Hiring in Bulgaria

A foreign company can hire in Bulgaria through its own Bulgarian entity, or consider direct foreign-employer registration for limited remote hiring after reviewing its local business footprint and registration obligations. An employer of record arrangement that places a worker under your direction must meet Bulgaria’s registered temporary-work agency rules and permitted assignment purposes. An independent contractor arrangement fits genuinely independent services in which the contractor undertakes to deliver an agreed result at their own risk; 4dev.com is a global contractor platform working with contractors in Bulgaria for those services, subject to the country’s rules on independence.

Three ways to hire in Bulgaria

Work organised through a fixed workplace, working time and hierarchical supervision calls for employment; genuinely independent work for an agreed result at the contractor’s own risk can fit a services contract. A civil-contract label or registration certificate does not establish independence. In employment, your own entity or the provider is the employer, and your responsibilities depend on that arrangement.

Route	Legal employer	What you pay on top of salary	How you end it
Your own entity	Your Bulgarian entity	18.52% fixed employer contributions	30 days – 3 months notice, subject to the contract and termination ground; applicable compensation
Employer of record	The employing provider	18.52% fixed employer contributions, plus separately quoted provider services	30 days – 3 months notice, subject to the contract and termination ground; employment and provider-contract obligations
Contractor	No employer for genuine independent services	An agreed service fee replaces salary; no salary-based employer surcharge, with status-dependent payer duties	Contract terms and mandatory civil law

The employment percentage is the fixed employer share for an ordinary third-category employee born after 1959 who remains in universal pension insurance. Add the employer’s activity-specific work-accident and occupational-disease rate of 0.4% to 1.1%, and match the contribution base to the activity and occupational-group floor. The monthly insurance ceiling is €2,300 from 1 August through 31 December 2026, so the contribution percentage does not apply to every euro of a salary above that ceiling.

The notice range refers to an indefinite contract: thirty days unless a longer period of up to three months is agreed. A fixed-term contract has three months’ notice, bounded by its remaining term; before an agreed probation period expires, the party for whose benefit it was agreed may terminate without notice. Employment exits still need the applicable legal basis and procedure, with compensation depending on the ground and any unserved notice.

When a provider supplies staff to work under your direction, check that the arrangement fits the temporary-work agency regime before committing to it. The agency must be registered, the employment contract must be for completion of specified work or replacement of an absent worker, and supplied workers may not exceed 30% of the user undertaking’s total workforce. The agency’s certificate is valid for five years; it does not establish assignment duration.

The agency and user are jointly and severally liable to the worker for obligations arising from the employment contract’s performance. Contracting with an unregistered agency also exposes the user to joint liability for the agency’s unpaid taxes and compulsory contributions for the supplied employees, and VAT on the supply, up to the unpaid obligation for the relevant period. Use the employer of record guide for the remaining conditions and registry checks.

For a contractor, check the recipient’s legal and insurance status and your own payer status before deciding who handles tax and contributions. Civil-contract recipients can trigger pension-insurance duties, while an enterprise or self-insured payer normally withholds advance tax on the covered business income unless the recipient declares self-insured status in writing. Ending a contract for work after performance begins can also require payment of incurred costs, completed work and anticipated profit when the customer withdraws for justified reasons; the contract and mandatory law govern that exit.

The labour market: Sofia, Plovdiv and Varna

Bulgaria had 2.37 million employees under labour contracts at the end of June 2026, according to preliminary NSI data. The district distribution helps you locate established employment markets; the separate wage series provides budgeting references.

City and district context

Sofia (stolitsa) had the largest employment base among these districts in NSI’s final 2024 annual data. These figures cover employees under labour contracts across the surveyed public and private enterprises, rather than municipal populations, specialist headcounts or vacancies. Sofia (stolitsa), the capital district, is distinct from the surrounding Sofia district.

Sofia (stolitsa) district	788.8 thousand employees; 33.9% of national employment under labour contracts, 2024	NSI (annual statistics)
Plovdiv district	230.5 thousand employees; 9.9% of national employment under labour contracts, 2024	NSI (annual statistics)
Varna district	153.6 thousand employees; 6.6% of national employment under labour contracts, 2024	NSI (annual statistics)

EURES’ regional report dated 24 February 2025, using indicator information available through December 2024, describes a developed IT-specialist market in Sofia. It also describes Varna’s influence on the North-Eastern labour market and outsourcing companies working mainly in English and German in IT services and support, including hybrid work. Use this dated sector context to choose where to recruit, then establish current candidate availability and language skills separately.

Plovdiv Municipality’s 2025/2026 investment catalogue describes international and Bulgarian companies providing software support, IT consulting and systems integration. You can recruit for those functions in Plovdiv, but the catalogue provides no role-specific salary or vacancy benchmark.

Salary reference points

The preliminary national gross arithmetic mean was €1,444 / month in the second quarter of 2026, with substantial differences between sectors. NSI’s quarterly employee survey uses a stratified random sample grouped by economic activity, employer size and district. The figures describe employees under labour contracts across Bulgaria.

