Employer of Record

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Employer of Record Services in Peru

Peru combines a growing economy, competitive technical talent, and a labor framework that rewards expert administration to operate efficiently.

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Country fact sheet

Country Fact Sheet: Peru

Peru is one of Latin America's most open economies: an extensive free-trade network, a mining and agro-export base that generates hard currency, and a fast-growing services sector that increasingly serves North American clients from the same time zone. Hiring is attractive; the labor framework, however, is protective and administratively detailed, which is exactly where an Employer of Record removes friction.

Currency: Sol (PEN)
Time zone: UTC−5, no DST
Working week: 48 hours
Paid vacation: 30 calendar days

Country overview

Major industries & sectors

Mining and metals — copper, gold and zinc; Peru is the world's second-largest copper producer and mining dominates exports.
Agro-exports — blueberries (world's leading exporter), avocado, grapes and asparagus.
Fishing and fishmeal, one of the country's traditional export engines.
Financial services, retail and construction concentrated in Lima.
Technology, shared services and BPO — nearshore engineering, customer support and back office for US companies.

Why now

The Chancay deep-water megaport (operational since November 2024) is reshaping Pacific logistics and drawing trade and logistics investment.
A broad FTA network — United States, EU, China, Canada, Japan, Korea, CPTPP and the Pacific Alliance — supports export-oriented operations.
Competitive salary levels against US and European benchmarks for equivalent technical profiles.
A deepening bilingual talent pool in Lima for engineering, finance and customer-facing roles.

Benefits of doing business

Time zone alignment

Peru stays on UTC−5 all year, with no daylight saving: full-day overlap with US Eastern business hours and near-total overlap with Central.

Technical and bilingual talent

Engineering, finance, mining services and customer-support profiles, with a growing English-capable segment concentrated in Lima and Arequipa.

Competitive cost base

Total employment cost remains well below US and Western European levels for comparable seniority, even after statutory benefits.

Trade and market access

One of the region's widest FTA networks plus Pacific Alliance membership, useful for export, sourcing and regional service delivery.

Logistics infrastructure

Callao and the new Chancay megaport give Peru direct deep-water capacity for Asia–South America trade.

Macroeconomic discipline

An independent central bank and historically one of the region's lowest inflation records, with the sol as a relatively stable currency.

Challenges of establishing a local entity

Incorporation runs through several bodies in sequence: name reservation and public deed at SUNARP, tax ID (RUC) at SUNAT, legalization of corporate and payroll books, and a municipal operating licence (licencia de funcionamiento).
Practitioners typically quote four to eight weeks end to end, and corporate bank account opening (KYC on foreign shareholders) is frequently the longest single step.
Before the first hire the company must be enrolled in the Planilla Electrónica and register each worker in T-Registro; payroll then generates a monthly PLAME filing to SUNAT.
Ongoing obligations do not scale down for a small headcount: statutory accounting, monthly tax and payroll filings, CTS deposits in May and November, gratificaciones in July and December, and profit-sharing calculations.
SUNAFIL, the labor inspectorate, audits contracts, working-time records, benefit payment and health-and-safety compliance, with fines for formal defects alone.
Winding the entity down again is slower and more expensive than opening it — a real cost if the market test does not succeed.

Criterion	Own legal entity	With Grupo IERG (EOR)
Time to first hire	Typically 4–8 weeks for the entity, plus registrations, before anyone can be onboarded.	Days: the contract is issued and the employee registered under an existing, already-compliant employer.
Set-up cost	Incorporation, notary, registry, licensing, banking and advisory fees, plus capitalization.	No incorporation cost; a per-employee monthly fee.
Payroll & filings	In-house or outsourced payroll, T-Registro, PLAME, SUNAT and EsSalud remittances managed by you.	Run end to end by Grupo IERG, including all statutory deposits and filings.
Compliance exposure	The entity carries SUNAFIL, SUNAT and labor-court exposure directly.	The formal employer obligations sit with Grupo IERG.
Exit	Formal dissolution, liquidation and deregistration across each authority.	Contractual notice and a compliant termination with the statutory settlement.

Employment & labor law summary

01Contracts, working time and overtime+

Requirement	What the law requires
Contract types	Indefinite-term (the default), fixed-term 'sujeto a modalidad' — permitted only on statutory grounds and for limited durations — and part-time contracts (under 4 hours average daily, which lose some benefits such as CTS and severance).
Written form	Fixed-term and part-time contracts must be in writing; indefinite contracts may be verbal, but written contracts are standard practice and strongly advisable.
Standard hours	Maximum 8 hours per day and 48 hours per week (Constitution art. 25 and D.S. 007-2002-TR).
Overtime	Voluntary as a rule: +25% on the first two hours and +35% from the third hour onward, over the ordinary hourly rate.
Weekly rest and holidays	24 consecutive hours of weekly rest, usually Sunday. Work on a rest day or public holiday without substitute rest is paid at a 100% premium.
Night work	Night-shift pay may not be lower than the minimum wage plus a 35% surcharge.
Probation	Three months as standard; extendable by written agreement to six months for qualified or trust positions and twelve months for management and highly specialized roles.

