Portugal Employer of Record Services
Portugal Statutory Leave
Employer of Record Portugal
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Portugal Maternity Leave
Employees who are pregnant and have paid Social Security taxes for the previous six months are eligible for 120 or 150 days of paid maternity leave, paid at 100% or 80% of their salaries, respectively. For multiple births the employee is entitled to an additional 30 days of paid leave.
Paid maternity leave can begin 30 days before the expected due date, and an employee can’t return to work for at least 6 weeks after giving birth. However, any remaining leave outside the 6 mandatory weeks can be split between both parents as they see fit.
The employee may also extend the leave for an additional 90 days, paid at 25% of their average salary.
Paternity Leave in Portugal
Any worker who has paid into Social Security in the past six months is eligible for 20 days of paid paternity leave, with an additional five days optionally available. Five days must be taken immediately following the birth of the child, and the remaining 15 days can be taken at any time during the six weeks that follow. During this time, Social Security will pay the employee at the full rate of their salary.
Employees who adopt a child under the age of 15 or who take in a foster child are entitled to the same amount of maternity, paternity and parental leave as birth parents.
As with those on maternity leave, the employee on paternity leave has the option of taking an additional 90 days off at a reduced salary of 25%.
Shared Parental Leave in Portugal
When both parents have taken their legally mandated six-week maternity and twenty-day paternity leaves, the remaining 78 or 108 days can be split between both parents as they see fit. If the couple opts to take a total of 120 days leave it will be paid at 100% of salary, and at 80% of salary if they opt to take the longer leave of 150 days.
Portugal Annual Leave
An employee has the right to 20 days of paid leave, accrued at a rate of two days per month, during their first year of employment. The statutory minimum after one year of employment is 22 days of paid leave annually.
7 days can be carried forward, but only for a single year. It is important to note that employers in Portugal are prohibited by law from compensating workers financially for not taking their allotted vacation days.
Public Holidays in Portugal
There are 9 public holidays in Portugal, including the following:
- New Year’s Day
- Good Friday
- Freedom Day
- Labour Day
- Portugal Day
- Assumption Day
- Immaculate Conception Day
- Christmas Eve
- Christmas Day
Except in businesses with fewer than 10 employees, who are only eligible for substitute public holidays up to 25% of the time worked, employers are required to provide either paid leave or other days in lieu on all public and regional holidays.
Portugal Sick Leave
If an employee has paid into Portuguese Social Security for the previous six months, they are eligible for up to 1095 days of paid sick leave. For purposes of determining eligibility, the first three days are considered to be “qualifying time” and are therefore unpaid. Employees are entitled to different rates of pay over the duration of the leave, as follows:
Time period | Pay (percentage of base salary) |
0 – 3 days | 0% |
3 – 30 days | 55% |
31 – 90 days | 60% |
91 – 365 days | 70% |
365 – 1095 days | 75% |
Other Statutory Leave in Portugal
Bereavement leave: in the event of a death of an immediate family member, employees in Portugal are eligible for up to five days of paid leave.
Carers leave: employees are entitled to 30 days of paid leave each year to provide immediate and necessary care for a child under the age of 12 and 15 days for an elderly relative.
Marriage leave: employees are entitled to 15 days of paid leave in the event of their marriage.
Wondering if expanding
in Portugal is right for you?
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We are Portugal EOR experts
We have extensive experience helping businesses expand their workforce in the Portugal. Take a look at our areas of expertise below:
Find out how payroll works in Portugal and what you can expect when it comes to salaries, bonuses and tax
We will take care of all Payroll, HR and Legal processing with a fully-manged EOR service in Portugal.
Learn more about how you can attract and retain staff in Portugal with both statutory and enhanced employee benefits
Unsure about what’s required when employing staff in Portugal? Find out about Portuguese Work Permits and Visas here
Wondering what it’s like to live and work in Portugal? We’ve got you covered in our extensive guide, including the do’s and don’ts
Without Agility EOR, our ability to move quickly and scale would be extremely limited. Superb work from A to Z.
Carol Oliveira
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Frequently Asked Questions
Payrolling the employees is a key part of the service offered by an employer of record company. The EOR will calculate and remit all taxes, social securities and similar payments, on behalf of both employer and employee. The client will be invoiced in advance by the EOR company, for the total cost of the payroll.
Yes. Our clients are free to dictate the structure of the employees’ remuneration including any bonuses or commissions they wish to offer. In some countries, there is a statutory requirement to provide “bonuses”, for example in the form of Christmas or holiday allowances.
Yes. Agility EOR will calculate what pay is due upon termination of an employee, factoring in such things as any untaken leave entitlements.
We find that most of our clients are in the Tech, IT, Finance and Professional Services industries. However, we have acquired the skills, knowledge and experience to help all industries across the globe.
As a private company, we’re not beholden to shareholders or asset-shredding Private Equity targets. We aim to build long-term relationships with our clients. At Agility EOR, our approach is that we never forget that our business is all about people. Our Employer of Record solutions are tailored to each requirement, not a one-size-fits-all tech platform. We do the right thing by our clients and by the laws of each country we operate in. And we believe in openness; if we don’t feel we can offer you the best solution for a specific territory, we’ll say so.
We pride ourselves on our personable-approach so once you enter your new employees details into our dedicated platform, we’ll arrange a call with you to go through the details of the employment contract where together we can review and amend to your requirements. We liaise directly with your employee to build a rapport and obtain the necessary information to hire them compliantly, and set them up ready for their first payroll.
We never stop delivering! Even if you’re employee has been onboarded and is happily working for you and being paid each month, we’re here to partner with you whenever you or your employees need us. Even your ex-employees may need our assistance for tax documents, proof of employment requests etc… Our service never stops!