire globally
Hiring employees takes months, at the minimum. When you hire with Thera's locally-generated contracts, it’s a matter of days or weeks. This means you can hire the best talent, fast, without losing them to a hellish procession of paperwork.
It’s a lot cheaper
It costs just $0 to sign up for Thera, then $25 per month to hire your contractors with Thera. If you hired employees manually (or did contracting on your own), you’d likely be on the hook for thousands of dollars each month. Setting up an entity alone can cost tens of thousands of dollars.
It’s more flexible for you & your team
Can be less risky than hiring employees
Hiring employees is a bigger commitment, and can open you up to increased liabilities and regulations. When you hire contractors overseas, your biggest risk is misclassification—but laws surrounding contractor classification are often significantly more straightforward.
Some people want to be employees
The contractor life isn’t for everyone—some people want the security that being an employee often appears to provide. Though it’s rare, this does happen, and it’s one disadvantage of manage an all-contractor team.
You might not have as much control over your talent
Most countries’ contractor-employer relationship laws stipulate that the employer can’t set fixed working hours, among other things. These laws give contractors more freedom over how and when they do their work than an employee would have. In reality, however, most contractors are willing & able to work on the company’s schedule—it’s a matter of setting expectations beforehand.
So you want to hire in Peru. That means you’ll have to make a decision: Do you want to hire your new remote talent as employees, or do you want to hire them as contractors? Conventional wisdom might say employees, but hiring abroad is hardly conventional—below, we’ll cover what you need to know about your options.
Hire talent as contractors
Hire talent as employees
If you’ve read up until this point, you’ll know that it’s easier, cheaper, and more flexible to hire contractors in Peru than employees. Still, there are valid reasons why you might want to hire employees instead. The content below is for you—we’ll cover employer taxes and obligations in Peru.
Employer tax
Health Insurance
Paid Time Off (PTO)
PTO is calculated by the:
- Employees are entitled to 30 days per year. A minimum of 15 days must be taken and the other 15 can be cashed out.
Public Holidays
There are 12 public holidays.
Sick Days
The duration of sick leave entitlement provided to workers is dependent on how long they have been employed by their employer:
- The first 20 days are paid by the employer, the following days are paid by the state (ESSALUD).
Maternity Leave
Mothers are entitled to 98 days of fully paid leave paid by ESSALUD through the company.
Paternity Leave
10 days paid by the employer.
Parental Leave
Not required.
Other Leave
None.
Marriage Leave
None.
Bereavement Leave
None.
Termination Process
Employees may be terminated on objective grounds or for cause, with documentation.
In general, employees should get a minimum of six calendar days of written notice so that the employee can respond in writing or 30 calendar days to prove his/her capability.
The dismissal decision and reason should also be provided in writing to the trade union and the employee. Employees which are dismissed without cause are generally entitled to severance pay for up to 12 months.
- Temporary employment termination must be according to the expiration of the contract.
- Permanent employment termination must either be voluntary resignation or dismissal for a justified cause.
Notice Period
When resigning employees must give at least 30 days’ notice.
Generally, an employer must provide an employee a minimum of six calendar days of notice so that the employee can present a written defense to any charges against him or her, or 30 calendar days to prove the employee’s performance capability or to correct any error.
There is no need for notice if the employee has exhibited serious misconduct under which it would be unreasonable to require the employer to continue the employment relationship.
Severance Pay
- Generally, severance is not required in cases of separation due to their conduct or capacity.
- An employee terminated without cause is generally entitled to severance payments for a period of up to twelve months, depending upon the circumstances of the former worker’s employment history.
- There is no specific redundancy pay required under Peruvian law.
- If a court determines a dismissal to be unlawful because the employer has not provided a valid reason to the worker, or the reason cannot be legally substantiated, the employee usually will be entitled to a payment equal to the average monthly compensation for each year of service, up to a maximum of twelve months
Probation Period
The probationary period may last three months.
When the work requires training and adaptation or when the nature of the work requires it, an extension may be granted. Such extensions must be done in writing and may not exceed:
- six months in total for skilled workers and employees in positions of trust;
- one year for managerial roles.
Working Hours
Full-time employment is 8 hours per day and 48 hours per week.
Overtime
The compensation for overtime hours should be agreed upon by the employer and the employee.
However, the first 2 hours cannot be compensated with less than 25% of the total remuneration of the employee.
For every additional hour, the surcharge cannot be less than 35% per hour.
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