All sectors	€1,444 / month — second-quarter 2026 gross arithmetic mean	NSI
Information and communication	€3,079 / month — second-quarter 2026 gross arithmetic mean	NSI
Financial and insurance activities	€2,140 / month — second-quarter 2026 gross arithmetic mean	NSI
Accommodation and food service activities	€918 / month — second-quarter 2026 gross arithmetic mean	NSI

Each sector mean combines different roles and levels of experience. These gross figures do not establish take-home pay or an offer for a particular developer, finance specialist or city-based hire. Establish the offer separately, then use “What an employee actually costs you” to budget employer contributions.

Registering as an employer, step by step

Arrange the applicable employer registrations and the employee’s pre-start documents before committing to a first working day. The filing deadlines describe when you must act; they do not establish how long the complete setup will take.

Direct hiring by a foreign employer

Review what the foreign company and its employee will actually do in Bulgaria before selecting the registration route. Aidos describes limited remote hiring without a broader Bulgarian operational footprint as a scenario for foreign-employer registration, while client-facing activity and contract negotiation on the employer’s behalf require a separate permanent-establishment assessment. Document whether the role is auxiliary remote work or involves Bulgarian premises, local commercial authority or wider business operations, then assess the relevant tax and treaty position.

BULSTAT registration rules cover foreign legal persons carrying on economic activity in Bulgaria and other non-natural persons acting as social insurers within the statutory categories. The applicable category and any existing qualifying registry entry must be checked for the proposed employer. Social-insurance registration alone does not settle whether the business has a Bulgarian permanent establishment.

In an article published on 5 June 2026, Henk Overbeek of Aidos wrote:

That said, permanent establishment is a fact-specific analysis.

— Henk Overbeek, Co-owner and General Manager, Aidos Accountancy Services

For personal income tax, the statutory “employer” definition is separate from social-insurer registration. It includes domestic persons, foreign persons operating through a Bulgarian permanent establishment or fixed base, and trade representations under the Investment Promotion Act, where they employ individuals or are party to the specified foreign personnel-supply arrangement. Article 42 assigns monthly employment-income advance-tax calculation to that statutory employer, with withholding when the taxable income accrued for the month is finally paid. Identify who meets that definition before allocating the foreign payer’s withholding duties.

Employment income from labour hired by a foreign person for work in Bulgaria falls within the separate rule in §1, point 26(e). Article 50(3) requires resident and foreign individuals receiving the specified employment income to file an annual return for it. A no-permanent-establishment conclusion does not by itself remove that return rule or establish that social-insurance duties are absent.

Registration and the first contract

Complete the applicable identification steps and deliver the required employment documents before work starts. Filing deadlines are shown separately from setup time:

Step	What happens	Takes
Assess the employer’s footprint and route	Identify the employing party, its Bulgarian activities and the applicable registration, tax and insurance responsibilities	Depends on the applicable route; elapsed time not confirmed
Arrange the applicable registry entry	Determine whether the employer belongs in BULSTAT or another qualifying register and submit the required application	Where BULSTAT applies, filing is due within seven days of the obligation arising; processing time not confirmed
Arrange tax and social-insurance identification	Establish who makes the required filings and handles employment tax and contributions; prepare the recurring compliance calendar	Elapsed time not confirmed
Conclude the employment contract	Sign a written contract with the required employment particulars and agreed start arrangements	Before work starts; preparation time not confirmed
Enter the employment data	The employer or authorised person enters the contract data in the Employment Register	Within three days of conclusion or modification; this is a filing deadline
Deliver the pre-start documents	Give the employee the contract signed by both parties and the NRA-certified record of the employment entry	Before admitting the employee to work

Total: The full setup schedule depends on the applicable route and employer’s circumstances; the filing deadlines above do not establish an overall completion time.

The BULSTAT seven-day deadline also applies to qualifying changes in registered circumstances. Employment termination has a separate seven-day register-entry deadline, and employee state social-insurance contributions are due by the 25th of the month following the work. Record these recurring deadlines separately from the setup timetable.

The employee cannot start while the signed contract and NRA-certified entry record remain undelivered, even if the three-day filing window has not expired. Once those documents are received, the employee must normally begin within one week unless another period is agreed.

Hiring and onboarding: records before the first shift

Onboarding requires the written contract, insurance classification and any relevant proof of earlier service, alongside the current employment entry and document delivery. Complete the contract and record requirements before the first shift.

Legal limits and contract terms

A written employment contract must identify the parties and set out the workplace, job title and nature of the work. It must also state the conclusion and start dates, contract duration, leave entitlements, equal notice periods for both parties, basic and fixed additional remuneration, payment frequency and working-day or working-week duration. Check applicable collective terms when agreeing more favourable conditions; do not assume a universal bonus entitlement from the salary figure alone.

Up to 6 months of probation may be agreed, but a fixed term shorter than one year has a one-month maximum. The contract must identify whose benefit the probation serves; if it is silent, the period is treated as benefiting both parties. Statutory leave and other justified periods when the employee does not perform the agreed work are excluded from the probation period. The same employee may have probation for the same work in the same enterprise only once.

