Rwanda
Employ in Rwanda without an entity.
A contract under Rwanda's labour law, pay in francs, and social security and income tax handled every month. One contact and one invoice.
The facts of employing in Rwanda.
Paid in francs, every month.
A 40-hour week.
With an hour's break a day and 24 hours of rest each week.
Pension at 12% of pay.
Rising to 14% from 1 January 2027, and to 20% from 1 January 2030.
Income tax from 0% to 30%.
Withheld each month.
What employing in Rwanda involves, in plain words.
Each is handled for everyone you employ through Global Kinect EOR.
- Contracts
A written or an unwritten contract, for a fixed term or open-ended.
- An unwritten contract lasts at most 90 consecutive days.
- A foreign employee's contract is always written.
- Trial period: up to three months, and for a valid reason a retake of up to three more.
- RSSBSocial security
The Rwanda Social Security Board, from employer and employee alike.
- Pension: 6% from the employer and 6% from the employee, 14% in all from 1 January 2027.
- Maternity leave insurance: 0.3% from each.
- Community health insurance: 0.5% of the employee's net pay, withheld by the employer.
- PAYEIncome tax
Withheld by the employer each month.
- Nothing up to RWF 60,000 a month, rising through 10% and 20% to 30% above RWF 200,000.
- Leave
A day and a half of annual leave for each month worked, rising with service to 21 working days a year at most.
- Sick leave: up to 15 days on a doctor's certificate, and up to six months confirmed by three doctors, the first three on full pay.
- Maternity leave: 14 weeks on full pay, with the last 8 reimbursed to the employer by RSSB.
- Paternity leave: 7 consecutive days.
- Ending employment
Notice of 15 days in the first year of service, and 30 days after.
- Severance applies to termination on economic, technological or health grounds, after a year's service: two to seven months' average salary, by length of service.
- An unfair dismissal costs 3 to 6 months' pay, or up to 9 months' after ten years.
Hiring in Rwanda, step by step.
You choose the person
And agree the role and the salary in francs.
The contract is put in place
Under Rwanda's labour law, with a work permit where one is needed.
They are paid monthly
In francs, with social security and income tax handled.
You get one invoice
With every other country you hire in.
Questions about employing in Rwanda
What does an employer pay into social security in Rwanda?
Employers in Rwanda pay 6% of pay into the RSSB pension scheme, and employees pay 6%. The total rises to 14% from 1 January 2027 and to 20% from 1 January 2030. Employer and employee each pay 0.3% for maternity leave insurance. The employer also withholds 0.5% of the employee's net pay for community health insurance.
Can we employ a foreign national?
Is the pension rate changing?
Employing in Rwanda, worked through in full.
The guide goes further than this page.
- Hiring in Rwanda: the work permit, the contract and what comes off pay, step by step
How you hire in Rwanda without an entity of your own: the work permit step by step, moving someone already in Rwanda, the contract, the employee test, what comes off pay each month, leave, and what is scheduled.
7 min read