Honduras is a country in Central America situated between Guatemala and El Salvador to the west, and Nicaragua to the south and east. The Honduran constitution states, “The cities of Tegucigalpa and Comayagüela, jointly, constitute the Capital of the Republic.” More than 3/4ths of the land area of Honduras is mountainous. Honduras has had one of the highest economic growth rates in Latin America over the past few years. Its top industries are sugar processing, coffee, woven and knit apparel, wood products, and cigars.
*Please note that the official currency is the currency of remuneration when employed through WorkMotion in Honduras.
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Honduras is a country in Central America situated between Guatemala and El Salvador to the west, and Nicaragua to the south and east. The Honduran constitution states, “The cities of Tegucigalpa and Comayagüela, jointly, constitute the Capital of the Republic.” More than 3/4ths of the land area of Honduras is mountainous. Honduras has had one of the highest economic growth rates in Latin America over the past few years. Its top industries are sugar processing, coffee, woven and knit apparel, wood products, and cigars.
*Please note that the official currency is the currency of remuneration when employed through WorkMotion in Honduras.
The national holidays mentioned below are valid for the year 2026 and are critical for hiring in Honduras planning:
The holidays mentioned below are valid for the year 2026.
| January 1 | New Year's Day | |
| April 2 | Maundy Thursday | Movable, the Thursday before Easter |
| April 3 | Good Friday | Movable, the Friday before Easter |
| April 4 | Easter Saturday | Movable, the first Sunday after the Paschal Full Moon |
| April 13 | Americas' Day | Movable, as declared by the Honduran government |
| May 1 | Labour Day | |
| September 15 | Independence Day | |
| October 1 | Francisco Morazán's Birthday | Movable, as per the Honduran government's determination |
| October 2 | Day of the Race | Movable, as per the Honduran government's determination |
| October 3 | Honduran Armed Forces Day | Movable, as per the Honduran government's determination |
| December 25 | Christmas Day |
The approximate time for sharing the contract with an employee in Honduras is 14 business days assuming no special requests or changes to our standard employment contract. Any such requests or changes would need to undergo internal and external review, directly leading to a time delay.
NOTE: This number is subject to change and is only an estimation of the Contract Sharing Time. The estimated Contract Sharing Time begins from the moment that WorkMotion has received all required information from both the client and the employee.
The employer and employee contributions to Social Security are as follows:
| Benefits | Employer Contribution | Employee Contribution |
| Sickness and Maternity* | 5% | 2.5% |
| Invalidity, Old Age, and Death** | 3.5% | 2.5% |
| Professional Formation Institute (Instituto Nacional de Formación Profesional or INFOP) | 1% | None |
| Collective Capitalization Pillar | 2.6% | 1.6% |
| Total | 12.1% | 6.6% |
*Up to a maximum ceiling of HNL 10,342
**Up to a maximum ceiling of HNL 10,796
There are also contributions to mandatory individual accounts from the Regimen de Aportaciones Privadas (RAP). Any company that has 10 or more employees in the national scope must also contribute to the RAP.
| Benefits | Employer Contribution | Employee Contribution |
| Invalidity, Old age, and Death* | 1.5% of monthly covered payroll | 1.5% of monthly covered payroll |
| Unemployment | 4% of monthly covered employment** | None |
| Total | 5.5% | 1.5% |
*Up to a maximum ceiling of HNL 10,796.
**The employer’s contributions cease when the individual account balance reaches 50% of the maximum severance payable (25 months of the insured’s salary).
In general terms, the ordinary day of work may not exceed eight hours per day and 44 hours per week. The ordinary timing of night work may not exceed six hours a day and 36 hours a week.
The effective work that is executed outside the limits of the ordinary working day, or that exceeds the limits of the working day, agreed by the parties, constitutes extraordinary working hours, and must be remunerated, as follows:
| Time | Surcharge |
| Daytime Period | 25% surcharge on the daytime salary |
| Night Period | 50% surcharge on the daytime salary |
| Extraordinary shift as an extension of night shift | 75% surcharge on the night shift salary |
The trial period, which cannot exceed 60 days, is the initial stage of the employment contract and is intended, on the employer’s part, to assess the worker’s aptitudes, and on their part, the convenience of working conditions. This period is remunerated, and if upon termination neither party expresses its willingness to terminate the contract, it will continue indefinitely.
The termination period notice is as follows:
| Condition | Service Period | Termination Notice Period |
| Suspension of work for more than 120 days in certain conditions specified | No liability | Not applicable |
| Liquidation or definitive closure | 30 days’ notice | Not applicable |
| Indefinite employment contract | Less than 3 months | 24 hours |
| 3 to 6 months | 1 week | |
| More than 6 months to 1 year | 2 weeks | |
| More than 1 year to 2 years | 1 month | |
| More than 2 years | 2 months |
In general terms, the ordinary day of work may not exceed eight hours per day and 44 hours per week. The ordinary timing of night work may not exceed six hours a day and 36 hours a week.