Match the proposed role to the employer’s economic activity and the employee’s occupational group when checking the minimum insurance-income floor. The employer’s principal activity also determines the work-accident and occupational-disease contribution category. A national or sector salary mean does not establish either classification for the individual hire.

Copyright in employee-created computer programs and databases belongs to the employer unless agreed otherwise. For ordinary employee works, the author retains copyright subject to the Act’s exceptions, while the employer normally has an exclusive right to use the work for its own purposes within its usual activity, without separate permission or remuneration unless agreed otherwise. If a provider employs the worker, review the onward rights arrangements with that provider. The employer of record and contractor guides cover the respective rights chains, including commissioned independent work.

Recruitment channels

You can submit an employee vacancy through EURES Bulgaria or a local Labour Office. The EURES employer workflow involves employer registration, a company profile and a submitted job advertisement, which goes through review and approval before publication. EURES also supports CV collection and preliminary selection.

Before relying on this channel, confirm account eligibility for your employing entity, especially a foreign company registered only as a social insurer. Ask the service how long publication review and candidate selection will take, and budget for specialised tests, surveys or translation services, which the employer pays for. Agree the scope of recruitment assistance separately from work-permission and employment-registration checks.

Onboarding checklist

Complete the statutory contract and record requirements and assign responsibility for practical preparation. Permissions and registrations depend on the hiring and immigration route:

• Confirm the employing party and the worker’s status, including whether the planned relationship is employment.
• Check any required work and residence permission against the employer, workplace and proposed role.
• Set out the workplace, duties and all required contract particulars; review any applicable collective terms and the rights needed for the work produced.
• Match the insurance activity and occupational group, contribution floor, ceiling and accident category to the actual hire.
• Obtain the employment contract signed by both parties and complete the Employment Register entry.
• Deliver the signed contract and NRA-certified entry record to the employee before work begins; an unresolved or rejected entry leaves that document chain incomplete.
• Assign responsibility for working-time and leave records, recurring filings and document retention, and retain the relevant evidence of earlier service.

Older paper books still prove service

A paper employment book issued before the electronic-record reform remains an official certificate of the employment circumstances recorded in it. The Employment Register has applied since 1 June 2025, while private employers had to complete the old books by 1 June 2026, or on termination during the specified transition period, recording service with that employer up to 1 June 2025. The completed book had to be returned to the worker immediately, so the earlier service record remains relevant to a later hiring handover.

Retain the book where the new hire’s service history matters. If it is lost or destroyed after 1 June 2025, the worker can apply to the Labour Inspectorate for a replacement recording pre-reform service, using a written application-declaration supported by employer certificates and other original documents.

An entry made after the statutory Article 62(3) deadline requires a mandatory Labour Inspectorate instruction that has taken effect. This recovery rule concerns overdue entry; it is not a requirement for every routine correction and does not waive the documents needed before admission to work.

Employer access to the prescribed prior-employer data for its hired employees excludes earlier salary and compensation amounts, apart from the Article 222(2) and (3) compensation records. For a competitive appointment that requires proof of service, using the electronic record for that purpose needs the candidate’s consent. Workers can obtain their record-access history, subject to the statutory criminal-investigation and national-security exclusions.

Hiring foreign workers: nationality and permission route

EU, EEA and Swiss citizens have free movement rights to work in Bulgaria, while a third-country hire needs an assessment of the applicable labour-market access and residence route. Check residence-document requirements separately even where the right to work follows from free movement. The relevant route depends on whether the person will join a local employer, be posted within a service, transfer within a corporate group or undertake self-employed activity.

EU, EEA and Swiss workers	Free movement for work; residence-document requirements are a separate check	Labour Migration and Labour Mobility Act
Third-country local employment	A local employment contract and the corresponding labour-market access and residence authorisation must fit the hire’s status	Labour Migration and Labour Mobility Act
Third-country posting or sending within a service	Use the service-related access route; check the local host and the authorised workplace, role and work period	Labour Migration and Labour Mobility Act
Third-country intra-corporate transfer	Assess the corresponding transfer route for the proposed assignment	Labour Migration and Labour Mobility Act
Third-country self-employed activity	Assess the separate self-employment access route; signing a services contract alone does not establish permission	Labour Migration and Labour Mobility Act

Under the general Article 7 test, third-country employees hired by the local employer during the preceding twelve months must not exceed 20% of its average employment headcount, or 35% for qualifying small and medium enterprises. Article 8 and special permission routes have exceptions, so apply the test only after identifying the worker’s actual status and route. The general percentages cannot be applied identically to every EU Blue Card or residence status.

For an authorised third-country employee or posted worker within Article 7(2), the work is tied to the specified local employer or host, workplace, position and duration in the competent authority’s permission. Review any proposed change of employer, provider or client against those conditions before making the change. An employment or services agreement does not replace the applicable permission, and an existing authorisation should not be assumed to move automatically with the person.

If you use a provider, confirm that its arrangement and the proposed worker qualify for the required permission route. Establish that route’s thresholds, fees and processing times before scheduling a relocation or start, and record the permission check alongside onboarding.