Important: Peruvian law treats the indefinite contract as the default. Fixed-term contracts require a valid statutory cause stated in the document; if the cause is defective, courts may reclassify the relationship as indefinite (desnaturalización) with retroactive effect.

02Leave, holidays and family entitlements+

Requirement	What the law requires
Annual vacation	30 calendar days of paid leave for each full year of service, with the full monthly remuneration payable.
Public holidays	Roughly 15–18 national holidays per year; the exact number varies because the government adds non-working days by decree in some years.
Sick leave	The employer pays the first 20 days of temporary incapacity per calendar year; from day 21 EsSalud pays the subsidy, subject to caps and contribution history.
Maternity leave	98 calendar days — 49 pre-natal and 49 post-natal, with a permitted deferral of the pre-natal portion. Extended by 30 days for multiple births or a child with a disability (Ley 26644).
Paternity leave	10 calendar days as standard, extended in the cases set out in Ley 29409 as amended (premature birth, multiple births, serious complications or congenital conditions).
Nursing leave	One paid hour per day until the child reaches one year of age.
Parental leave	Peru has no general shared parental leave beyond the maternity and paternity entitlements above.

03Mandatory benefits and statutory payments+

Requirement	What the law requires
Gratificaciones	Two statutory bonuses of one full monthly salary each, in July (Independence Day) and December (Christmas), pro-rated by months worked in each semester.
Extraordinary bonus	An additional 9% of each gratificación is paid to the employee — the employer's EsSalud contribution on the bonus, transferred to the worker (Ley 29351 and extensions).
CTS	Compensación por Tiempo de Servicios: a severance-savings deposit into the employee's bank account each 15 May and 15 November, equivalent to roughly one month's remuneration per year of service.
Family allowance	Employees with children under 18 (or up to 24 while in higher education) receive 10% of the minimum wage per month, regardless of the number of children.
Profit sharing	Companies with more than 20 workers distribute a percentage of pre-tax income set by sector under D. Leg. 892 (commonly 5%, 8% or 10% depending on activity).
Life insurance (Vida Ley)	Mandatory life cover; since Ley 29549/D.U. 044-2019 it must be contracted from the start of the employment relationship.
Minimum wage	The Remuneración Mínima Vital was set at S/ 1,130 per month effective 1 January 2025; it is revised by supreme decree, so we confirm the current figure at contracting.

Important: CTS and gratificaciones mean that annual cash cost in Peru is materially above twelve monthly salaries. Budget roughly 14 payments plus contributions when modelling total employment cost.

04Social security, payroll taxes and insurance+

Requirement	What the law requires
Health — EsSalud	9% of remuneration, paid by the employer, with the statutory minimum contribution base tied to the minimum wage.
Pension — employee	Mandatory election between the public system (ONP, 13% of remuneration) and a private AFP (roughly 12.5–13% including the fund's commission and disability/survivor premium). Withheld from the employee.
High-risk work — SCTR	Employers in activities listed as high-risk (mining, construction, manufacturing among others) must contract complementary health and pension risk cover for those workers.
Income tax	Fifth-category income tax is withheld monthly by the employer on a progressive scale, with an annual deduction of 7 tax units (UIT) before the brackets apply.
Employer registrations	RUC with SUNAT, enrolment in the Planilla Electrónica, and registration of each worker in T-Registro no later than the day work begins.
Monthly reporting	PLAME — the electronic payroll declaration filed with SUNAT each month, covering remuneration, withholdings and contributions.
Recordkeeping	Payroll, attendance and contract records must be retained and produced on inspection; five years is the standard retention practice for payroll documentation.

Important: Pension commissions differ per AFP and are updated periodically by the SBS; the exact deduction for a given hire is confirmed against the SBS schedule in force at onboarding.

05Termination and severance+

Requirement	What the law requires
Grounds	Dismissal requires a cause based either on conduct or on capacity, with a documented procedure: written notice of the charges and a defence period of no fewer than six calendar days.
Notice	There is no general indemnity in lieu of notice; the statutory procedure is the pre-dismissal defence period. Resigning employees give 30 days' notice, waivable by the employer.
Arbitrary dismissal	Dismissal without demonstrable cause entitles the worker to 1.5 monthly salaries per year of service, capped at 12 monthly salaries, with pro-rating for fractions.
Fixed-term early termination	Early termination without cause is compensated with 1.5 salaries for each remaining month of the contract, subject to the same cap.
Final settlement	Accrued vacation, pro-rated gratificación, outstanding CTS, and remaining remuneration must be settled at the end of the relationship.

