Employer of record in Lithuania: what a hire costs in 2026

Why Lithuania's payroll looks upside down

Nearly all social insurance sits on the worker's side, so the employer columns of Sodra's rate table for hired staff are short:

• Unemployment insurance: 1.31% for an open-ended contract, 2.03% for a fixed-term one.
• Work accidents and occupational diseases: 0.14% in risk group I, 0.49% in group II (up from 0.43%), 0.7% in group III and 1.4% in group IV.
• Guarantee fund: 0.16%.
• Long-term employment benefits fund: 0.16%, calculated on at least the minimum wage.

The employee pays 19.5%: 8.72% pension, 1.99% sickness, 1.81% maternity and 6.98% health, plus 3% if they opt into pension accumulation.

The fixed-term point matters for project hires. A 12-month fixed contract costs 2.49% instead of 1.77%. On EUR 35,700 that is EUR 888.93 a year instead of EUR 631.89.

Eurostat records a EUR 115 rise in the monthly minimum wage for 2026, to EUR 1,153. Our data also lists a 40-hour full-time week and no statutory 13th salary, neither yet matched to the Labor Code.

Employment costs and rules in Lithuania

What an EOR charges to employ someone in Lithuania

EUR 35,700 in Lithuania: the employer's yearly bill

Our benchmark is USD 40,000 turned into euros at 1.1208 (ECB, October 15, 2026): EUR 35,700, or EUR 2,975 per payslip. The table assumes a permanent contract in accident group I.

Sodra's share: 1.77% of 35,700, EUR 631.89. Twelve fees of $599 make $7,188, worth EUR 6,413.28 at 1.1208. Monthly, you pay EUR 3,562.10 in all, EUR 534.44 of it to the provider.

Look at the proportions: here the provider's fee is about ten times the employer contributions. Moving from $599 to Pebl's or Playroll's $399 saves $2,400 a year (EUR 2,141.33 at 1.1208), more than three times the EUR 631.89 Sodra bill. Out of the employee's EUR 35,700, Sodra withholds EUR 6,961.50 (19.5%) before income tax.

Fees decide the EOR choice in Lithuania

With fees doing the damage, rank providers on price and terms. Our table has Multiplier on 79 and Oyster on 64 out of 100, Remote 62, Playroll 60, Pebl 57, Deel 54 (our scoring method). Multiplier's $499 monthly list drops to $459 if you pay a year ahead. Oyster costs $699, but its terms set the deposit (one month of total service cost as a floor) and bills nothing for setup or exit.

Read the term too. A Remote contract on default terms lasts 12 months and renews automatically unless you give notice; Pebl's employee term model ties each worker to 12 months. More in the EOR ranking, the Remote review, the Deel review, the Oyster review and the fee comparison.

Lithuanian freelancers versus employees

With 1.77% at stake on the employer side, a contractor setup mostly saves the provider fee, not tax. What is exposed is the 19.5% Sodra share and income tax that should have been withheld if a full-time, supervised role turns out to be employment. For a real independent contractor, look at contractor management platforms or a contractor of record.

A Lithuanian UAB or an EOR

Because the provider fee is nearly all of your overhead, the entity question is simple arithmetic: when do $7,188-a-year fees outgrow a local company plus a payroll bureau? Five hires at $599 already run $35,940 a year. Our EOR versus entity guide walks through the comparison.