Minimum wage: the monthly and hourly floor

The minimum wage is €620.20 / month for a full working month and €3.74/hour from 1 January 2026. Decree 243 sets both amounts for the normal eight-hour working day and five-day week. Use those working-time assumptions when checking an employment offer against the statutory floor.

Monthly minimum wage	€620.20 / month — full working month, from 1 January 2026	Council of Ministers — Decree 243
Hourly minimum wage	€3.74/hour — normal eight-hour day and five-day week, from 1 January 2026	Council of Ministers — Decree 243

The wage floor and the minimum insurance-income floor are separate checks: insurance classification depends on the employer’s economic activity and the employee’s occupational group. Match that classification before calculating contributions for a minimum-wage hire. A genuine independent contractor’s service fee is agreed under the services arrangement rather than treated as an employee’s minimum salary.

Earlier minimum-wage amounts

Use the amount in force on the relevant date when reviewing historical employment records. The earlier entries retain their original BGN denomination, while the current monthly amount is in EUR.

From 1 January 2021	BGN 650 / month	Council of Ministers — 2021 wage decree
From 1 April 2022	BGN 710 / month	Council of Ministers — 2022 wage decree
From 1 January 2023	BGN 780 / month	Council of Ministers — 2023 wage decree
From 1 January 2024	BGN 933 / month	Council of Ministers — 2024 wage decree
From 1 January 2025	BGN 1,077 / month	Minimum-wage decree for 2025
From 1 January 2026	€620.20 / month	Council of Ministers — Decree 243

The wage-setting rule changed in September

The Article 244 amendment promulgated in State Gazette issue 89 on 29 September 2026 sets out a criteria-based process for the next year’s minimum wage. It requires the Council of Ministers to set the amount by 15 August of the current year, taking account of:

• Minimum-wage purchasing power and living costs.
• The overall level and distribution of wages.
• Wage growth.
• Long-term labour productivity.

The amount set under that process cannot be lower than the previous year’s minimum. A separate adequacy assessment once every three years uses 60% of gross median pay and living costs as reference values, with implementing procedures to be set by regulation. That median reference does not turn the national arithmetic mean for the second quarter of 2026 into a formula for a future minimum wage.

A 2027 minimum cannot be quoted without an adopted wage decree: the setting mechanism supplies no amount. Check for a new decree before setting a future-year offer, and distinguish the amendment’s promulgation on 29 September from its commencement.

Taxes and contributions: the cap changes the budget

Employer contributions apply to a bounded insurance base, so your statutory employment cost cannot be read from one flat percentage of gross salary. Employment personal income tax is 10% of the taxable base, which is separate from the employer’s contribution expense. An ordinary domestic employer deducts and remits employment tax; for a foreign payer, use the statutory employer definition and individual-return analysis in the registration section to establish the allocation of duties.

Employer and employee shares

The fixed employer contribution share is 18.52% for an ordinary third-category employee born after 1959 who remains in universal pension insurance. This excludes the wholly employer-funded work-accident and occupational-disease contribution, which varies from 0.4% to 1.1% according to the employer’s principal economic activity. Pension opt-outs and special worker groups require their own contribution treatment.

State pension	Employer 8.22%; employee 6.58%	NSSI — Social Insurance Code
Universal pension fund	Employer 2.8%; employee 2.2%	NSSI — Social Insurance Code
General sickness and maternity	Employer 2.1%; employee 1.4%	NSSI — Social Insurance Code
Unemployment	Employer 0.6%; employee 0.4%	NSSI — Social Insurance Code
Health insurance	Employer 4.8%; employee 3.2%	National Health Insurance Fund Budget Act for 2026 / Health Insurance Act
Work accident and occupational disease	Employer 0.4%–1.1%, activity-dependent; wholly employer-funded	NSSI — Social Insurance Code

Health insurance totals 8% in 2026 and is split 60:40 between employer and employee, giving the shares in the table. The monthly insurance-income ceiling is €2,300 for 1 August–31 December 2026; it was €2,111.64 for 1 January–31 July 2026. Check the minimum insurance-income floor for the actual economic activity and occupational group before applying the ceiling.

Calculate each person’s contribution for each fund separately and round to two decimal places, increasing the second decimal digit when the third is five or more. Sum those rounded contributions when building the employer budget. Employee state social-insurance contributions are due by the 25th of the month following the work.

What an employee actually costs you

The national and sector wage means produce the monthly statutory cost examples below when the August–December 2026 contribution rules are applied to them. The model uses the ordinary employee category described above, a €2,300 insurance ceiling and an illustrative 0.4% accident rate. That accident rate is not an established rate for any of the named sectors.

The gross inputs are observations from the second quarter of 2026, with the contribution model applied to the later period. Each calculation assumes the stated gross input is the applicable contribution base before the ceiling; an actual offer still needs its activity and occupational-floor match. Benefits and provider services are excluded.

