An EOR checklist Albania employers can use before they sign

The first item on any EOR checklist for Albania is the employment contract, because that document is what your hire signs and what a court or labour inspector would read. Ask for a sample before you sign anything with the provider, and read it against Article 21 of the Labour Code.

Go through the Article 21 list item by item with the sample open beside it. Names and workplace, duties and start date, an end date where the term is fixed; then leave, notice, every pay component with its payment day, weekly hours, the collective agreement if one applies, probation and the disciplinary rules. A sample that leaves out the disciplinary procedure or the pay date is a sign that the template was written for somewhere else and translated.

• Is the contract drafted in Albanian, with any English version matching it clause for clause?
• Does it default to an indefinite contract, and does it explain why if it proposes a fixed term?
• Is probation capped at three months, with five days’ notice during it?
• Does the annual leave clause say 22 working days, rather than the pre-2024 four calendar weeks?
• Is there an express assignment of rights in software and other work products, beyond what Articles 135 and 136 give by default?
• If there is a non-compete, is it limited to one year and paid at no less than 75% of salary?

The leave wording is a quick test. Since August 2024, when Law No. 91/2024 took effect, the statutory floor has been expressed as 22 working days instead of four calendar weeks. A provider still issuing the old wording has not looked at its Albanian template for a while.

Working time is the second quick test. The sample should give normal weekly hours (40 is the ceiling) and say how overtime is rewarded. The statutory minimums a provider ought to quote back to you: a quarter on top for ordinary overtime, or equivalent time off with the same uplift inside two months; half on top when the overtime lands on a rest day or holiday; a fifth extra for the 19:00 to 22:00 evening slot; and half again for night hours. If your hire will cover a US time zone, those premiums decide what the evening hours really cost, so ask the provider to show them in the sample.

The fastest way to judge a provider’s Albanian payroll is to give them a salary above the social insurance cap and ask for a full breakdown. A good answer applies the cap correctly to social insurance, leaves health insurance uncapped and taxes gross pay.

Try ALL 250,000 a month, about €2,718. The right answer for 2026 caps the 15% employer social charge at ALL 27,962.40, because the base stops at ALL 186,416, while the 1.7% health charge keeps running on all ALL 250,000 and comes to ALL 4,250. Total employer cost is ALL 282,212.40. A provider that simply adds 16.7% to the whole salary will show ALL 291,750 and overstate your cost by ALL 9,537.60 every month.

The employee column should show ALL 17,709.52 of social insurance, being 9.5% of that capped base, ALL 4,250 of health insurance, ALL 33,600 of income tax and ALL 194,440.48 paid out. The tax line is ALL 22,100 for the first ALL 200,000 plus 23% on the remaining ALL 50,000. Check that tax line closely. A provider that knocks the employee contributions off before applying the tax table has got the Albanian rule backwards, since tax runs on the full gross.

Then ask how the month runs. Good answers mention the listëpagesa going through DPT e-filing with one combined payment no later than the 20th, net pay leaving by bank transfer with a payslip attached, and any bonus being folded into the gross of the month it is paid. If you want the mechanics in more detail first, our guide to the onboarding sequence up to the first payslip walks through a first month.

Expect a straight answer, with no research needed, to the question of who pays for which day of an absence. In Albania the split between employer and ISSH changes on day 15 of a sickness, and getting that wrong shows up on payslips.

Days one to fourteen are the employer’s, at a minimum of four-fifths of salary once a medical certificate arrives. ISSH then picks up the absence, paying 70% (or 80% after a decade of insurance) of a six-month average of the daily net assessed base, and the certificate period as a whole, employer days included, cannot exceed six months. Ask how the provider handles the handover and whether your hire’s pay drops or the provider tops it up.

Maternity is mainly an ISSH matter. A mother with a year of contributions behind her can draw benefit for up to 365 calendar days: 80% of her average daily net base until the birth and through the next 150 days, half of it afterwards. The Labour Code keeps her away from work from 35 days before the due date until 63 days after the child is born. Ask who files the ISSH claim and how the provider plans for her return, which the Code protects: she is entitled to her old job or one equivalent to it.