The effective work that is executed outside the limits of the ordinary working day, or that exceeds the limits of the working day, agreed by the parties, constitutes extraordinary working hours, and must be remunerated, as follows:
| Time | Surcharge |
| Daytime Period | 25% surcharge on the daytime salary |
| Night Period | 50% surcharge on the daytime salary |
| Extraordinary shift as an extension of night shift | 75% surcharge on the night shift salary |
The trial period, which cannot exceed 60 days, is the initial stage of the employment contract and is intended, on the employer’s part, to assess the worker’s aptitudes, and on their part, the convenience of working conditions. This period is remunerated, and if upon termination neither party expresses its willingness to terminate the contract, it will continue indefinitely.
The termination period notice is as follows:
| Condition | Service Period | Termination Notice Period |
| Suspension of work for more than 120 days in certain conditions specified | No liability | Not applicable |
| Liquidation or definitive closure | 30 days’ notice | Not applicable |
| Indefinite employment contract | Less than 3 months | 24 hours |
| 3 to 6 months | 1 week | |
| More than 6 months to 1 year | 2 weeks | |
| More than 1 year to 2 years | 1 month | |
| More than 2 years | 2 months |
The employer and employee contributions to Social Security are as follows:
| Benefits | Employer Contribution | Employee Contribution |
| Sickness and Maternity* | 5% | 2.5% |
| Invalidity, Old Age, and Death** | 3.5% | 2.5% |
| Professional Formation Institute (Instituto Nacional de Formación Profesional or INFOP) | 1% | None |
| Collective Capitalization Pillar | 2.6% | 1.6% |
| Total | 12.1% | 6.6% |
*Up to a maximum ceiling of HNL 10,342
**Up to a maximum ceiling of HNL 10,796
There are also contributions to mandatory individual accounts from the Regimen de Aportaciones Privadas (RAP). Any company that has 10 or more employees in the national scope must also contribute to the RAP.
| Benefits | Employer Contribution | Employee Contribution |
| Invalidity, Old age, and Death* | 1.5% of monthly covered payroll | 1.5% of monthly covered payroll |
| Unemployment | 4% of monthly covered employment** | None |
| Total | 5.5% | 1.5% |
*Up to a maximum ceiling of HNL 10,796.
**The employer’s contributions cease when the individual account balance reaches 50% of the maximum severance payable (25 months of the insured’s salary).
WorkMotion provides employer of record services in Honduras through its established partner network, giving your company a compliant path to hire Honduran talent without registering a local entity or navigating the country’s multi-agency payroll system from scratch.
WorkMotion generates an employment contract aligned with the Honduran Labour Code (Código de Trabajo).
Contracts must be written in Spanish, denominate salary in Honduran lempiras, and specify job duties, working hours, compensation, and notice terms.
The contract is prepared to meet all mandatory Labour Code requirements before the employee’s first day.
Before payroll can run, the employer of record must be registered with the relevant Honduran institutions:
WorkMotion’s partner network handles these registrations on your behalf, so you don’t need to establish a local legal presence to fulfil them.
Honduras payroll involves several layered obligations across multiple agencies. Employer contributions include:
Income tax (ISR) is withheld progressively from employee salaries and remitted monthly to SAR.
WorkMotion’s partner sets up the payroll stack correctly from day one, applying the right contribution rates, salary ceilings, and withholding brackets.
Honduran law requires two mandatory annual bonuses: the 13th-month salary (aguinaldo), paid in December, and the 14th-month salary (catorceavo mes), paid by 30 June. Both are equivalent to one month’s regular salary.
Annual leave entitlements start at 10 days after the first year of service and increase with tenure.
Maternity leave runs for 10 weeks, with 66% of salary covered by IHSS and 34% by the employer.
WorkMotion’s partner administers all of these entitlements and accruals within the payroll cycle, so nothing is missed at year-end or mid-year payment dates.
All statutory contributions – IHSS, RAP, INFOP, and ISR withholdings – are due by the 10th of the following month through Honduras’s electronic filing systems.
WorkMotion’s partner processes monthly payroll in Honduran lempiras, remits contributions on time to each agency, and provides clear payslips that reflect all deductions and employer contributions.
Late remittances carry penalties and interest, making accurate, on-time processing a non-negotiable part of compliant employment in Honduras.
Honduras’s minimum wage is updated annually by the Ministry of Labour, with rates varying by industry and company size.
