Employing in the Czech Republic
Employing in the Czech Republic: fourteen questions, answered short
Every answer leads with the rule and the 2026 number, then points at the guide behind it. Take the one you came for, or work down the list.
Pick the question you came for
1
How do you employ someone in the Czech Republic?
You either form your own Czech s.r.o. and become the employer, or you hire through an Employer of Record that already is one. Both routes end in the same paperwork: a written pracovní smlouva naming the type of work, the place of work and the start date, the § 37 written information inside seven days, registration with ČSSZ and with the employee’s own health insurer within eight days, and monthly payroll under Czech rules.
Work through the hiring steps →2
What does an employee cost on top of salary?
Gross salary plus 33.80% in employer contributions: 24.8% sociální zabezpečení to ČSSZ and 9.0% zdravotní pojištění to whichever insurer the employee chose. Compulsory accident insurance sits on top, from 2.8 to 50.4 per mille of payroll depending on the activity. Social contributions stop once annual pay passes 2,350,416 CZK in 2026. Health insurance has no ceiling at all, which is the detail most cost models miss.
3
How soon can a new starter begin?
Through an Employer of Record a contract can be issued the day you confirm the role, because the Czech company, the payroll and the ČSSZ registrations already exist. Standing up your own s.r.o. first means a notarial founding deed, a trade authorisation and entry in the obchodní rejstřík before you can even register as an employer, which runs to weeks. The employee registration itself must be filed within eight days of the start.
4
Do you need a Czech company of your own?
No. A business abroad can employ people in the Czech Republic through an Employer of Record without incorporating anything. Your own s.r.o. needs only 1 CZK of share capital under § 142 zákona o obchodních korporacích, which sounds trivial, but it still needs a notarial founding deed, a trade authorisation, a registered seat and annual filings, and banks, landlords and counterparties all look at the capital figure you chose.
Set the two routes side by side →5
Should the person be employed or work on an IČO?
If someone works under your direction, to your schedule and in your name, that has the hallmarks of závislá práce, which Czech law says may be performed only in an employment relationship. Work with those hallmarks carried on outside one may constitute nelegální práce under § 5 písm. e) zákona o zaměstnanosti, the arrangement known as švarcsystém. A genuine OSVČ runs their own business and carries its risk.
Read the švarcsystém test →6
What has to be in a Czech employment contract?
Three things and only three: druh práce, místo výkonu práce and den nástupu do práce. Pay, hours, leave and notice may sit in a mzdový výměr or an internal regulation instead, but they must reach the employee in writing within seven days under § 37 zákoníku práce. Zkušební doba has to be agreed in writing no later than the day employment starts, and runs to four months, or eight for a vedoucí zaměstnanec.
Check the contract essentials →7
How do tax and contributions come off pay?
Two separate systems with two separate collectors. Sociální zabezpečení goes to ČSSZ, 24.8% from the employer and 7.1% from the employee. Veřejné zdravotní pojištění goes to the employee’s own insurer, 9.0% and 4.5%. Income tax is withheld as zálohová daň at 15%, and 23% on the part above 1,762,812 CZK a year, less the sleva na poplatníka of 2,570 CZK a month where a prohlášení poplatníka has been signed.
8
What is the minimum wage in 2026?
22,400 CZK a month, or 134.40 CZK an hour on a 40-hour week, in force from 1 January 2026 under sdělení MPSV č. 356/2025 Sb. That is 1,600 CZK a month above the 2025 figure of 20,800 CZK. Since 2025 the minimum wage has been set by a statutory formula tied to the forecast average wage rather than negotiated each year, so the direction of travel is predictable.
9
Is pay still set by job category?
Not for a private employer. Zaručená mzda, the graded pay floor that set a different minimum for each group of job difficulty, was abolished for the private sector on 1 January 2025 by zákon č. 230/2024 Sb. What survives is zaručený plat under § 112 zákoníku práce, and it binds only public-sector employers who pay a plat. Plenty of provider sites still publish the old grid, so check the date on anything you read.
Read what replaced the old grid →10
What paid time off does an employee get?
Dovolená is set in weeks and counted in hours. The private-sector minimum is four weeks, which is 160 hours, or 20 working days, on a standard five-day, 40-hour week. There are 13 public holiday dates in 2026, two of them at a weekend, and Czech law creates no day in lieu. Sickness is paid from day one: the employer pays náhrada mzdy for 14 calendar days, then ČSSZ pays nemocenské.
11
What do the contributions actually fund?
The 24.8% paid to ČSSZ splits three ways: 21.5% důchodové pojištění, 2.1% nemocenské pojištění and 1.2% příspěvek na státní politiku zaměstnanosti. The pension share is what builds an employee’s state pension entitlement. The 9.0% paid to the health insurer funds public healthcare. There is no auto-enrolment duty on a Czech employer, so doplňkové penzijní spoření is a benefit you choose to offer rather than one you owe.
Look at contributions and pensions →12
How do you end a Czech employment contract?
There is no dismissal at will. An employer may serve výpověď only on one of the grounds listed in § 52 zákoníku práce, and it must be in writing or it is disregarded. Notice is two months on most of those grounds and one month on the rest, and since 1 June 2025 it runs from the day the notice is delivered rather than from the first of the next month. Odstupné is one, two or three times average monthly earnings.
13
What are the rules on working from home?
Práce na dálku has to be agreed in writing. Under § 190a zákoníku práce the employer either reimburses the costs the employee can evidence, or pays a paušální částka set by decree, which is 4.70 CZK for each started hour of remote work in 2026. The parties may agree in advance, in writing, that nothing is payable. Remote staff otherwise keep the same rights as anyone working at the employer’s premises.
See the práce na dálku rules →14
How does an Employer of Record cover all of this?
An Employer of Record employs your team member through its own Czech company, so there is nothing for you to incorporate. It issues the pracovní smlouva, registers the employee with ČSSZ and their health insurer, runs payroll with zálohová daň and the 33.80% employer contributions, files the monthly report, and handles dovolená, sickness, changes to terms and notice. You direct the work and get one named contact and one invoice.
See what an Employer of Record does →Working out whether a Czech hire is worth it?
Send us the role and the salary you have in mind. We will come back with the employer cost in koruna, the registrations that have to happen before the start date, and how soon your new employee could be on a contract, without you forming a company of your own.