Employer of Record in the Philippines
Hire full-time employees in the Philippines without setting up a company. Emerhub becomes the legal employer, running compliant contracts, payroll, and statutory benefits, while you direct the work. From $49.99 per employee, per month.
Hire in the Philippines without opening a company
An employer of record is a licensed Philippine company that employs your team on your behalf. Emerhub signs the employment contract, runs payroll, pays into SSS, PhilHealth, and Pag-IBIG, files the taxes, and meets the rest of what the Labor Code asks of an employer. Your team works for you exactly as they would otherwise. What changes is whose name the government sees as the employer.
It solves a specific problem. As a foreign company, you can't put someone on a Philippine payroll without a local entity, and registering one runs into months of incorporation, paid-in capital, and filings before you can make a single hire. An employer of record removes that step. Emerhub already holds the entity, the registrations, and the payroll setup, so you can have someone employed and working here this week, and open your own company later if the team grows enough to justify it.
Employer of record vs. a local entity vs. contractors
Three ways to put a team on the ground in the Philippines, with different trade-offs in speed, risk, and cost. For most companies hiring their first few employees here, the employer of record is the one that gets people working fastest without taking on compliance exposure.
| Independent contractors | Your own entity | Emerhub EOR | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Setup time | Immediate, but exposed | Several months to incorporate, bank, and register | 3–5 working days |
| Compliance risk | High: misclassification triggers back-pay and DOLE penalties | Lower, once correctly run | Carried by Emerhub as the legal employer |
| HR & payroll | Handled by you, manually | Needs an in-house or outsourced local function | Fully managed, across all five agencies |
| Local presence | None | Full entity and operating structure | None required; you hire under ours |
| Upfront cost | Low, with hidden exposure | High: capital, legal, registration, HR setup | A flat monthly fee per employee |
| Best for | Genuinely independent, short projects | Large or permanent teams at scale | Hiring full-time staff now, entity later |
What our Philippines employer of record service covers
The split is clean: Emerhub takes every legal employment obligation, and you keep everything that makes the role yours. The Philippines runs payroll across five agencies with their own deadlines, so the compliance side is real work, and it is the side we own.
Emerhub handles
- Compliant employment contracts aligned with the Labor Code and DOLE
- Payroll processing, with the correct regional wage floor applied
- SSS, PhilHealth, and Pag-IBIG contributions, employer and employee shares
- 13th month pay, calculated and paid by the December 24 deadline
- BIR tax withholding and the year-end forms
- Overtime, night-shift differential, holiday, and leave compliance
- Onboarding, offboarding, and regulatory reporting
You keep
- The role, its scope, and who you hire
- Compensation decisions
- Performance standards and reviews
- Day-to-day supervision and priorities
- Working hours, including US or Australian time zones
- Team culture and direction
From first call to first payslip
When you already have the person, onboarding runs in three to five working days. When you need us to find them too, recruitment adds a couple of weeks at the front.
Initial consultationDay one
We map your hiring need: the role, the salary against local benchmarks, the start date, and whether you have a candidate or want us to source one. This is also where we flag anything in the role that Philippine labor law treats differently than you might expect.
Contracts and onboarding3–5 days
We draft a compliant employment contract, register the employee with the authorities, and onboard them under Emerhub as the legal employer. Your team member starts work for you while the paperwork sits correctly with us.
Payroll and benefitsEach cycle
We run payroll on schedule, remit the SSS, PhilHealth, and Pag-IBIG contributions, administer the statutory benefits and leave, and pay the 13th month when it falls due. Your employee is paid accurately and on time, every cycle.
Tax filing and ongoing supportContinuous
We handle the BIR filings and the remittance deadlines across every agency, keep you current as wage orders and rules change, and stay reachable for both you and your employee. If the team grows into its own entity, we set that up and move everyone across.
What an employer of record in the Philippines costs
Our pricing is simple: 10% of the total monthly cost to employ someone, their salary plus the statutory contributions and 13th month pay, with a floor of $49.99 and a ceiling of $250. Charging a percentage keeps it fair on smaller roles, and the cap keeps it predictable on senior ones, so a higher salary never turns into a runaway fee. Set a salary below to see the fee and the all-in monthly cost.
For estimate purposes only. Figures shift with exchange rates and current statutory rates, so talk to our team for an exact quote.