Finally, check the holiday calendar the provider uses. The 2026 calendar held 15 holiday dates, and any that land on a Saturday or Sunday push the day off to the following Monday or the next working day after it. The two Eid dates follow the lunar calendar, so a provider should confirm them each year against the official calendar rather than copying last year’s.

If any of your hires are foreign nationals, ask which permit the provider will apply for. The correct answer for an employee on an Albanian contract is the employee unique permit (leje unike), not the digital nomad permit.

A provider that mentions the digital nomad permit here has misread its purpose: that category is meant for remote workers whose employer or clients sit abroad, and it gives no right to work for an Albanian employer. Since an EOR hire is employed in Albania, the employee permit is the one that matches. Expect the provider to mention AKPA, whose employment approval comes first, and the e-Albania application that follows; under VKM 240, in force since April 2026, a provisional permit should be in hand one working day after applying. Fees run from ALL 8,000 to ALL 10,000 depending on validity.

Separately, every hire, Albanian or foreign, goes on DPT’s records electronically, with the eve of the start date as the last moment to do it. Ask the provider when in its process that declaration is filed and what happens if a candidate brings the start date forward at short notice. A provider that only declares new hires once the first payroll runs is taking a risk with your name on the client file.

For remote staff who are Albanian residents, ask how the provider writes telework into the contract. Article 15 of the Labour Code requires conditions no less favourable than for office staff and puts the provision and upkeep of IT equipment on the employer unless the employee uses their own.

Ask the provider to describe, step by step, how it would end an employment contract you no longer need. Albania prescribes the steps in detail, and skipping one adds a two-month pay penalty to whatever else the court orders.

A sound answer walks through Article 144: a written invitation sent no less than 72 hours ahead, a meeting where the reasons are put and the employee replies, and afterwards a written, reasoned decision grounded in capability, conduct or the needs of the operation. If the case reaches court, proving those reasons falls to the employer. An unfair outcome can cost as much as twelve months’ salary plus notice pay, and the employee has a 180-day window, counted from the end of notice, in which to sue.

Two cost lines should appear in any provider’s answer. Notice follows the Article 143 scale, from two weeks up to three months after five years of service. The other is shpërblim për vjetërsi, seniority pay: once someone has three years behind them and the employer ends the contract, each completed year earns them a minimum of 15 days’ wages. If a provider says terminations are simply a matter of giving notice, keep looking.

Compare providers on their own fee and on how clearly they separate it from salary and statutory contributions. Every provider pays the same 16.7% employer contributions and the same salary; what differs is the fee and what it includes.

For reference, €599 per employee per month is where our own fee begins, and the breakdown of what it covers is public. Put each quote next to that and ask the same four things:

• Is the fee fixed in euros, and at what exchange rate is lek payroll converted on the invoice?
• Are contract drafting, terminations and permit applications covered by the fee or charged separately?
• Is a deposit required, and how is it returned?
• Who pays any bank charges on salary transfers?
• Which expenses does the provider reimburse through payroll, and how are home-office costs for teleworkers handled?

Not yet sure a provider is the right answer at all? Our EOR versus SHPK comparison is the better starting point.

Some answers should end the conversation, because they point to practices Albanian law does not allow or would expose your hire. Watch for these:

• An offer to pay part of the salary in cash, when Article 118 allows wages to move only by bank.
• A contract that folds work expenses into salary. Articles 125 and 126 make such clauses void.
• A suggestion to treat a full-time worker as a freelancer. Law 29/2023 turns a freelancer’s income into employment income for tax once a single client supplies four-fifths of it.
• A plan to use the digital nomad permit for someone employed on an Albanian contract.
• Benefits in kind making up more than 20% of monthly pay, above the Article 118(2) limit.

Keep notes as you go. Two providers can give similar headline answers and still differ sharply on the payroll test or the termination steps, and a written record of each reply makes the comparison fair when you sit down to decide. A provider that passes every item on this list has shown it knows the Albanian rules in detail. For how the arrangement runs once you have chosen, see our plain-English explanation of the EOR model in Albania, and Employer of Record Albania is happy to answer every question above in writing, one by one.