Employer of Record in Malta: A Complete Guide for 2026

Introduction

You’re planning to recruit talented employees in Malta and run streamlined payroll operations, but you don't yet have a subsidiary in the country.

Setting up a local entity takes months, navigating Malta's Employment and Industrial Relations Act (EIRA) is complex, and one compliance mistake can cost you hefty fines and delay your entire expansion timeline.

This is why only 7% of companies stay compliant when expanding globally.

This guide explains how Employer of Record (EOR) solutions like Skuad eliminate the complexity of international hiring.

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Malta at a glance

Population: 0.5 million

Currency: Euro (EUR)

Capital: Valletta

Languages spoken: Maltese and English

Gross Domestic Product (GDP): €26.36 billion

Employment in Malta

Malta labor laws

The Employment and Industrial Relations Act, under the Laws of Malta Chapter 452, and a series of 118 subsidiary regulations govern employment in Malta.

These laws cover working conditions, rights, minimum wages, termination clauses, and more. Several EU directives and regulations, such as those on the posting of workers, transfer of business, and collective redundancies, form subsidiary laws in Malta.

Maltese Laws regulate health and safety, along with disability, equivalent treatment, and data protection.

In Malta, the regulator for immigration is the central government, which relates to citizenship and immigration.

This includes the regulation of citizenship and the Individual Investor Program (IIP). Before the introduction of the IIP, applicants for citizenship were processed by a department within the Prime Minister’s Office.

Other employee entitlements are given below.

Contractors vs. Full-time employees

Although an employment contract does not have to be in writing, the following points are important.

• When a period of employment is more than one month and exceeds eight hours of work in a week, the employer is required to provide a written statement to the employee giving the conditions of work within the eight working hours in a day, starting from the initiation of the job or employment
• A written employment contract and job description are considered good practices
• Employment contracts can be definite or indefinite
• A definite contract means a fixed-term contract wherein both parties normally accept its duration. It also includes a date of expiry
• An indefinite contract is one wherein the employee is engaged in employment for an indefinite period (without a limit).

Malta employment invariably includes an employment contract under which the employee consents to complete detailed work for an employer for agreed salaries.

A written statement with the agreed conditions of employment is provided to the employee within eight days following the appointment.

Employment includes a definite term or an indefinite term and may be a full-time or part-time one. The salary frequency payments vary with the nature of the job. Salaries are directly credited to the bank account of the employees.

If employment is terminated based on redundancy, the employee will be reemployed if the position is available within one year from the termination date.

Employment that is temporary and fixed-term expires at the end of the specified period, and no notice is required.

A fixed-term contract shall be taken as an indefinite period contract if the employee is retained after the contract expires, if the latter is not provided with a new contract within the first 12 working days after the expiry of the former contract.

If a Maltese authority later reclassifies your contractor as an employee under Subsidiary Legislation 452.108 (the Employment Status National Standard Order), you owe back pay, social security, leave entitlements, and redundancy pay, and the prescription window for DIER (Department for Industrial and Employment Relations) to act is now two years, not one.

Here’s what Skuad can help you with:

EOR for full-time employees

• Acts as the legal employer across 160+ countries, so you can hire without setting up a local entity
• Supports employment contract generation aligned with local labor laws across supported markets
• Facilitates statutory contribution workflows covering applicable social insurance and pension obligations
• Supports payroll processing in 70+ currencies with automated tax withholding and year-end reconciliation
• Helps administer statutory benefits, paid leave, and parental entitlements in line with local requirements
• Assists with termination and offboarding, including notice periods and severance calculations as required locally

Contractor management

• Helps onboard contractors with locally compliant agreements that reduce misclassification exposure
• Supports invoice generation, approval workflows, and payment processing in local currency
• Helps flag classification risk before it becomes a compliance issue with built-in worker classification checks
• Facilitates multi-currency payouts across 70+ currencies with no manual reconciliation
• Helps manage contractor records, contracts, and payment history from a single dashboard alongside full-time employees

Full-time or contractor, Skuad supports both. See pricing

Hiring

The primary step in the hiring process is posting a job advertisement. The employers must provide detailed information regarding the job role and its duties of the role.

The following portals can help find jobs.