The calculator estimates statutory employer costs on 2026 Philippine rates (SSS, PhilHealth, Pag-IBIG) at roughly ₱59 to the dollar; we confirm exact figures on a quote. Salary and statutory costs are billed alongside the fee and passed through transparently, with no setup fee and no entity to capitalize. It's the most affordable EOR pricing in the market.
Ready to hire in the Philippines?
Send us the role and the target salary, and we'll come back with the exact monthly cost and how soon we can have someone working for you.
Why companies pick Emerhub as their Philippine EOR
In-house, in-country
We employ, pay, and support your team with our own Manila staff, not a chain of third-party subcontractors. When something needs sorting with the SSS or the BIR, it's our people doing it.
Fourteen years on the ground
Emerhub has run market entry and HR in the Philippines since the start, with a 4.7-star Google rating from the clients whose payroll and compliance we handle every month.
Onboard in days
Where a new entity takes months, your first hire under our EOR can be working in under a week, with everything filed correctly behind them.
All in one place
Recruitment, employer of record, payroll, and corporate services sit with one provider, so finding the person, hiring them, and paying them is a single relationship rather than four.
A clear path to your own entity
When the team grows enough to justify a local company, we set it up and transfer your employees across, so the EOR is a bridge, not a dead end.
Predictable, competitive cost
A flat per-employee fee that stays well below the global platforms, with the statutory costs passed through transparently and no surprises at year end.
Philippines EOR FAQs
The questions companies ask before hiring through an employer of record in the Philippines.
How much does an employer of record cost in the Philippines?
The fee is 10% of the total monthly cost to employ someone, their salary plus the statutory contributions and prorated 13th month pay, starting at $49.99 per employee and capped at $250 no matter how senior the hire. For a typical Philippine salary the fee lands around $100 per employee, and the cap keeps it predictable as salaries rise. The salary and statutory costs (SSS, PhilHealth, Pag-IBIG) are billed alongside it and passed through transparently. There is no setup fee and no capital to put down, which is what makes an EOR far cheaper than registering a company for a small team, and it is the most affordable EOR pricing in the market.
How long does it take to onboard employees in the Philippines?
When you already have your candidate, onboarding through our EOR takes three to five working days: contract, registration, and start. When you also want us to find the person, recruitment adds roughly two weeks at the front. Either way it is dramatically faster than the several months a local entity needs before it can legally employ anyone.
Is an EOR cheaper than setting up a company in the Philippines?
For a small team, almost always. An employer of record means no incorporation, no paid-in capital, no local HR or payroll function to build, and no ongoing entity compliance, just a per-employee monthly fee. A local entity becomes the better economic choice once the team is large enough that the fixed costs of running a company are spread thin, and at that point we can set the entity up and move your people into it.
What does your EOR service cover?
Everything on the legal employment side: a compliant employment contract under the Labor Code, payroll at the correct regional wage floor, SSS, PhilHealth, and Pag-IBIG contributions, 13th month pay by the December 24 deadline, BIR tax withholding and year-end forms, overtime, night-shift, holiday and leave compliance, and onboarding, offboarding, and regulatory reporting. You keep the role, the pay decisions, the performance standards, the day-to-day direction, and the team culture.
Can my employees work hours that match my time zone?
Yes. Working hours are decided between you and your employee in the contract, and US or Australian shifts are common; we make sure the contract handles night-shift differential, rest day rules, and overtime correctly so the schedule is compliant whichever zone you keep.
What happens at the end of the year with 13th month pay?
The Philippines requires 13th month pay (basic salary divided by 12, multiplied by months of service in the calendar year) to be paid by December 24. We accrue it monthly so it never lands as a surprise, then run the December payment and the filings around it.
Do I have to commit to a long contract?
No. The engagement runs month to month per employee. If a hire ends or a project finishes, we handle the offboarding and the EOR fee stops; if the team grows into its own entity, we set up the company and transition everyone across without you paying for parallel infrastructure.
How do contractor and EOR arrangements differ in the Philippines?
Contractors are paid for outputs and carry their own taxes; employees are paid for time, with the employer covering taxes, social contributions, and statutory benefits. The line is policed by DOLE and the BIR, and 'I called them a contractor' is not a defense when the working pattern looks like employment. EOR puts the relationship on the right side of that line from day one.
Talk to our Manila team
A free, no-obligation call: thirty minutes with our Manila team to scope the role, model the cost on real numbers, and map a realistic start date for your first hire.
2 26th St, Taguig
1634 Metro Manila, Philippines