Egypt
Employ in Egypt without an entity.
A contract under Egypt's new Labour Law, pay in pounds, and social insurance and income tax handled every month. One contact and one invoice.
The facts of employing in Egypt.
Paid in pounds, every month.
In legal tender or into the employee's bank account.
A 48-hour week.
Eight hours a day, with at least 24 hours of paid rest each week.
15 days of annual leave in the first year.
21 from the second year, and 30 after ten years' service or over the age of 50.
A minimum wage of EGP 7,000.
A month, in the private sector.
What employing in Egypt involves, in plain words.
Each is handled for everyone you employ through Global Kinect EOR.
- Contracts
Written in Arabic, in four copies, one each for the employer, the employee, social insurance and the labour authority.
- A fixed term is allowed where the work requires it. A contract with no written term is open-ended.
- Trial period: up to 3 months, once per employer.
- Work licences
A foreign employee needs a work licence from the Ministry of Labour, issued where the employer is based, and must hold residence.
- NOSISocial insurance
11% from the employee and 18.75% from the employer, on the insurable wage.
- Income tax
Salary tax, withheld by the employer each month.
- A personal exemption of EGP 20,000 a year.
- Seven bands, from 0% to 27.5%.
- Leave
15 days in the first year, 21 from the second, and 30 after ten years or over the age of 50.
- Casual leave: 7 days a year, taken from annual leave.
- Maternity leave: 4 months on full pay, up to three times.
- Paternity leave: a day on the birth of a child, up to three times.
- Hajj: a paid month, once, after five years' service.
- Ending employment
Three months' notice in writing, from either side, on an open-ended contract.
- An unjustified dismissal costs at least two months' wage for each year of service.
- A resignation is made in writing and certified by the labour authority.
- For service outside a pension, a gratuity: half a month per year for five years, then a month per year.
Hiring in Egypt, step by step.
You choose the person
And agree the role and the salary in pounds.
The contract is put in place
Under Egypt's Labour Law, with a work permit where one is needed.
They are paid monthly
In pounds, with social insurance and income tax handled.
You get one invoice
With every other country you hire in.
Questions about employing in Egypt
What does it take to employ an expatriate in Egypt?
An expatriate in Egypt needs a work licence from the Ministry of Labour, issued by the labour directorate where the employer is based, and must hold residence. The contract is written in Arabic, in four copies, with a copy in the employee's own language allowed. The Labour Law in force since 1 September 2025 sets a trial period of up to three months and three months' notice.
Which labour law applies?
How does someone resign?
Employing in Egypt, worked through in full.
Each guide goes further than this page.
- Hiring in Egypt: the work licence, the limits on foreign staff and the contract, step by step
How you hire in Egypt without an entity of your own: the work licence step by step, the limits on foreign staff, the contract, the employee test, leave, and what changed under the new Labour Law.
7 min read
- The cost of employing in Egypt: social insurance, the yearly raise and a year worked through
What employing someone in Egypt costs on top of salary, a year worked through at two salaries for an Egyptian national and a foreign employee, the costs that come with a foreign hire, and what changes the cost.
5 min read
- Ending employment in Egypt: notice, dismissal and a final settlement worked through
How employment ends in Egypt: the ways a contract ends, the notice it needs, what ending one without a legitimate reason costs, a final settlement worked through, resignation, when final pay is due, and the steps when someone leaves.
8 min read