Slovakia is located in central Europe and is a parliamentary democracy. It is bordered by Poland to the north, Ukraine to the east, Hungary to the south, Austria to the southwest, and the Czech Republic to the northwest. Slovakia’s mostly mountainous territory spans about 49,000 square kilometers. Important industries in Slovakia include automobiles, machinery, steel, ceramics, chemicals, textiles, food and beverage processing, arms, and petroleum products.
*Please note that the official currency is the currency of remuneration when employed through WorkMotion in Slovakia.
Capital : Bratislava | Currency : Euro (EUR, €) | Languages spoken : Slovak |
Population : 5.45 million (2021 est.) | Minimum wage 2023 : €700 (monthly) | Cost of Living index : $$$ (70 of 139 countries) |
Payroll Frequency : Monthly | VAT - standard rate : 20% | GDP - real growth rate : 3% (2021 est.) |
Employees are entitled to the following 15 public holidays with pay.
The national holidays mentioned below are valid for the year 2023.
The approximate time for sharing the contract with an employee in Slovakia is 4 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 statutory working week in Slovakia may not exceed 40 hours. Depending on the type of work, normal working hours may range from 37.5 to 40 hours a week. Employees normally work five days a week.
The Labor Code also provides for a minimum uninterrupted daily rest period of 12 hours in a 24-hour day, uninterrupted rest of two consecutive days per week.
The average weekly work time, including overtime, must not exceed 48 hours. An employee can perform overtime work up to the maximum extent of 150 hours in a calendar year.
An employee working overtime is entitled to the wages earned and an additional payment of at least 25% of the employee’s average earnings. An employee working overtime and performing hazardous work is entitled to the wages earned and an additional payment of at least 35% of the employee’s average earnings.
The employment contract may specify a probation period that may not be more than three months, and for managerial posts, the probation period is a maximum of six months. A probation period is extended by each day the employee does not complete the entire work shift for their own reasons.
The notice period is at least one month.
The notice period given to employees for termination of the employment contract due to the employer being wound up or the redundancy and health condition of the employee is presented in the table below.
| Tenure | Notice Period |
| Below 1 year | 1 month |
| 1 to 5 years | 2 months |
| Over 5 years | 3 months |
The notice period for an employee who is given notice for reasons other than those stated in the previous paragraph must be at least two months if the employer in employment relationship has employed the employee for at least one year as at the date of delivery of notice.
If notice is given by an employee who has been employed in an employment relationship by the employer for at least one year as at the date of delivery of the notice, the notice is at least two months.
The basic annual leave allowance is a minimum of four weeks.
Employees who are at least 33 years old by the end of the current calendar year or who have a child in their permanent care are entitled to a minimum of five weeks annual leave.
Employees are entitled to claim annual leave from their employer after working at least 60 days in a calendar year. If they do not work for the whole year (but at least 60 days) for the employer, they are entitled to pro-rata annual leave. The pro-rata portion for each calendar month is calculated as 1/12th of the annual leave.
A certificate of temporary incapacity for work from a medical doctor is required when applying for sick leave. Employees are eligible for paid sick leave as follows:
| Sick Leave Duration | Pay |
| Days 1 to 3 | 25% of the normal wage paid by the employer |
| Days 4 to 10 | 55% of the normal wage paid by the employer |
| 11 or more days | 55% of the normal wage paid by the Social Insurance Agency |
Employees may request parental leave from their employer in order to spend more time looking after their children. Employers must grant such a request. Parental leave is provided for as long as the parent requests it (as a rule for at least one month) until the child reaches three years of age. If a child suffers long-term ill-health requiring special care, employers must approve a request for parental leave until the child reaches six years of age.
Maternity leave lasts for 34 weeks (37 weeks for a single mother, or 43 weeks if the mother has two or more babies at the same time). As a rule, the entitlement to maternity leave starts at a minimum of six and a maximum of eight weeks before the due date.
Maternity benefits of 75% of the employee’s salary are paid by the Social Security Agency.
Fathers in Slovakia are entitled to two weeks of paternity leave to spend time with the mother when the child is born, either to help her, or to experience this happy moment together as a family. Paternity leave is not be paid for by the employer, but by the Sociálne poisťovňa from the sickness insurance.