• Times of Malta
• MaltaJobs
• CareerJet
• JobsInMalta
• LinkedIn
• MaltaJobPort
• Maltapark
• KeepMePosted

Hiring process in Malta

For new employees in the labor market, the documents required are as follows.

• Employee’s identification card
• The employment license for nationals of third countries and the EU is going through a phase of transition
• A certificate from the Department of Citizenship and Expatriates, Evans Building, St. Elmo Place, Valletta, for those born abroad but with dual citizenship
• There is restricted employment of minors of compulsory school age.
• Employers must legally notify the career portals of the details of new employees.
• The corporation must also be informed of terminations.
• For Maltese nationals, if the employers are advertising on job sites, the details of competencies, qualifications, skills, and work experience requirements must be given.
• For employing EU nationals, the vacancies can be advertised on job portals and through job fairs and recruitment events conducted for 31 European-wide network countries (EURES).
• For employing third-world countries’ nationals, a single permit directive is to be followed.

Advantages and pitfalls of online hiring

The advantages of online hiring are as follows.

• It is cost-effective
• It is quickly available
• It can stretch out to a large market
• It is easy and simple
• It can allow the creation of powerful job advertisements
• It is flexible and allows confidentiality

The disadvantages of online hiring are as follows.

• The effectiveness of the candidate cannot be measured immediately
• It is an informal process
• It may not attract the right candidates
• Technical issues can hinder the process

Probation and termination

Probation period

Probation is the first six months of employment. The parties may consent to a lesser term.

For a contract of service or a collective agreement concerning employees with executive, technical, managerial, or administrative jobs, or when the wages are at least twice the minimum wages for the year, the probation period is one year, unless a shorter duration is agreed upon.

The probationary period is not to be increased beyond the maximum period approved by law. Where the employer and the employee allow for a lesser period, such a period is compelling by law and may be increased up to the highest limit considered by law if both parties agree.

Termination of service

When on probation, each party can terminate the employment without specifying any cause, given that one week's notice is provided if the employment has surpassed one month.

But in the matter of terminating the employment of a pregnant employee while on probation, the employer is required to give her the grounds in writing to verify that the removal is independent of the employee’s health.

The Employer may only terminate a contract of employment based on a right and satisfactory cause. A term that has no legal explanation and comprises the interpretational reason for each case of wrongful removal is not valid.

Maltese employment law allows termination only for "good and sufficient cause" or genuine redundancy, and unfair dismissal claims can be filed with the Industrial Tribunal within four months.

Get the termination grounds, notice period, or pregnancy protection wrong, and you face back pay, reinstatement orders, and DIER (Department of Industrial and Employment Relations) enforcement with first-offence penalties of EUR 2,000 to EUR 5,000 under the 2025 EIRA (Employment and Industrial Relations Act) amendments.

Skuad acts as your local EOR infrastructure, so your team doesn't need to interpret draft locally compliant agreements, monitor regulatory changes, or manage filings independently.

Book a demo to see how Skuad helps you to stay compliant while you grow your team in Malta.

EOR solution in Malta

Setting up a Maltese private limited company takes about two to three weeks once documents are ready, requires EUR 1,164.69 in authorised share capital, and commits your team to ongoing director, secretary, and Malta Business Registry obligations before a single employee is onboarded.

An EOR service like Skuad removes that dependency. Since Skuad acts as the legal employer in Malta, your company can hire, onboard, and pay employees without entity setup, local legal counsel, or in-house Malta payroll infrastructure.

Here is what Skuad helps with:

• Employment contract generation across 160+ countries, aligned with local labor laws and statutory requirements
• Statutory contribution workflows across supported markets, covering applicable social insurance and pension obligations
• Payroll processing in 70+ currencies with accurate tax withholding and statutory deductions
• Termination and offboarding support aligned with local labor requirements across supported markets
• Work permit and visa support for foreign nationals joining your team
• Background verification covering identity, employment history, and criminal records before onboarding

The greatest benefit of working with an EOR service is that you can focus on growing your company while your EOR partner takes care of the rest.

