Hiring in Hungary

As a foreign company, you can hire in Hungary directly, use an employer of record for employment, or engage independent contractors for genuine independent services. Direct hiring can use your Hungarian entity or, where Hungarian insurance applies and your company has no Hungarian business-registration obligation, your foreign company registered with NAV, the National Tax and Customs Administration, before insured employment starts. Choose the route according to how the work will actually be organised: broad control over the person's place, time and manner of work points to employment, regardless of the contract's label.

Three ways to hire in Hungary

Direct employment makes your business the legal employer, an employer of record employs the worker through its agency arrangement, and a genuine contractor supplies independent services. In Hungarian labour leasing, the agency employs and assigns the worker while your business directs the work and shares specified employer duties. The employment costs below assume ordinary Hungarian-insured salary income without tax relief or an alternative tax regime.

Route	Legal employer	What you pay on top of salary	How you end it
Your own entity	Your Hungarian entity	13% uncapped employer social contribution tax, plus conditional employment costs	Ordinary employer notice: 30–90 days according to tenure; applicable dismissal reasons and qualifying severance, with possible agreed or collective extensions
Employer of record	The provider's employing agency	13% uncapped employer social contribution tax, plus the provider fee and conditional employment costs	Your provider agreement governs commercial exit; the agency handles employment termination under the applicable labour-leasing rules
Contractor	No legal employer in genuine independent services	An agreed service fee rather than salary	The service contract and applicable civil rules govern termination, including any fee or compensation due

Within the direct-employer route, a foreign business with no Hungarian business-registration obligation can fulfil Hungarian insurance duties through a financial representative or tax agent, or directly after NAV registration. Where Hungarian insurance applies, your business retains the employer's reporting and contribution obligations; registering the employer and notifying the worker's insurance are separate steps.

The own-entity notice range applies to ordinary employer termination. An EOR arrangement follows the applicable labour-leasing rules: ending your commercial agreement with the provider and ending the worker's employment are separate decisions, and only the agency can terminate that employment. Your business retains duties during the assignment, including occupational protection, working and rest time, and the corresponding records.

For genuine independent services, 4dev.com is a global contractor platform working with contractors in Hungary. Under a works contract, the contractor organises performance; customer instructions cannot extend to organising that activity.

The labour market and salary benchmarks for an offer

A technology offer needs a benchmark for the role and experience level, alongside the national earnings context. The benchmark helps you set pay; the candidate's eligibility to take the role requires a separate decision.

Budapest and regional hiring locations

Budapest, Debrecen, Szeged, Székesfehérvár, Miskolc and Pécs are major business-service-centre locations in HIPA's 2026 sector sheet, based on HIPA Survey 2025. These locations provide a starting point for defining a recruitment area in that sector.

Salary reference points

July 2026 national earnings describe full-time employees across the economy, while the Hays role figures describe employee base salaries in specific technology positions. Use the role and experience band to frame an offer, keeping the national mean and median as wider context.

National full-time gross average, July 2026	HUF 745,500 / month	KSH
National full-time gross median, July 2026	HUF 618,200 / month	KSH
Junior Java developer, 0–3 years; Hays 2026	HUF 750,000–1,200,000 / month; mode HUF 1,000,000 / month	Hays Hungary
Senior Java developer, 5+ years; Hays 2026	HUF 1,600,000–2,300,000 / month; mode HUF 2,100,000 / month	Hays Hungary
Senior DevOps / Cloud Engineer, 5+ years; Hays 2026	HUF 1,700,000–2,200,000 / month; mode HUF 1,900,000 / month	Hays Hungary

Hays collected these salary references from corporate partners and recruitment projects during the preceding year. Its mode is the most frequently observed salary, whereas the national average is a mean; the Hays ranges above cover gross monthly base pay for full-time employees, excluding bonuses and other benefits. They are employee salary benchmarks, so agree contractor service pricing through the separate service arrangement.

Where to advertise the role

Employers can post job offers on the Virtual Labour Market Portal (VMP), or Virtuális Munkaerőpiac Portál, which provides login and registration. The National Employment Service, Nemzeti Foglalkoztatási Szolgálat (NFSZ), also provides access to EURES vacancy information for Hungary.

Register the legal employer before the insured start

Prepare the legal employer and the correct insurance notifications before the employee's insured start. Company registration and employer registration are different procedures, so choose the applicable path before setting a start date.

A Hungarian entity

Legal representation is mandatory when registering a Hungarian company. The ordinary court decision deadline and the simplified procedure below govern the registration application; preparation of the company documents and readiness to employ someone require separate planning.

A qualifying foreign employer

The foreign-employer route applies where your business has no Hungarian company-law registration obligation and the worker falls under Hungarian insurance. You can fulfil the insurance duties through a financial representative or tax agent, or register directly with NAV; the employer's registration and the notification of the employee's insurance remain separate filings.

Establish which country's insurance legislation applies to the cross-border arrangement, including any applicable coordination exception, before using the Hungarian notification route. In her RSM Hungary article published on 23 February 2022, Szilvia Süli describes the starting point:

As a rule of thumb, the obligation to pay social insurance contribution arises in the country where you work.