National mean input	€1,444.00 gross + €273.20 employer contributions = €1,717.20 monthly subtotal; contributions equal 18.92% of gross	NSI / NSSI calculation
Financial and insurance activities mean input	€2,140.00 gross + €404.89 employer contributions = €2,544.89 monthly subtotal; contributions equal 18.92% of gross	NSI / NSSI calculation
Information and communication mean input	€3,079.00 gross + €435.16 employer contributions = €3,514.16 monthly subtotal; contributions equal 14.13% of gross	NSI / NSSI calculation

The total bar includes salary and employer contributions; do not add it to the two component bars. At the information and communication input, the insurance ceiling lowers contributions as a percentage of full gross salary. The illustrative 18.92% under-cap rate and the capped example’s 14.13% effective rate still depend on the stated worker category and accident-rate assumption.

The August cap increase at the same gross amount

Holding the €3,079 gross benchmark and contribution shares constant, the higher cap adds €35.63 to illustrative monthly employer contributions. Under the earlier €2,111.64 cap, the same individually rounded funds total €399.53; under the €2,300 cap, they total €435.16. Both calculations use the same illustrative 0.4% accident rate.

This isolates the cap change at a constant sector mean; it does not measure wage growth or reconstruct January–July payroll. Establish the actual developer offer and insurance classification separately.

Working time and overtime

The normal schedule is a five-day week of up to 40 hours, with a normal working day of up to eight hours. Overtime is generally prohibited and needs a statutory exception; paying an overtime premium does not authorise the additional work. It includes work outside the employee’s established hours that the employer or manager orders, or knows about without objecting.

Check overtime against both the annual ceiling and the shorter-period limits for each employee. A qualifying industry or sector collective agreement can increase the annual allowance, while the day and night limits retain their separate measures.

Calendar-year overtime	Normally no more than 150 hours per employee; up to 300 hours under a qualifying industry or sector collective agreement	Labour Code — Article 146
Calendar-month overtime	No more than 30 hours of day work or 20 hours of night work	Labour Code — Article 146
Calendar-week overtime	No more than six hours of day work or four hours of night work	Labour Code — Article 146
Two consecutive working days	No more than three hours of day overtime or two hours of night overtime	Labour Code — Article 146

Article 146 of the Labour Code excludes the specified Article 144, points 1–4 cases from its ordinary annual and shorter-period limits. Check the precise exception before treating a roster as outside those ceilings. A larger annual allowance under a collective agreement does not by itself establish that a particular overtime assignment is permitted.

The minimum overtime supplement depends on the type of day or the working-time accounting arrangement. Unless agreed otherwise, the increase is calculated on the remuneration set by the employment contract.

Overtime on a working day	At least 50% supplement	Labour Code — Article 262
Overtime on a rest day	At least 75% supplement	Labour Code — Article 262
Overtime on an official holiday	At least 100% supplement	Labour Code — Article 262
Overtime under summed working-time accounting	At least 50% supplement	Labour Code — Article 262

Identify rest days from the employee’s working arrangement rather than assuming they are always Saturday and Sunday. Work on an official holiday attracts at least double remuneration whether it is overtime or part of the scheduled hours. If the holiday work is also overtime, assess the applicable overtime payment rule separately alongside the permission and limits for that work.

Daily rest must be at least twelve uninterrupted hours. A normal five-day week requires at least 48 uninterrupted hours of weekly rest, while summed working-time accounting normally requires at least 36 hours. Under summed accounting, weekly rest may fall to at least 24 hours on a shift change only where the enterprise’s actual and technical organisation of work requires it.

Where working time is accounted for by day and the employee works overtime on both weekly rest days, the employee is also entitled to at least 24 hours of uninterrupted rest during the following working week. Include that rest entitlement alongside the increased remuneration when checking such an arrangement.

Record the roster and actual hours together so you can check each employee’s overtime period, day type and rest intervals. Approve extra hours only after establishing the statutory basis, applicable collective allowance and required rest; then calculate the remuneration.

Leave, sick pay and parental leave

Employees receive paid annual leave, while sickness and parental absences combine employment leave rights with separate insurance benefits. Your budget needs to distinguish remuneration you pay from benefits paid by the National Social Security Institute (NSSI), and your staffing plan needs to account for the full permitted absence.

Annual leave and public holidays

The statutory minimum basic paid annual leave is 20 working days. Someone entering employment for the first time may use it after acquiring at least four months of employment service; if employment ends earlier, they still receive compensation for accrued unused leave. Qualifying work with specific health or life risks that cannot be removed, limited or reduced despite protective measures, and work under an irregular working-day arrangement, each carry at least five additional working days under the statutory conditions.

The public-holiday reference is 14 + 1 day in 2026: fourteen generally applicable listed calendar dates, including those falling at weekends, plus the exceptional holiday on 2 January 2026. This is a calendar-date count, rather than a total of weekdays lost to holidays. National Awakeners Day on 1 November is non-working for educational institutions only.