Book a demo to see how Skuad gets your first Malta hire onboarded in weeks, not months

Types of visas

Requirements to obtain a work visa in Malta

The requirements of a Maltese visa are:

• A completed visa application form
• Covering letter justifying the applicant’s trip to Malta
• At least two blank pages in a valid passport
• Two passport-size photos
• Proof that the applicant has travel medical insurance covering the entire Schengen area
• A company based in Malta provides an employment contract
• Proof of accommodations for the stay in Malta
• Proof of satisfactory financial means to cover the complete period of stay of the applicant

Work permits in Malta

For Malta’s accession to the EU, citizens of EU/EFTA countries and their close family members, including spouses and children, will not require any employment licenses for working in Malta, even if they are not EU or EFTA citizens. All other nationals, termed  Third Country Nationals (TCNs) are to provide a single permit application for working and residing in Malta.

Single permit procedure

From 2014, every TCN (Third-Country National) is required to complete the process of a single permit. This is to be approved for work and residing in Malta. This single permit system requires the application of a Single Permit, which must include the following.

• A valid employment contract copy
• Cover from private medical insurance for 12 months
• Position description signed by the employer
• A signed CV
• References for work experience of a minimum of three years are to be submitted to Identity Malta

Skuad’s extensive EOR services include sponsoring work permits. Immigration laws are revised regularly, so it’s hard to keep up with the latest developments.

Payroll & taxes in Malta

Taxes in Malta

In Malta, the taxes are as follows

Payroll options in Malta

The two main choices include the following:

Incorporation of a subsidiary in Malta

For incorporating a subsidiary in Malta in 2025, the investor must observe the provisions of the Maltese Companies Act. These include:

• Name and registered address of the office
• Details of the nature of the company
• Details of the company’s activities
• Shareholders’ details
• Amount of capital details
• Shareholders’ rights and the number of shares issued to all shareholders
• Company directors and secretary details
• Availability period
• The company’s legal representative details

Check how Skaud supported PureRED to build a global delivery team across the UK, Spain, Croatia, Greece, Colombia, and India, without setting up entities in every country.

Professional Employer Organization

A professional employer organization (PEO) collaborates with medium- and small-sized organizations to provide HR services. A PEO handles various HR services such as recruitment, payroll, training, and other HR tasks.

An EOR also provides similar HR services; however, the difference lies in the arrangement or association between the outsourcing company and the business.

A PEO acts as your co-employer, whereas an EOR service acts as the legal employer of your employees. The latter assumes all the responsibilities and liabilities of your remote team. You can outsource a specific HR function or end-to-end activities.

Further, an EOR service allows you to expand your workforce without setting up a business entity. It handles payroll funding, workers’ compensation, and unemployment claims and reports. It files taxes under its file ID number.

A PEO service cannot provide these services without an existing subsidiary setup.

EOR in Malta: Start without entity setup

When you expand into new countries, manual onboarding, payroll, and compliance management create delays, inconsistencies, and regulatory risk.

Skuad's EOR supports you and provides the global infrastructure to hire, pay, and manage employees and contractors in 160+ countries (including Malta) through a single, easy-to-use interface.

Companies across AI/SaaS, HR Tech, MarTech, LogTech, FinTech, and Staffing use Skuad to get hires onboarded in weeks.

Explore Skaud’s EOR platform to see how easy it is to onboard, manage, and pay employees in Malta, all while staying compliant. Book a demo.

FAQs

1.What is an employer of record in Malta?

An Employer of Record in Malta is a local entity that legally employs your staff under the Employment and Industrial Relations Act. The EOR manages payroll processing, tax compliance, and benefits administration, as per the local law.

2.Can a foreign company hire in Malta without a local entity?

Foreign companies can hire in Malta without registering a local entity by working with an EOR. It holds the local employment contract, files with the Commissioner for Revenue and Department of Social Security, and processes payroll in Euros.

3.How much does an Employer of Record in Malta cost?

EOR services in Malta typically cost between $199 and $599/employee/month, depending on the provider you choose. On top of the platform fee, you cover the employee's gross salary plus employer social security contributions.

4.What is the average salary in Malta?

The average monthly salary in Malta is approximately €1,800 to €2,000, which translates to around $2,100 to $2,300. Salaries in Malta change based on the industry & job role. To calculate the cost of employment in Malta, click here.

5.How long does it take to onboard an employee in Malta through an EOR?

Onboarding through an EOR in Malta usually takes one to two weeks for EU and EEA citizens. For Third Country Nationals, the Single Permit application through the Identità portal adds four to eight weeks before the employee can start. The EOR handles the permit filing, employment contract, and Jobsplus engagement form on your behalf.