Employer Record in Portugal

Basic information

Capital:Lisbon

Time zone: GMT+1

Languages: Portuguese

Currency code:EUR

Human Resources at a Glance 

Contract Terms

Contracts must be in Portuguese and can be bilingual. They must be in writing and signed by both parties.

The contract must include:

• Name
• Start date
• Length of the employment
• Job description
• Trial period conditions
• Termination conditions
• Payment conditions for the holiday and Christmas bonus
• Remote work clause

Guidelines Regarding Probation Period/Trial Period

Probation periods are not mandatory. The maximum probation period is 240 days. The length depends on the type of contract and seniority of the employee:

Indefinite contracts:

• 90 days as standard.
• 180 days for job positions with a high level of responsibility.
• 240 days for managerial positions or senior staff.

Regulations and Rules Regarding Working Hours

Standard working hours are 8 hours per day and 40 hours per week. The standard work week is from Monday to Friday.

Overtime is paid according to the following rates

Overtime pay is mandatory and is not included in the salary. Worked hours outside of standard work hours are considered overtime. Employees can work a maximum of 2 hours of overtime per day. For overtime hours, employees are paid:

• 125% of the hourly rate for the first hour.
• 137.5% of the hourly rate for the following hours.
• 150% of the hourly rate for weekends and bank holidays.

Minimum Wage Requirements

The annual minimum wage for employees in Portugal is 11,480 EUR. This includes the mandatory 13 and 14 month salary payments.

Payroll Cost for Employers

  The employer cost is generally estimated at 26.9% of the employee salary:

• Social Security* – 23.75%
• Work Accident Insurance* – 3.15%
• Telework Allowance – €50
• 13th month salary – 1/12 of 1 month basic salary
• 14th month salary – 1/12 of 1 month basic salary
• Mandatory meal allowance – €6 per working day

  Annual Costs

• Health and Safety at work – EUR 150

*Social Security, Work Insurance Policy, and Labor Accident Insurance are calculated on the employee’s salary + telework allowance.

Please note that 13th and 14th month salaries are paid to the employee in monthly instalments and are included in the total annual salary. Standard social security contributions apply.

Termination

Grounds

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.

Termination in Portugal can be complex and must be based on performance or redundancy reasons (e.g. serious cause, unfit for the role, extinction of the role).

Compliant terminations include:

• Voluntarily by the employee
• By mutual agreement
• Unilaterally by the employer based on:
  • Objective grounds.
  • Disciplinary dismissal
  • Unsuitability for the job position.
• By the expiration of the contract

It is not possible to terminate a contract when the employee takes parental leave, is pregnant, or breastfeeding.

Notice Period

Notice will depend on the nature of termination, length of employment, and the contract term.

• During the probation period
  • None, if the probation period is < 60 days
  • 7 days, if the probation period has lasted more than 60 days and less than 120 days
  • 15 days, if the probation period has lasted more than 120 days
• Termination due to redundancy or unsuitability for the job by the employer:15 days if the length of service is less than one years.15 days if the length of service is less than one years. 15 days if the length of service is less than one years. 30 days if the length of service is less than five years. 60 days if the length of service is less than ten years. 75 days if the length of service is ten years or more.
• Voluntary termination by the employee:
  • 30 days if the length of service is less than two years.
  • 60 days if the length of service is two or more years.
• Termination with cause
  • The notice period is not mandatory.
• Non-renewal of a fixed term contract:
  • 15 days for the employer.
  • 8 days for the employee.

Severance compensation

In Portugal, employees who are terminated based on redundancy or unsuitability for the job are entitled to severance pay.

• For indefinite-term contracts, severance pay is 14 days of salary per year of service up to 12 months of base pay
• For fixed-term contracts, severance pay is 24 days per year of service

Payment & leave Compensation & Holidays

SalaryPayment

Monthly

Payslip Payroll

Pay stubs must contain comprehensive details about contributions, deductions, wages, etc.

Annual Leave

Both full-time and part-time employees are entitled to 22 days of paid time off (PTO) a year. Employees are eligible for annual leave after 6 months of work. Part-time employees are entitled to the same leave as full-time employees. During the first year of employment, an employee is not allowed to take more than 20 days.

Sick Leave

Employees are entitled to paid sick leave for up to 1095 days if they have contributed for the past 6 months to Portuguese Social Security. The first 3 days are unpaid and considered as a qualifying period. This leave is paid at different rates and by different payers depending upon the length:

Maternity & Parental Leave

Pregnant employees who have contributed to Social Security for the past six months are entitled to 120 or 150 days of paid leave. 30 days are usually taken before the child’s birth. The remaining days can be divided into two periods of time. The employee will receive 80 – 100% of the salary during this period depending upon the length of leave. Social Security will be responsible for this pay.

The employee can extend leave additional 90 days at 25% pay.

Employees are entitled to 120 working days of parental leave. Both parents can decide how to distribute the time off, which should be taken 30 days after maternity leave. Either parent can take parental leave. Social Security will pay 80-100% of the salary during this period, depending on how the leave was distributed between the partners.

Tax and Social Security Information

Personal Income Tax

The individual income tax ranges from 14.5% to 48%. Income tax is calculated according to progressive rates. Multiple additional factors may impact overall rates.

Social security

• Employee Training
• Social Security
• Private Healthcare – Unisure (optional)
• Private healthcare – AdvanceCare & Generali
• Compensation Fund
• Labor Accident Insurance
• Private Healthcare – Allianz (optional)

Public Holidays 2024