1 January	New Year's Day	Labour Code, Article 154
3 March	Liberation Day, the national holiday	Labour Code, Article 154
1 May	Labour Day	Labour Code, Article 154
6 May	St George's Day, Bravery and Bulgarian Army Day	Labour Code, Article 154
24 May	Saints Cyril and Methodius, Bulgarian alphabet, education and culture, and Slavonic literature day	Labour Code, Article 154
6 September	Unification Day	Labour Code, Article 154
22 September	Independence Day	Labour Code, Article 154
24 December	Christmas Eve	Labour Code, Article 154
25 December	Christmas Day	Labour Code, Article 154
26 December	Christmas holiday	Labour Code, Article 154
Good Friday	Movable Easter holiday	Labour Code, Article 154
Holy Saturday	Movable Easter holiday	Labour Code, Article 154
Easter Sunday	Movable Easter holiday	Labour Code, Article 154
Easter Monday	Movable Easter holiday	Labour Code, Article 154

When an official holiday other than the Easter holidays falls on Saturday and/or Sunday, the first one or two working days after the non-working days become non-working. Apply that substitution rule to the actual calendar when planning coverage; Easter follows its separate movable dates.

Sick pay

For an eligible employee, the employer pays the first two working days of temporary incapacity at 70% of the current month's average daily gross remuneration, with a floor of 70% of the agreed average daily remuneration. Pregnancy and childbirth are excluded from this employer-payment rule. Ordinary sickness cash entitlement generally requires six months of insurance for general sickness and maternity, including for the employer-paid days; the six-month requirement does not apply to employees under eighteen.

NSSI's ordinary sickness benefit is 80% of the average daily gross remuneration or insurable income for the eighteen calendar months preceding the month of incapacity, capped at the average daily net remuneration for that reference period. Occupational accident or disease instead attracts 90% of the corresponding eighteen-month average, and entitlement for those insured risks does not depend on the length of insurance service. A medically authorised absence and eligibility for cash are separate checks: use the employee's insurance history and the NSSI temporary-incapacity guidance to establish who pays.

Maternity, paternity and childcare leave

Maternity leave lasts 410 days for each child, including forty-five days that must be taken before birth. The leave entitlement and the insured cash benefit have separate conditions, so confirm both before budgeting the absence or promising a replacement-income amount.

Maternity leave	410 days per child, including 45 days before birth	Labour Code, Article 163
Pregnancy and childbirth cash benefit	90% of the average daily gross remuneration or insurable income for the 24 calendar months preceding the month pregnancy and childbirth incapacity begins, subject to the average-net ceiling and the national minimum daily-wage floor; requires 12 months of insurance for general sickness and maternity	NSSI — Social Insurance Code
Father's leave at birth	15 days from the child's hospital discharge, where the parents are married or live in one household	Labour Code, Article 163
Transfer of remaining maternity leave	After the child reaches 6 months, the mother may consent to the remaining part of the 410 days being used by the father or one of either parent's parents, where the recipient works under an employment relationship; the mother's leave is interrupted	Labour Code, Article 163
Childcare leave until age two	Following maternity or relevant adoption leave, the employed mother may take additional care leave until the child turns 2, provided the child is not placed in a childcare institution; with her consent, an employed father or grandparent may take it instead	Labour Code, Article 164
Father's childcare leave before age eight	Up to 2 months before the child turns 8, if the father or adoptive father has not used the specified transferred maternity, adoption or childcare leave; use of those forms of leave for less than 2 months reduces the balance	Labour Code, Article 164в
Unpaid parental leave before age eight	After the specified childcare or adoption leave, each employed parent or adoptive parent may request 6 months before the child turns 8, provided the child is not in an institution fully funded by the state; each may use up to 5 months of the other's entitlement with that parent's consent	Labour Code, Article 167a

The father's two-month childcare entitlement also depends on continuing parental rights and the child's circumstances: it is unavailable after the child's death, loss or restriction of parental rights, the child being given for adoption, termination of an adoption, or the specified institutional or child-protection placement. Check previous transferred leave before treating the full two months as available.

NSSI pays eligible pregnancy and childbirth benefits from public social insurance; the employer's role in granting employment leave does not make the benefit an ordinary salary expense. Cash during the other statutory parental leave arrangements is governed by separate social-insurance conditions and amounts, while the six-month parental entitlement above is unpaid leave. Confirm the applicable benefit separately and plan staffing around the authorised leave period.

Termination: notice and payments

Choose the lawful termination ground and follow its procedure before setting an employment end date. Calculate notice and compensation separately, while retaining any applicable dismissal protections.

Notice follows the contract, not tenure

The ordinary indefinite-contract notice range is 30 days – 3 months: thirty days applies unless the parties agree a longer period, capped at three months. Employer termination under Article 328 follows these notice periods. A collective agreement may make notice depend on service for the specified Article 328 grounds, but there is no automatic statutory tenure ladder.

For a fixed-term contract, notice is three months, capped at the remaining contract term. Before probation expires, the party for whose benefit probation was agreed may terminate without notice; check the beneficiary recorded in the contract before using that route. Where a party ends a notice-based employment relationship before the notice period expires, that party owes the other gross remuneration for the actual unserved period.

Payments depend on the termination ground

Exit compensation varies with the legal basis and the employee's circumstances. Calculate each applicable entitlement separately, including unused leave; the unemployment-based payments below depend on actual unemployment or a qualifying pay difference.

