The Philippines is an island country in Southeast Asia in the western Pacific Ocean. It is an archipelago consisting of more than 7,000 islands and islets lying about 800 kilometers off the coast of Vietnam. The country is bounded by the South China Sea to the west, the Philippine Sea to the east, and the Celebes Sea to the southwest. It also covers an area of 300,000 square kilometers.
*Please note that the official currency is the currency of remuneration when employed through WorkMotion in the Philippines.
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Fast-track your talent onboarding while ensuring 100% compliance with local regulations. using an Employer of Record in Philippines
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Easily onboard your remote talent in Philippines through our Employer of Record (EOR) solution. Our subsidiaries and network partners make this process fast and 100% compliant.
The Philippines is an island country in Southeast Asia in the western Pacific Ocean. It is an archipelago consisting of more than 7,000 islands and islets lying about 800 kilometers off the coast of Vietnam. The country is bounded by the South China Sea to the west, the Philippine Sea to the east, and the Celebes Sea to the southwest. It also covers an area of 300,000 square kilometers.
*Please note that the official currency is the currency of remuneration when employed through WorkMotion in the Philippines.
The national holidays mentioned below are valid for the year 2026 and are critical for hiring in Philippines planning:
The national holidays mentioned below are valid for the year 2026.
| January 1 | New Year's Day | |
| February 17 | Chinese New Year | Movable - Non-Working Holiday |
| February 25 | EDSA Revolution Anniversary | |
| March 21 | Eid'I Fitr | Movable - End of Ramadan |
| April 2 | Maundy Thursday | Movable |
| April 3 | Good Friday | Movable |
| April 4 | Black Saturday | Non-Working Holiday |
| April 9 | The Day of Valor | |
| May 1 | Labor Day | |
| May 12 | Election Day | Non-Working Holiday |
| May 27 | Eidul Adha | Movable |
| June 12 | Independence Day | |
| August 21 | Ninoy Aquino Day | Non-Working Holiday |
| August 31 | National Heroes' Day | Movable |
| November 1 | All Saints' Day | Non-Working Holiday |
| November 2 | Al Souls' Day | |
| November 30 | Bonifacio Day | |
| December 8 | Immaculate Conception Day | Non-Working Holiday |
| December 24 | Christmas Eve | Non-Working Holiday |
| December 25 | Christmas Day | |
| December 30 | Rizal Day | |
| December 31 | New Year's Eve | Non-Working Holiday |
The approximate time for sharing the contract with an employee in Philippines is 6 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.
In the Philippines, there is a Telecommuting Act that emphasizes two key principles of fair treatment and data privacy.
Pre-employment medical checks are mandatory for new hires while annual medical checks are also required for all employees.
The minimum wage varies by the sector one is employed in, and the region in which the employee resides.
In the Philippines, employees covered by the social security system are entitled to a package of benefits under the Social Security and Employees’ Compensation (EC) Programs in the event of death, disability, unemployment, sickness, maternity, and old age.
An overview of the social security contributions is presented below.
|
Benefits |
Employer Contribution |
Employee Contribution |
Monthly Salary Cap |
|---|---|---|---|
|
Social Security (SSS) |
9.5% |
4.5% |
PHP 30,000 |
|
Health Insurance |
2% |
2% |
PHP 99,999.99 |
|
Home Development Fund |
2% |
2% |
PHP 10,000 |
|
Employees’ Compensation |
2% |
– |
PHP 15,000 |
The normal hours of work of any employee must not exceed eight hours a day. Employers must provide no less than 60 minutes of unpaid meal breaks to employees. Rest periods or coffee breaks of five to 20 minutes, if provided, must be considered paid time.
Work may be performed beyond eight hours a day provided that the employee is paid for the overtime work, an additional compensation equivalent to their regular wage plus at least 25% thereof.
The probationary period must be no more than six months. Once the probation period is completed, the employment contract becomes permanent.
A 30 day notice period is required. There is no notice period for dismissal for just causes.
The normal hours of work of any employee must not exceed eight hours a day. Employers must provide no less than 60 minutes of unpaid meal breaks to employees. Rest periods or coffee breaks of five to 20 minutes, if provided, must be considered paid time.
