Employment Solutions in Korea (EOR/PEO)

Are you looking to expand your business to Korea but aren't ready to establish a local entity?

Setting up a business in South Korea often necessitates the hiring of domestic employees. However, local employment in Korea comes with legal, financial, and administrative responsibilities that can make the entire process complicated and challenging to achieve without local support.

If you wish to hire local employees in South Korea, KOISRA UP can help you by providing local employment solutions such as Employer of Record (EOR), Professional Employer Organization (PEO), and Hybrid Payroll Employment.

Employer of Record in Korea, PEO and Hybrid Payroll are an efficient and quick employment solutions for companies wishing to expand into the Korean market and recruit local employees without the need to become a local Korean employer or establish a local Korean company.

In other words, KOISRA UP employment solutions outsource the legal hiring and HR administration functions while you maintain the direction and guidance of the employees' activities. Such solution will help you to expand quickly into the Korean market. 

In order to help foreign companies to hire employees in Korea as expeditiously and compliantly as possible, we provide fully-featured, Employment and HR Services:

• Consult and advice regarding common employment terms in Korea
• Drafting local employment agreement according to the local labor regulations and client terms of employment
• Providing full and transparent calculation report of the employment cost 
• Monthly Payroll processing and payment to employees 
• Employees’ income tax, local insurances and pension calculation 
• Electronic pay slips to each employee

It is important to emphasize that the concept of PEO or EOR is not fully recognized in Korean law. There are various types of restrictions on the employment of employees by third party agencies, both regarding the duration of the employment and the field of occupation. As an example - foreign company is not allowed to use PEO or EOR employment model in Korea for sales positions for more than 6 to 12 months, without special employment structure. Accordingly, KOISRA offers a employment model similar to the EOR or PEO but with the necessary adjustments.

In order to overcome the restrictions applied in Korea to PEO / EOR employment models, KOISRA UP recently developed the Hybrid Payroll Employment model - a unique employment solutions for foreign companies which provided cost-effective alternative to EOR/PEO employment models. In such model the local Korean employee is directly hired/contracted by the foreign company (outside of Korea) but the HR administration and payroll work done locally by us. Such hybrid employment model is supported and recognized by the Korean national tax authorities and there is no requirement to set up local Korean entity. Under Hybrid Payroll employment, the local employee enjoy almost the same benefits like regular employee, that include national health and medical insurance, national pension coverage and retirement (severance fee) compensation. In addition, the local employee enjoy 5% tax deduction on his income tax. By this advanced employment model, foreign companies can reduce their HR/Service fee cost and pay less mandatory contributions, that compare to the EOR and PEO services. 

To learn more about this employment model, please check - What is Hybrid Payroll Employment in Korea?

PEO / EOR and Hybrid Payroll are part of our broader employment solutions in Korea. If you already have a local Korean company and are looking specifically for payroll support, please see our dedicated Payroll Services in Korea page. Due to the nature of payroll in Korea, it is common to combine payroll with Accounting and Bookkeeping Services, and KOISRA UP can provide a full integrated package covering both.