Employees who adopt or foster a child are entitled to leave for up to 28 weeks. A single man and woman are entitled to adoption leave of up to 31 weeks. An employee (male or female) taking care of two or more children is entitled to leave for 37 weeks. Adoption leave allowances are paid by the Social Security Agency.
Further parental leave can be provided until the child is three years old or, in cases where the child at the time of adoption was already three years old until the child reaches six years of age.
This leave may be provided by the employer with a salary amounting to the employee’s average earnings for seven days, especially if the qualifications to be obtained by the employee are relevant to the employer’s needs. ‘Obtaining more qualifications’ is also taken to mean the acquisition of new qualifications or an extension of existing qualifications.
Paid leave may also be granted for the following reasons:
| Reason for Paid Time off | Duration |
| The examination or treatment of an employee at a healthcare facility | 7 days |
| Accompanying a family member to a healthcare facility, accompanying a disabled child to a social care facility, or special school | 7 days |
| The death of a family member | 2 days and 1 additional day for attending the funeral |
| The employee’s own wedding | 1 day |
Unpaid leave may be granted for unforeseen interruptions or delays in regular public transport; if the employee has not been able to reach the place of work by other appropriate means.
Unpaid leave for a maximum period of one day is granted for relocation of an employee who is moving personal home furnishings in the same municipality, and unpaid leave for two days when moving to another municipality. If such relocation occurs due to the request, or need of the employer, such leave is compensated.
One day of unpaid leave is granted to the employee to attend the wedding of their child or parent.
The Social Insurance System in Slovakia is comprised of:
Employer contributions towards social security are capped at 25.2%, plus the mandatory contribution of 10% towards health insurance. A breakdown of the employer contributions to the social security system is presented below.
| Insurance type | Employer Contribution |
| Unemployment Insurance | 0.5% |
| Kurzarbeit | 0.5% |
| Sickness Insurance | 1.4% |
| Reserve fund of solidarity | 4.75% |
| Pension Insurance | 14% |
| Health Insurance | 10% (5% for people with disabilities) |
| Guarantee Insurance | 0.25% |
| Disability Insurance | 3% |
| Accident Insurance | 0.8% |
The Slovak healthcare system runs on mandatory health insurance contributions. General outpatient healthcare is provided to persons with public health insurance based on an agreement on the provision of healthcare concluded with a general practitioner in writing, free of charge, and for a minimum period of six months.
Specialized outpatient healthcare covered in part or in full by public health insurance is provided only upon a referral from a general practitioner. A referral is not required for psychiatry (including child psychiatry), dermato-venerology, and ophthalmology when it comes to prescribing the spectacles.
The employer’s health insurance contributions total is 10% of remuneration (5% for employees living with disabilities).
Accident insurance is compulsory for all employers. It was established to protect the employer from the risk of economic burden in the case of their liability for accident or death as a result of an occupational accident or occupational disease. Unlike sickness insurance and old-age insurance, compulsory accident insurance is only tied to the employer in terms of accident insurance premiums.
Employers contribute 0.8% towards the accident insurance fund.
A job seeker (compulsorily insured unemployed person – employee or voluntarily insured unemployed person) who has fulfilled qualifying conditions to this benefit is entitled to unemployment benefits.
The basic qualifying condition of the unemployment benefit is that the insured person was insured for the risk of unemployment for at least two years in the last four years prior to being registered into the Jobseekers Register, i.e. 730 days.
Employers contribute 0.5% towards unemployment insurance.
Slovakia has a three-pillar pension system that includes eliminating the retirement age cap, establishing an early retirement option for long-career workers, creating a parental pension supplement, introducing an automatic enrollment provision, and lowering administrative fees.
Employers contribute 14% towards the public pension.
The benefit of guarantee insurance is a benefit paid out of the basic guarantee insurance fund after the statutory conditions are met. It serves to satisfy claims resulting from employment due to the insolvency of the employer.
Employers contribute 0.25% towards the guarantee insurance fund.
The sickness benefit is provided to the insuree who has been recognized as temporarily incapacitated for work as a result of their sickness or accident or is obliged to respect a quarantine measure (hereinafter “temporary incapacity for work”).
Employers contribute 1.4% towards the sickness insurance benefit.
An insured person is entitled to a disability pension if:
The employer contributes 3% to the disability insurance.
Contributions to the solidarity reserve fund is paid by:
Employers contribute 4.75% of the assessment basis towards the reserve fund of solidarity.
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