Work may be performed beyond eight hours a day provided that the employee is paid for the overtime work, an additional compensation equivalent to their regular wage plus at least 25% thereof.
The probationary period must be no more than six months. Once the probation period is completed, the employment contract becomes permanent.
A 30 day notice period is required. There is no notice period for dismissal for just causes.
In the Philippines, employees covered by the social security system are entitled to a package of benefits under the Social Security and Employees’ Compensation (EC) Programs in the event of death, disability, unemployment, sickness, maternity, and old age.
An overview of the social security contributions is presented below.
|
Benefits |
Employer Contribution |
Employee Contribution |
Monthly Salary Cap |
|---|---|---|---|
|
Social Security (SSS) |
9.5% |
4.5% |
PHP 30,000 |
|
Health Insurance |
2% |
2% |
PHP 99,999.99 |
|
Home Development Fund |
2% |
2% |
PHP 10,000 |
|
Employees’ Compensation |
2% |
– |
PHP 15,000 |
WorkMotion handles the full employment lifecycle in the Philippines through its partner network. Therefore, your company can hire compliantly without registering a local entity, navigating multi-agency government filings, or building in-country HR infrastructure from scratch.
WorkMotion generates an employment contract aligned with the Philippine Labor Code. The contract covers the required elements under Philippine law:
For project-based or fixed-term roles, the contract clearly states the nature of employment to prevent disputes over regularization. This is a common compliance risk under Philippine labor law.
The contract is then issued in English, the standard language of business employment in the Philippines.
Before payroll can run, the employee must be registered with three mandatory government agencies:
WorkMotion’s partner network handles these registrations on your behalf.
The employer must also register with the Bureau of Internal Revenue (BIR) to fulfill withholding tax obligations.
Each agency has distinct filing requirements, contribution schedules, and remittance deadlines – WorkMotion manages all of them so your team doesn’t have to track them separately.
Payroll in the Philippines runs twice per month.
WorkMotion sets up payroll processing in Philippine pesos (PHP), calculating gross pay, statutory deductions, and net salary for each pay cycle.
Employer contributions are calculated across:
The BIR requires employers to act as withholding agents – deducting and remitting income tax from employees’ salaries under the TRAIN Law. WorkMotion handles all withholding calculations and remittances to the relevant agencies.
NOTE: Contribution rates are subject to change. The above figures serve as a general guide. Actual rates applied by WorkMotion may differ.
WorkMotion enrolls employees in all statutory benefits required under Philippine law. This includes SSS coverage (retirement, disability, sickness, and funeral benefits), PhilHealth (inpatient and outpatient healthcare), and Pag-IBIG (housing fund and savings).
WorkMotion also accrues and administers the mandatory 13th-month pay. This is equivalent to one month’s basic salary, required to be paid to all rank-and-file employees by December 24 each year.
This is a legal obligation, not a discretionary bonus, and carries penalties for non-compliance. Employees are also entitled to five days of Service Incentive Leave (SIL) after one year of continuous service.
Each pay cycle, WorkMotion processes payroll, remits employer and employee contributions to SSS, PhilHealth, and Pag-IBIG, and files the required withholding tax returns with the BIR.
Failure to remit contributions on time – or underreporting – is a criminal offense under Philippine law.
WorkMotion’s partner network manages all filing deadlines and remittance schedules, providing your finance team with clear, itemized records for each pay period.
Philippine labor law changes regularly. Minimum wages are set by Regional Tripartite Wages and Productivity Boards and vary across the country’s 16 regions – meaning a hire in Metro Manila could operate under different wage floors than a hire in Cebu or Davao.
WorkMotion monitors regulatory updates, including wage order changes, contribution rate adjustments, and DOLE compliance requirements, and applies them to your employees’ employment terms.
When contract changes are needed, WorkMotion handles the documentation and any required DOLE notifications.
For most companies hiring one to ten employees in the Philippines, EOR services deliver faster access to talent at a fraction of the cost and administrative burden of entity setup.