Contribution ceilings for IHSS can also shift with board decisions each January. WorkMotion monitors these changes and applies updates to your employee’s payroll automatically.
If employment ends, WorkMotion manages the offboarding process in line with the Labour Code, calculating notice periods, severance entitlements, prorated bonuses, and accrued leave, and coordinates the required written dismissal documentation.
For most companies hiring one to a handful of employees in Honduras, the comparison between EOR and entity setup is straightforward, but the numbers matter.
| EOR with WorkMotion | Setting up a Honduras entity | |
|---|---|---|
| Setup cost | No incorporation cost; WorkMotion’s partner network is already in place | Typically involves legal fees, Chamber of Commerce registration, and tax authority registration costs |
| Time to first hire | Days to a few weeks from signed service agreement | Several weeks to months, depending on registration timelines with the Mercantile Registry, SAR, IHSS, RAP, and INFOP |
| Ongoing legal exposure | WorkMotion’s partner assumes employer-of-record liability for Labour Code compliance | Your entity carries full legal exposure for payroll accuracy, termination procedures, and statutory contributions |
| Ongoing admin burden | Monthly payroll, contributions, and filings handled by WorkMotion’s partner | Internal team or local advisors must manage multi-agency filings, annual minimum wage updates, and contribution ceiling changes |
| Exit flexibility | Wind down the employment relationship without dissolving a legal entity | Closing a registered entity in Honduras requires formal deregistration with multiple authorities |
EOR in Honduras fits companies that need to hire quickly, want to test the market before committing to a permanent structure, or are hiring a small number of employees where entity overhead isn’t justified.
If your long-term plan involves a significant Honduran workforce and you want full operational control over a local entity, that conversation is worth having, but EOR is the faster, lower-risk starting point.
Honduras has strong statutory employee protections, and the compliance stack is more layered than it first appears. These are the areas where foreign employers most commonly run into problems.
Both the aguinaldo (December) and the catorceavo mes (June) are mandatory under the Labour Code, not discretionary bonuses. Each equals one month’s regular salary.
Foreign employers unfamiliar with Central American labour law sometimes treat these as performance-related or contractual extras. They are not. Failing to pay them on time creates immediate legal exposure.
WorkMotion’s partner accrues both bonuses monthly within the payroll cycle, so there are no year-end surprises.
Since Decree 47-2024 came into effect in June 2024, RAP obligations split into two distinct flows: a 4% employer-only Reserve Labour Fund contribution on ordinary monthly salary, and a separate 1.5% employer / 1.5% employee savings contribution on salary above the IHSS IVM ceiling.
Many payroll systems and country guides still show a single RAP percentage or conflate it with IHSS. Running payroll with an outdated RAP structure means either over-deducting from employees or under-contributing as an employer, both of which create compliance exposure.
WorkMotion’s partner applies the correct two-flow structure from the start.
Honduras does not have a single national minimum wage. Rates vary by industry sector and company size.
A technology services company, a manufacturing firm, and an agricultural business each face different minimum wage floors, and these are updated annually by the Ministry of Labour.
Applying the wrong rate, even unintentionally, is a Labour Code violation. WorkMotion’s partner applies the correct sector-specific minimum wage for each hire.
Termination in Honduras is tightly regulated. Without-cause dismissals require severance pay calculated at one month’s salary per year of service, plus prorated bonuses and accrued leave.
Notice periods scale with tenure, from 24 hours for employees with fewer than three months of service up to two months for longer-tenured staff.
Termination for just cause requires documented grounds and, in some cases, prior authorisation from the Ministry of Labour. Labour disputes in Honduras can be lengthy and costly.
WorkMotion’s partner manages offboarding in line with these requirements and prepares the required written documentation.
Companies with five or more workers must pay 1% of total monthly wages to INFOP, the national vocational training institute. This contribution is employer-only and sits outside the IHSS and RAP structures.
It is easy to miss in initial payroll setup, particularly for companies new to Honduras. WorkMotion’s partner includes INFOP in the payroll stack from day one.
While the Honduran Labour Code technically permits verbal contracts in limited circumstances, the absence of a written contract is attributed to the employer in any dispute.
If a conflict arises and there is no written agreement, the law presumes the employee’s version of events is correct.
WorkMotion generates a written, Spanish-language contract for every hire, denominating salary in lempiras and covering all mandatory Labour Code clauses.
Honduras has a growing pool of bilingual (Spanish-English) professionals concentrated in Tegucigalpa and San Pedro Sula, making it an increasingly attractive location for customer success, technical support, and operations roles.
