Hire full-time employees in Thailand without setting up a company, and without running into the 49% foreign-ownership limit. Emerhub becomes the legal employer, running compliant contracts, payroll, and social security, while you direct the work. From $49.99 per employee, per month.
An employer of record is a licensed Thai company that employs your team on your behalf. Emerhub signs the employment contract, runs payroll, registers and pays social security and the Workmen's Compensation Fund, withholds personal income tax, and meets the rest of what the Labor Protection Act asks of an employer. Your team works for you exactly as they would otherwise. What changes is whose name the authorities see as the employer.
It solves a specific problem, and a sharper one than in most markets. A foreign company can't put someone on a Thai payroll without a local entity, and a Thai company caps foreign ownership at 49% unless you secure BOI promotion, on top of months of registration and a minimum capital requirement. An employer of record removes all of that. Emerhub already holds the entity and the registrations, so you can have someone employed and working here in about a week, and set up your own company later if the team grows enough to justify it.
Three ways to put a team on the ground in Thailand, with different trade-offs in speed, risk, and cost. For most foreign companies hiring their first few employees here, the employer of record is the one that gets people working fastest, and it sidesteps the foreign-ownership limit entirely.
| Independent contractors | Your own entity | Emerhub EOR | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Setup time | Immediate, but exposed | 3 to 6 months, plus BOI if you need full ownership | About a week |
| Foreign ownership | Not applicable | Capped at 49% unless BOI-promoted | No restriction; you hire under ours |
| Compliance risk | High: misclassification triggers back-pay and 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, with social security and tax |
| Upfront cost | Low, with hidden exposure | High: THB 2M capital, licensing, 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 |
The split is clean: Emerhub takes every legal employment obligation, and you keep everything that makes the role yours. Thailand has one of the lightest statutory burdens in the region, social security is capped, so on-costs run only about 3 to 4% above salary, with no statutory 13th month. The trade-offs sit on exit, where severance is significant, and from October 2026 a new Employee Welfare Fund adds a small levy. The compliance side is the side we own.
When you already have the person, onboarding runs in about a week. When you need us to find them too, recruitment adds a couple of weeks at the front.
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 Thai labor law treats differently than you might expect, the severance schedule in particular.
We draft a compliant Labor Protection Act contract, register the employee with the Social Security Office, and onboard them under Emerhub as the legal employer. Your team member starts work for you while the paperwork sits correctly with us.
We run payroll on schedule, remit the social security and Workmen's Compensation contributions, withhold personal income tax, and administer leave and holidays. Your employee is paid accurately and on time, every cycle.
We handle the tax filings and the statutory remittances on their deadlines, keep you current as rules change (the January 2026 social security ceiling rise, the Employee Welfare Fund from October 2026), 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.
Our pricing is simple: 10% of the total monthly cost to employ someone, their salary plus the social security and Workmen's Compensation contributions, with a floor of $49.99 and a ceiling of $250 per employee per month. 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.
Thailand's mandatory employer contributions are among the lightest in the region, only about 3 to 4% on top of salary because social security is capped at a THB 15,000 wage base, so the fee for a typical Thai salary lands near $100 per employee. The calculator uses 2026 rates at roughly ฿34 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 register. It's the most affordable EOR pricing in the market.
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.
We employ, pay, and support your team with our own Bangkok staff, not a chain of third-party subcontractors. When something needs sorting with the Social Security Office or the Revenue Department, it's our people doing it.
A Thai company caps foreign ownership at 49% unless you win BOI promotion. Hiring under our EOR sidesteps that hurdle entirely, so you can put a team in Thailand without restructuring around the limit.
Where a new Thai company takes three to six months, your first hire under our EOR can be working in about a week, with social security registered behind them.
Emerhub has run market entry and HR across Asia for over a decade, and our Thailand desk brings that same playbook to hiring and compliance here.
When the team grows enough to justify a local company, we set it up, including the BOI route where it fits, and transfer your employees across.
A flat per-employee fee, 10% of the cost to employ and capped at $250, that stays well below the global platforms, with the statutory costs passed through transparently.
The questions companies ask before hiring through an employer of record in Thailand.
The fee is 10% of the total monthly cost to employ someone, their salary plus the social security and Workmen's Compensation contributions, starting at $49.99 per employee and capped at $250 no matter how senior the hire. Because Thailand's statutory on-costs are low, the fee for a typical salary lands near $100 per employee, and the cap keeps it predictable as salaries rise. The salary and statutory costs are billed alongside it and passed through transparently. There is no setup fee and no capital to put down.
When you already have your candidate, onboarding through our EOR takes about a week: contract, social security registration, and start. When you also want us to find the person, recruitment adds roughly two weeks at the front. Either way it is far faster than the three to six months a Thai company needs before it can legally employ anyone.
For a small team, almost always, and in Thailand there's an extra reason. A Thai company caps foreign ownership at 49% unless you obtain BOI promotion, and it needs at least THB 2 million in registered capital, two shareholders, and three to six months to set up. An employer of record skips all of that for a per-employee monthly fee. A local company becomes the better choice once the team is large enough to justify the structure, and at that point we can set it up and move your people into it.
Everything on the legal employment side: a compliant contract under the Labor Protection Act, payroll at or above the provincial minimum wage, the Social Security Fund and Workmen's Compensation contributions, the new Employee Welfare Fund where it applies, personal income tax withholding, work permits and visas for any foreign hires, statutory leave, and severance handled correctly on exit, plus onboarding, offboarding, and reporting. You keep the role, the pay decisions, the performance management, and the day-to-day direction.
With a BPO, you buy an outcome and the provider's own employees deliver it, on their terms. With an employer of record, you choose the individuals, direct their work, and manage their performance; the EOR is only the legal employer, handling contracts, payroll, and compliance. The team is yours in everything but the paperwork, which is exactly the part most companies want off their plate.
Yes. You are employing people through a licensed Thai company that acts as the genuine employer and meets every obligation of the Labor Protection Act: proper contracts, social security, Workmen's Compensation, tax, and leave. That is legitimate employment, with Emerhub carrying real employer responsibilities rather than simply supplying labor.
Yes, and that is the point of the model. You set the tasks, the priorities, the performance standards, and the working hours. Emerhub never directs the work; we handle the employment so you can run the team exactly as you would your own staff.
Thai severance is significant by regional standards: it scales by length of service, from 30 days' pay after 120 days of work up to 400 days' pay after 20 years, on top of notice. It applies on termination without cause, including most redundancies. We size the role and the contract with that in mind from the start, and on exit we calculate and pay the correct entitlement so the separation is clean and compliant.
A free, no-obligation call: thirty minutes with our Bangkok team to scope the role, model the cost on real numbers, and map a realistic start date for your first hire.