Here’s how the two paths compare:
| WorkMotion EOR | Philippines Entity Setup | |
|---|---|---|
| Setup cost | Per-employee monthly fee; no capital lock-in | $100,000 minimum paid-up capital required for foreign-owned entities serving the domestic market; plus legal, notarial, and registration fees |
| Time to first hire | Days from signed contract | Usually 8–16 weeks for full registration across SEC, BIR, SSS, PhilHealth, Pag-IBIG, and local government permits |
| Ongoing legal exposure | Compliance managed by WorkMotion’s partner network; contracts and contributions handled end-to-end | Full employer liability for labor law compliance, tax filings, and statutory remittances — any misstep can result in penalties, back pay orders, or NLRC disputes |
| Ongoing admin burden | Single platform for contracts, payroll, and benefits; WorkMotion manages multi-agency filings | Ongoing SEC, BIR, and LGU filings; annual audited financial statements; separate payroll management; local HR and legal counsel required |
| Exit flexibility | Offboard employees through WorkMotion’s platform; no entity wind-down required | Entity dissolution requires regulatory approvals and can take months |
EOR is the right fit for companies testing the Philippines market, building a remote team, or hiring a small number of specialized roles without committing to a permanent local structure.
Entity setup becomes worth evaluating when you’re planning a large, long-term operation in the Philippines – typically 15 or more employees – and need full operational control over your local corporate presence.
The Philippines has one of the most structured employment frameworks in Southeast Asia. Foreign employers who treat it as a straightforward market to enter often encounter compliance gaps that create real legal exposure. Here are the issues that come up most often.
Many overseas companies assume the 13th-month payment is a discretionary year-end bonus. It isn’t.
Under Presidential Decree No. 851, all rank-and-file employees who have worked at least one month during the calendar year are entitled to 13th-month pay – calculated as total basic salary earned divided by 12, and paid no later than December 24.
Non-payment carries penalties. WorkMotion accrues 13th-month pay throughout the year and administers the payment automatically, so there are no year-end surprises.
The Philippines does not have a single national minimum wage.
Rates are set by 16 Regional Tripartite Wages and Productivity Boards and vary by region, industry, and worker classification.
WorkMotion’s partner network tracks regional wage orders and applies the correct rates for each employee’s work location.
Philippine courts and the National Labor Relations Commission (NLRC) consistently rule in favor of employees when employers fail on procedure – even when the substantive reason for dismissal was legitimate.
Termination for just cause requires written notice, a hearing or opportunity to respond, and a second written notice confirming the decision.
Authorized causes (redundancy, closure) require 30 days’ written notice to both the employee and DOLE, plus separation pay. WorkMotion manages termination documentation and timelines to ensure the process is procedurally sound from the first notice.
The Department of Labor and Employment actively monitors the distinction between employees and independent contractors.
Treating a worker as a contractor when the actual working relationship meets the control-and-dependency test – where the employer controls not just the result but the manner and means of work – exposes the company to back payment of statutory contributions, separation pay, and benefits that should have been provided from day one.
WorkMotion’s Contractor Management service includes mandatory misclassification checks before each onboarding, so you know the correct classification before the engagement begins.
Late or missed remittances to SSS, PhilHealth, or Pag-IBIG are not treated as administrative oversights under Philippine law — they are criminal offenses.
Employers must remit both their own contributions and the employee’s withheld share on time, every month.
Companies managing global payroll informally or through fragmented arrangements frequently miss these deadlines. WorkMotion’s partner network handles all remittances and maintains the auditable records that regulators require.
The Philippines recognizes telecommuting arrangements under DOLE Department Order No. 202-19.
However, remote status does not reduce or waive any statutory employment obligation. Employees working remotely from the Philippines are still entitled to the full suite of statutory benefits.
Employers must still comply with occupational health and safety requirements through a documented telecommuting policy.
B2B SaaS companies headquartered in Germany, the Netherlands, or the UK – typically 50 to 300 employees – use WorkMotion to hire software developers, QA engineers, and data analysts in the Philippines without setting up a local entity.
The Philippines offers a large English-speaking tech talent pool, strong cultural alignment with global teams, and time zone coverage that works for European companies running follow-the-sun support or development cycles. WorkMotion’s partner network handles the employment compliance so the engineering lead can focus on the work, not the paperwork.