German, Dutch, and UK-headquartered SaaS companies with 50–300 employees use WorkMotion’s EOR in Honduras to hire these roles quickly, without setting up a Central American entity for what may initially be a team of two or three people.
US companies expanding their engineering, BPO, or shared services operations into Central America often start with Honduras as a nearshore hiring destination.
The time zone alignment with US East and Central time, combined with competitive salary levels, makes Honduras a practical choice. WorkMotion’s partner network provides the compliant employment infrastructure these companies need to hire legally from day one, without the months-long entity formation process.
Companies already hiring nearshore talent in Mexico through WorkMotion often extend their Central American footprint to Honduras using the same platform.
Companies entering Central American markets often need a local sales or business development hire before they are ready to commit to a full entity.
An employer of record in Honduras lets a 100–500 person e-commerce or fintech company place a market-entry hire in Honduras within weeks, test the market, and scale the team once the commercial case is proven, without the fixed overhead of a registered subsidiary.
Remote-first companies that already hire across multiple Latin American countries through EOR providers use WorkMotion to add Honduras to their footprint.
For these companies, the priority is consistent compliance across markets and a single point of contact for payroll and HR administration, not building local entities in each country where they have one or two employees.
Honduras has a clear, statutory-heavy employment framework: mandatory bonuses, multi-agency social security contributions, sector-specific minimum wages, and termination rules that carry real financial consequences if handled incorrectly.
Getting all of it right from the first hire requires local expertise that most foreign companies don’t have in-house.
WorkMotion provides employer of record services in Honduras through its established partner network, handling contracts, payroll, statutory contributions, and compliance monitoring so your team can focus on the work, not the administration.
Whether you’re placing your first hire in Tegucigalpa or scaling a nearshore team, WorkMotion removes the entity requirement and the compliance guesswork.
Use our employment cost calculator to estimate the full cost of hiring in Honduras, including employer contributions, mandatory bonuses, and payroll taxes, before you commit.
Ready to hire in Honduras without the legal overhead? Book a Demo
WorkMotion provides employer of record services in Honduras through an established partner network rather than a directly owned local entity. This means your employees are legally employed by WorkMotion’s in-country partner, which holds the necessary registrations with IHSS, RAP, INFOP, and SAR to run compliant payroll from day one. The practical outcome for your company is the same: compliant contracts, on-time payroll, and statutory contributions handled without you needing to register a Honduran legal presence.
Honduras permits a probationary period of up to 60 days for most employees, during which either party can terminate the employment relationship without severance or advance notice. This period cannot be extended or reset by agreement: once the 60-day window closes, the full Labour Code protections apply, including notice periods and severance entitlements that scale with tenure. WorkMotion’s partner structures the employment contract to reflect this correctly from the outset.
Beyond gross salary, Honduran employers contribute to three separate institutions: IHSS at 5% of salary (up to the applicable ceiling) covering health, maternity, disability, and pension programmes; RAP at 4% of ordinary monthly salary for the Reserve Labour Fund, plus 1.5% on salary above the IHSS IVM ceiling for the savings component; and INFOP at 1% of total monthly wages for companies with five or more workers. Layered on top are the two mandatory annual bonuses, the aguinaldo in December and the catorceavo mes by 30 June, each equivalent to one month’s salary. Running an accurate total cost of employment figure for Honduras requires all of these components, not just the IHSS headline rate.
Fixed-term contracts are permitted under the Honduran Labour Code, but only where the nature of the work is genuinely temporary or project-specific: they cannot be used simply to avoid indefinite employment protections. If a fixed-term contract is used for work that is permanent in nature, Honduran courts and the Ministry of Labour will typically treat it as an indefinite contract, triggering full severance and notice entitlements on termination. WorkMotion’s partner assesses the appropriate contract type for each hire based on the actual role and duration, not just the employer’s preference.
Onboarding timelines through a Honduras EOR depend on how quickly the employee completes documentation and whether any registration steps with Honduran authorities are required for the first hire in-country. For subsequent hires under an already-established payroll structure, onboarding can move faster. WorkMotion’s partner network is already registered with IHSS, RAP, INFOP, and SAR, which removes the multi-agency setup delay that would otherwise add weeks to the process for a company starting from scratch.
Termination in Honduras, whether for just cause or without cause, requires written documentation in all cases. Without-cause dismissals must include a written notice respecting the applicable notice period (ranging from 24 hours for employees with under three months of service to two months for longer-tenured staff), plus a settlement calculation covering severance at one month’s salary per year of service, prorated bonuses, and accrued leave. Just-cause terminations require documented grounds that align with the specific causes listed in the Labour Code, and in some cases prior authorisation from the Ministry of Labour. Verbal or informal terminations create significant legal exposure under Honduran law.
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