Unserved notice	The party ending employment early owes gross remuneration for the unserved notice period	Labour Code, Article 220
Specified business-related dismissal	Employer compensation at gross remuneration for actual unemployment, up to 1 month, for closure, redundancy, reduced work volume, stoppage exceeding 15 working days, refusal to follow a relocating enterprise or unit, or freeing a position for a reinstated unlawfully dismissed employee. A Council of Ministers act, collective agreement or employment contract may provide a longer period; lower-paid new employment gives entitlement to the difference for the same period	Labour Code, Article 222(1)
Qualifying illness termination	Employer compensation of 2 months' gross remuneration for the Article 325(1)(9) or 327(1)(1) illness grounds, with at least 5 years of employment service and no compensation on the same basis during the preceding 5 years of employment service	Labour Code, Article 222(2)
Termination after pension entitlement	Employer compensation of 2 months' gross remuneration regardless of the termination ground, or 6 months where the employee accumulated 10 years with the same employer or group during the preceding 20 years; payable only once	Labour Code, Article 222(3)
Unused paid annual leave	Employer compensation for unused leave whose entitlement has not expired	Labour Code, Article 224
Unlawful dismissal remedy	Employer compensation at gross remuneration for actual unemployment caused by the unlawful dismissal, up to 6 months, or the difference for lower-paid employment during that period	Labour Code, Article 225
Employer-proposed termination against compensation	At least 4 times the last received monthly gross remuneration, unless a higher amount is agreed. The employee must accept in writing within 7 days; payment is due within 1 month of termination, or the termination basis lapses	Labour Code, Article 331

The four-times minimum belongs to the employer-proposed compensated termination procedure in Article 331. It is not a minimum attached to every ordinary mutual-agreement exit. Likewise, the six-month unlawful-dismissal remedy addresses the employee's actual loss from an unlawful dismissal, rather than serving as routine severance.

Protected employees and redundancy records

Prior permission depends on both the dismissal ground and the employee's protected category. Under Article 333 of the Labour Code, dismissal under Article 328(1), points 2, 3, 5 and 11, or Article 330(2)(6), requires prior Labour Inspectorate permission for each affected protected employee. These categories include mothers of children under three, employees medically reassigned to suitable work, employees with specified illnesses, employees who have begun authorised leave and the listed employee representatives.

For medically reassigned employees and those with specified illnesses, the medical expert commission's opinion must also be obtained. Union leadership has separate prior-consent protection on the same listed dismissal grounds during the protected role and for six months afterwards. A collective agreement may also require union consent for redundancy or reduced work volume.

Pregnant employees and employees at an advanced stage of IVF treatment have additional restrictions. Dismissal with notice is limited to Article 328(1), points 1, 7, 8 and 12: enterprise closure, refusal to follow a relocating enterprise or unit, freeing a position for a reinstated employee, or objective impossibility of performing the contract. Without-notice dismissal is limited to Article 330(1) and 330(2)(6), with prior Inspectorate permission required for the latter; an employee taking Article 163 maternity leave may be dismissed only on the enterprise-closure ground in Article 328(1)(1).

DGKV's 2026 Global Legal Insights chapter describes comparative selection where a redundancy exercise affects several employees in identical or comparable positions, using professional qualification and work performance. In that situation, retain the role comparison and the qualification and performance records behind the decision. This selection requirement should not be treated as a procedure for every type of dismissal.

The same DGKV chapter describes employee post-employment non-competes as unenforceable under the Supreme Court of Cassation's interpretation, including restrictions offered in return for payment. It notes that these decisions strongly influence lower courts, while not functioning as binding precedent in the common-law sense. Treat this as an employment-law limitation when reviewing exit terms; it does not establish the result for a genuinely independent commercial services agreement.

Enter termination data in the Employment Register within seven days. For an agency-employed worker, coordinate the employment exit with the end of the client assignment and agree who gives notice, completes the record and bears each applicable payment.

Recent changes in Bulgarian employment

The dates below determine which employment-record, currency and contribution rules apply to a document or pay period, and which changes need attention in a future budget.

• 1 June 2025 — electronic employment records. Contract and termination data moved to the Employment Register, with the signed contract and NRA-certified entry still required before admission to work. Use the onboarding checklist before agreeing a start date.
• 1 January 2026 — euro adoption and wage floors. Bulgaria adopted the euro at EUR 1 = BGN 1.95583, and the minimum became €620.20 for a full working month or €3.74 per hour under the normal eight-hour day and five-day week. For documents covering a completed tax or insurance period, use the official currency at period end, with EUR required where that period ends in or includes dual circulation; declarations for a future tax period instead follow the currency at filing time. Check the reporting period before preparing the declaration.
• 2 January 2026 — exceptional non-working day. The Council of Ministers added this day for the euro transition. Keep it separate from the recurring statutory holiday list when reviewing the 2026 work calendar.
• 1 June 2026 — private-sector paper-book deadline. Private employers had to complete and return the old employment books by this date, or at the specified transitional termination, recording service with that employer to 1 June 2025 and returning the completed book immediately. Follow up any outstanding handbacks and retain the book as official proof of earlier service.
• 1 August 2026 — higher insurance ceiling. The maximum monthly insurance base rose from €2,111.64 for January–July to €2,300 for August–December. Apply the ceiling for the pay month; the cap comparison above shows its effect at a constant salary.
• 29 September 2026 — wage-setting amendment promulgated. State Gazette issue 89 records the Article 244 amendment setting wage criteria and a separate periodic adequacy assessment. Promulgation alone does not establish commencement or a 2027 wage amount. Check for a separately adopted wage decree before setting next year's budget.