Important: Reinstatement is a live remedy in Peru: constitutional case law allows courts to order the worker's return in cases of null or fraudulent dismissal, which raises the stakes on procedural correctness.

Employer compliance checklist

1
Obtain the RUC (tax ID) and enrol the employer in the Planilla Electrónica.
2
Register the company with EsSalud and enable pension remittances (ONP/AFP).
3
Issue a written employment contract in Spanish, with the statutory cause stated if fixed-term.
4
Register the worker in T-Registro no later than the first day of work.
5
Record the employee's pension election (ONP or AFP) and apply the corresponding withholding.
6
Contract Vida Ley life insurance and, for high-risk activities, SCTR cover.
7
Set up working-time records and the attendance control system required on inspection.
8
Schedule statutory calendar items: CTS (15 May / 15 November) and gratificaciones (July / December).
9
File PLAME monthly and remit EsSalud, pension and income-tax withholdings.
10
Retain contracts, payslips and time records for inspection by SUNAFIL.

Why use an Employer of Record?

No local entity: you hire in Peru without SUNARP incorporation, RUC, municipal licence or a corporate bank account.

Onboarding in days rather than the four to eight weeks an entity typically takes.

Compliant contracts drafted in Spanish under Peruvian law, avoiding reclassification of fixed-term arrangements.

Payroll, T-Registro, PLAME, EsSalud, pensions and income-tax withholding handled end to end.

Statutory benefits — CTS, gratificaciones, vacation, family allowance, Vida Ley, SCTR — calculated and paid on the legal calendar.

Terminations executed with the correct procedure and settlement, reducing arbitrary-dismissal exposure.

Talk to an EOR expert

Primary sources: Constitución Política del Perú (art. 25) · D.S. 003-97-TR (LPCL) and D.S. 007-2002-TR · Ministerio de Trabajo y Promoción del Empleo (MTPE) · SUNAT — Planilla Electrónica, T-Registro and PLAME · EsSalud; SBS (AFP system); SUNAFIL · gob.pe — Remuneración Mínima Vital

Information reviewed February 2026. Figures indexed to minimum wage, tax units or annual decrees change periodically; we confirm the applicable values for each engagement. This page is general information, not legal or tax advice.

Services provided

End-to-end EOR services

We employ, pay and stay compliant on your behalf in every jurisdiction — no local entity or in-country HR operation required.

Employer of Record

We become the formal legal employer of your talent: we sign the local contract, answer to authorities and absorb the legal complexity. You keep full operational direction of the team.

Payroll & multi-currency payments

Salaries and deductions, tax withholding, on-time local-currency payments and consolidated reporting across multiple countries — one auditable operation.

International labor compliance

Minimum wage, statutory benefits, vacation and leave, social security and every piece of labor documentation each authority requires — kept current in each jurisdiction.

Localized employment contracts

Contracts drafted under each country's legal framework: language, currency, salary structure, benefits, probation period, termination causes and notice periods correct from day one.

Onboarding & offboarding

Onboarding — contract, registration and first payroll — resolved in business days. Terminations executed with correct settlements, notices and formal legal closure.

Global contractor payments

Where a full EOR solution isn't required, we support payments to independent contractors in additional international markets, with proper documentation and compliance.

Why work with Grupo IERG

Hiring in another country instantly activates a set of obligations — entity setup, registrations, contracts, payroll, benefits, terminations — that few companies are ready to absorb. Grupo IERG offers a third path between "don't hire" and "build a full structure": hire now, compliant from day one, backed by two decades of local operation in regulated Latin American markets.

FAQ

Frequently asked questions

What is an Employer of Record (EOR)?+

An Employer of Record is a company that acts as the legal employer of your staff in a given country. It signs the local contract, runs payroll, withholds taxes and contributions and answers to labor authorities, while your company keeps day-to-day direction of the work.

Do I need to open a legal entity to hire?+

No. With the EOR model you can onboard people without incorporating a local company, registering for local taxes or building an in-country administrative structure.

How long does onboarding take?+

Once the role terms are agreed and candidate documentation is received, onboarding is usually completed within business days: local contract, mandatory registrations and payroll enrollment.

Who carries the labor and compliance risk?+

Grupo IERG assumes the formal employer obligations (contract, payroll, contributions, documentation). Your company retains responsibility for business decisions and operational management of the team.

Is the EOR model right for every situation?+

It is not a substitute for your own entity when there are regulated activities, local licensing requirements or a large permanent operation. In those cases EOR is typically a bridge while entity setup is evaluated.

Representative experience

Grupo IERG's team has supported EOR, workforce administration, and contractor-payment programs involving companies and partners such as:

EOR clients