Lesotho
Employ in Lesotho without an entity.
A contract under Lesotho's Labour Act 2024, pay in maloti, and income tax handled every month. One contact and one invoice.
The facts of employing in Lesotho.
Paid in maloti, every month.
Up to 45 hours a week.
With at least 24 hours of rest each week.
At least 12 days of annual leave.
A working day for each month.
A minimum wage.
Set by the Minister in a wages notice, published in the Gazette.
What employing in Lesotho involves, in plain words.
Each is handled for everyone you employ through Global Kinect EOR.
- Contracts
Written or spoken, with the pay basis and rate given at hiring.
- A fixed term ends on its date. Not renewing it against a reasonable expectation counts as a dismissal.
- Trial period: up to four months, or by agreement up to a year for managerial and professional roles.
- Income tax
Withheld by the employer each month.
- 20% on the first LSL 6,480 a month and 30% above it.
- Less a personal tax credit of LSL 1,020 a month.
- Workplace injury
The employer insures against workplace injury under the Workmen's Compensation Act.
- With an insurer the Minister approves. Nothing is taken from pay for it.
- Leave
A working day of annual leave for each month, at least 12 a year.
- Sick leave, after the first year: 12 days on full pay and 24 on half pay each year.
- Maternity leave: until seven weeks after the birth.
- Paternity leave: 14 days.
- Ending employment
Notice of a week in the first six months, two weeks to a year, then a month.
- Severance, after more than a year: two weeks' wages for each completed year.
- A dismissal needs a valid reason. For conduct or capacity, the reasons are given in writing within two weeks.
- Work permits
From the National Employment Service in the Ministry of Labour, which first certifies that no qualified citizen is available.
Hiring in Lesotho, step by step.
You choose the person
And agree the role and the salary in maloti.
The contract is put in place
Under Lesotho's Labour Act, with a work permit where one is needed.
They are paid monthly
In maloti, with income tax handled.
You get one invoice
With every other country you hire in.
Questions about employing in Lesotho
What notice and severance apply in Lesotho?
Under Lesotho's Labour Act 2024, notice is a week in the first six months of service, two weeks from six months to a year, and a month after that. Severance is two weeks' wages for each completed year, once service passes a year. It is not owed on a fair dismissal for misconduct.
Which labour law applies?
Can we employ a foreign national?
Employing in Lesotho, worked through in full.
The guide goes further than this page.
- Hiring in Lesotho: the work permit, the contract and a salary worked through, step by step
How you hire in Lesotho without an entity of your own: the work permit step by step, moving someone already in Lesotho, the contract, the employee test, what a salary costs and pays, leave, and what changed this year.
8 min read