US companies building customer-facing or back-office teams in the Philippines – one of the world’s most established outsourcing markets – use WorkMotion’s EOR service to hire employees directly rather than routing through a BPO arrangement.
This gives them direct employment relationships, full control over team culture and performance management, and compliance with Philippine labor law, without the $100,000 capital requirement for a foreign-owned entity.
Distributed companies – often in fintech, healthtech, or e-commerce – that have already hired in Europe through WorkMotion’s EOR service extend the same model to the Philippines when they find the right candidate.
Rather than managing a separate local payroll vendor or misclassifying the hire as a contractor, they add the Philippines employee to their existing WorkMotion account.
The employment is compliant from day one: locally valid contract, correct statutory contributions, and 13th-month pay accrued automatically.
You’ve found the right candidate in the Philippines. The next step shouldn’t be a four-month entity registration process, a huge capital commitment, or a crash course in Philippine labor law.
WorkMotion’s EOR service handles the employment contract, government agency registrations, payroll in Philippine pesos, statutory contributions to SSS, PhilHealth, and Pag-IBIG, and 13th-month pay administration.
Your new hire gets a legally sound employment relationship from day one. Your team gets to focus on the work.
Use our Employment Cost Calculator to estimate the full cost of hiring in the Philippines before you commit. When you’re ready to move forward, our team will walk you through exactly how the onboarding works.
Through WorkMotion’s partner network in the Philippines, most employees can be onboarded within days of a signed contract, compared to the 8–16 weeks required to register a foreign-owned entity across the SEC, BIR, SSS, PhilHealth, Pag-IBIG, and local government permit offices. The EOR onboarding process in the Philippines covers government agency registrations, payroll setup in Philippine pesos, and statutory contribution enrollment. all handled without your team needing to manage any of the multi-agency filings directly. This makes EOR the practical path for companies that need to move quickly on a hire rather than waiting on incorporation timelines.
Philippine employers must remit contributions to three government agencies: the Social Security System (SSS), the Philippine Health Insurance Corporation (PhilHealth), and the Home Development Mutual Fund (Pag-IBIG), plus withhold and remit income tax to the Bureau of Internal Revenue (BIR) under the TRAIN Law. Late or missed remittances are not treated as administrative oversights under Philippine law — they are criminal offenses. When you hire through WorkMotion’s EOR service in the Philippines, our partner network manages all contribution calculations, remittances, and filing deadlines on your behalf, and maintains the auditable records that regulators require.
No. Employees hired through a Philippines employer of record receive the full suite of statutory benefits required under Philippine law — SSS coverage, PhilHealth healthcare, Pag-IBIG housing fund enrollment, mandatory 13th-month pay, and five days of Service Incentive Leave (SIL) after one year of continuous service. The 13th-month pay is a legal obligation under Presidential Decree No. 851, not a discretionary bonus, and WorkMotion accrues it throughout the year and administers the payment automatically before the December 24 deadline. Remote employees working from the Philippines are entitled to the same statutory benefits as on-site staff — telecommuting status does not reduce any employer obligation.
The Philippines has one of the most procedurally demanding termination frameworks in Southeast Asia. Even when a substantive reason for dismissal is valid, the National Labor Relations Commission (NLRC) consistently rules against employers who fail on procedure — termination for just cause requires two written notices and an opportunity for the employee to respond, while authorized causes such as redundancy require 30 days’ written notice to both the employee and the Department of Labor and Employment (DOLE), plus separation pay. WorkMotion’s partner network manages the full termination documentation process and timeline, ensuring procedural compliance from the first notice through to offboarding — reducing your company’s exposure to NLRC disputes.
When assessing EOR service providers in the Philippines, the key questions are: does the provider operate through a properly structured partner network with documented compliance processes, how do they handle the multi-agency registration requirements (SSS, PhilHealth, Pag-IBIG, BIR), and what is their track record on payroll accuracy and contribution remittance timeliness? WorkMotion is the first and only EOR provider to achieve IEC Gold Compliance Certification — independently audited across 1,000+ checkpoints covering licensing, employment law, payroll, data protection, and more — and holds a 94% client satisfaction score and 93.5% talent satisfaction score based on verified 2025 delivery results.
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