What a mistake costs and who pays

Missing employment documents can trigger a penalty for each breach; unlawful dismissal or an agency arrangement can create separate obligations to the worker or the state. The amount depends on the breached obligation and the responsible party.

Party	Risk	Amount
Employer	Ordinary breach of the written-contract, Employment Register or pre-start duties covered by Article 414(3)	€766.94–€7,669.38 for each separate violation
Culpable official	The same Article 414(3) duties, where the official is culpable	€511.29–€5,112.92 for each separate violation
Employer	Unlawful dismissal causing unemployment or lower-paid employment	Gross remuneration for actual unemployment caused by the dismissal, up to 6 months, or the applicable pay difference
Employer or employee ending notice-based employment early	Failure to serve the applicable notice	Gross remuneration for the actual unserved notice period
Employer	Unused paid annual leave at termination	Compensation for the unused entitlement that has not expired
Temporary-work agency and user	Joint and several liability to the worker for obligations arising from performance of the assigned employment	Depends on the obligation owed to the worker
User contracting with an unregistered temporary-work agency	Joint liability for the agency's unpaid taxes and compulsory contributions for the supplied employees, and VAT on the supply	Up to the unpaid specified obligation for the relevant period
Business treated as the employer after reclassification	A services arrangement found to provide labour that should have been governed by employment	Depends on the employment obligations established

The penalty amounts above are the current euro denomination of the nominal BGN values retained in Article 414(3). The Euro Introduction Act requires public liabilities to be paid and collected in euros: divide the source value by the full rate of BGN 1.95583 per EUR 1 and apply general rounding to two decimal places, rounding up where the third digit is five or more. This is the general penalty-conversion rule; remuneration has a separate rounding provision.

The two penalty rows show the ordinary Article 414(3) ranges; repeat violations have a separate schedule. Written-contract, register and pre-start offences are also excluded from the statutory minor-infringement route. Correct the missing paperwork, but do not assume that doing so removes liability for the earlier breach.

If an Employment Register entry is already past its statutory deadline, the overdue entry requires an effective binding instruction from the Labour Inspectorate. This requirement applies to missed entries, not every routine correction.

A services label also cannot settle the legal status of work organised as employment. Under Article 405a, the Inspectorate may declare the employment relationship by order and determine its start date; where the worker entered in good faith, the earlier relationship is treated as a valid employment contract. Review how the work is organised before choosing a services contract.

Check the agency’s actual employing entity and registration before contracting. Allocate responsibilities in the provider contract within the worker-facing and tax-liability rules above; the employer of record guide covers the agency requirements and penalties.

Frequently asked questions

How much is the basic salary in Bulgaria?

For a full working month under the normal eight-hour day and five-day week, the statutory gross minimum is €620.20. “Basic salary” in an offer can be higher: this legal floor does not tell you the typical salary for the role you want to fill.

How much does Bulgaria pay per hour?

The statutory hourly minimum is €3.74 under the normal eight-hour day and five-day week. That is a wage floor, so it should not be presented as Bulgaria's average hourly earnings or as a market rate for a particular occupation.

What is the average salary in Bulgaria in euros?

NSI's preliminary national gross monthly mean for employees under labour contracts was €1,444 in the second quarter of 2026. It is an arithmetic mean before employee deductions, not take-home pay. A hiring budget still needs an offer benchmark for the actual role, seniority and location.

Can I hire someone in Bulgaria without opening a local office?

A local office is not a universal requirement, but the suitable hiring route depends on your activities in Bulgaria and how the person will work. For limited remote employment, consider foreign-employer registration after reviewing the business footprint, tax position and employer obligations. An employer of record arrangement involving client direction needs a registered temporary-work agency and a permitted assignment purpose. Genuinely independent, result-based services at the contractor's own risk offer a different route, governed by the contractor's status and the services agreement.

Is there a job for foreigners in Bulgaria?

Foreign nationality does not itself rule out employment in Bulgaria; the hiring employer needs to establish the person's right to perform the planned work. EU, EEA and Swiss nationals benefit from free movement for work, while residence documentation remains a separate matter. For a third-country national, check the applicable permission or exempt status and any employer, role, location and duration limits before confirming the hire.

Can an employer terminate immediately?

Before probation expires, an employer may use the no-notice probation route if the probation clause was agreed for its benefit. Other immediate exits need their own lawful ground and procedure, including any applicable employee protection. Ending a notice-based contract early can require gross remuneration for the unserved notice period; paying that amount does not establish a dismissal ground.

What is the minimum wage in Bulgaria in 2027?

The September amendment does not itself set the minimum-wage amount for 2027. The Article 244 amendment promulgated on 29 September 2026 sets wage criteria and a separate adequacy assessment, so a forecast based on the national average salary would not establish the next legal minimum. Check for an adopted 2027 wage decree before setting that year's contractual floor and budget.

Sources

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