— Szilvia Süli, Manager, RSM Hungary

Step	What happens	Takes
Hungarian entity: prepare the application	Your legal representative prepares and submits the company-registration application	Preparation time depends on the application
Hungarian entity: ordinary court procedure	The company court decides the registration application, subject to the statutory procedural rules	Ordinary decision deadline: 15 working days from receipt of the application
Hungarian entity: qualifying simplified procedure	An eligible application uses the statutory template instrument; the court decides after NAV's tax-number notification	Decision deadline: one working day after that notification
Foreign employer: confirm eligibility and filing responsibility	Establish that no Hungarian business-registration duty applies and Hungarian insurance does; appoint a permitted representative or arrange direct filing	Before applying the foreign-employer route
Foreign employer: register with NAV	On the direct-registration path, request the employer's tax identification number using T201INT	Before insurance begins, meaning before employment starts
Foreign employer: notify the worker's insurance	Submit the separate T1041INT insurance notification	No later than the first insured day
Foreign employer: make ongoing returns	File the monthly insurance and contribution return electronically	By the 12th of the following month
Total	Court decisions and tax/insurance filings have different triggers; their deadlines cannot be added into a launch estimate	End-to-end elapsed time is not established

For domestic insured relationships, the notification form is called 08E from 1 January 2026, with T1041 retained as the installed ÁNYK identifier. That change concerns the domestic form; use the separate foreign-employer T1041INT procedure for the route described above.

If a qualifying foreign employer has neither the appropriate representative nor the required NAV registration, the worker must perform the insurance reporting, contribution-payment and return duties. The worker also bears the consequences of failing those duties, except default and tax penalties; this fallback does not remove the employer's obligation to arrange registration correctly.

NAV employer and insurance registration does not establish work permission or resolve permanent-establishment exposure. The permit category and corporate-tax position each require their own assessment.

Hiring and onboarding before day one

Put the written employment terms, correct insurance notification and working conditions in place before the employee starts. Prepare the required employment information alongside the contract so it can be delivered within its statutory deadline.

Legal limits on the contract

Employees normally must be at least 16 years old. A 15-year-old in full-time education may work during school holidays; that exception does not allow unrestricted year-round hiring at that age.

The employment contract must be written and specify the base salary and job role. Unless the parties agree otherwise, the employment is indefinite and full-time, with the usual workplace for the role. If you intend a fixed term, part-time hours or another workplace arrangement, record those terms expressly.

An individual contract can provide probation of up to 3 months from the employment start; a collective agreement may allow up to six months. A shorter individually agreed probation may be extended once, but its total must stay within the individual-contract limit.

Ordinary fixed-term employment has a five-year limit, including extensions and further fixed-term contracts entered within six months of the previous termination. An extension or repeat fixed term within that interval requires a legitimate employer interest and must not prejudice the employee's legitimate interests.

Onboarding checklist

Employer registration and the appropriate insurance notification have earlier deadlines than the written employment information, which is due after the start. Prepare the following records and arrangements for the hire.

• Identify the legal employer, establish applicable insurance and check the candidate's work-permission category where required.
• Record whether the job requires the education or vocational qualification that determines the applicable wage floor.
• Sign the written employment contract with the agreed base salary, role and any departures from the ordinary contract defaults.
• Include the agreement to remote work in the employment contract when that arrangement is used.
• Complete the appropriate domestic 08E or foreign-employer T1041INT notification; keep the submission linked to the employee's records.
• Provide the required written employment information within seven days of the start, covering the applicable tasks, working time, pay and benefits, leave, termination rules, training and collective agreement. Terms already expressly agreed in writing do not need a duplicate notification.
• Arrange the conditions and equipment needed for the work and reimbursement of necessary, justified employment expenses. Provide a medical fitness examination where law prescribes it or the employer orders it.
• Collect the relevant salary, benefit and tax-declaration information, and set up working-time and leave records. Limit personal-data requests to matters material to employment or enforcing a Labour Code claim, and give written information about the processing.

For domestic relationships beginning on or after 1 January 2026, the 08E notification needs a relationship serial number, which must also accompany later changes, corrections and deletions. Where the initial notification was submitted before 2026 without a serial, one must not be added to those later submissions. NAV recommends coordinating the serial with numbering in the monthly ’08 contribution return; this is a recommendation, and an incorrectly entered serial requires deletion of the relationship notification followed by a new notification with the correct serial, rather than an ordinary correction.

Safe working conditions and reasonable accommodation for disabled employees are employer duties. Equal treatment applies to employment and remuneration, including monetary and in-kind benefits. Any restriction of an employee's personal rights must be necessary for reasons directly connected to employment and proportionate to its purpose. Give advance written information about the restriction and its basis; the employee cannot give a general advance waiver of those rights.

Collective agreements can change the baseline

An applicable collective agreement may allow probation of up to six months, change the permitted annual overtime limit and extend the ordinary notice baseline. Incorporate those terms into the contract and working-time rules; additional voluntary overtime still requires its own written agreement with the employee.

Check the permit category before recruiting from abroad

Permission to work in Hungary depends on the candidate's permit category and eligibility. Record their nationality, present residence status or permit, proposed job and legal employer together; choosing a direct employer or an EOR does not by itself establish permission to work.

Since 6 June 2026, no nationalities qualify for new guest-worker residence permits under Government Decree 450/2024, as amended by Decree 92/2026. Employment-purpose residence permits are a separate category whose issue continues under its own conditions. The guest-worker restriction therefore does not amount to a blanket ban on employing third-country nationals.

The employment-purpose route lists Georgia, Armenia and the Philippines, with additional conditions beyond nationality. Hungary or the EU must have a readmission agreement with the country or, in its absence, that country must have a state-recognised organisation or office in Hungary that undertakes to secure the national's departure and return if the relevant immigration rules are breached.

Guest-worker and employment-purpose permits issued before the amendment retain their validity until expiry under their stated terms. For holders whose permit was valid on 5 June 2026, the earlier country rules apply to qualifying renewal and specified statutory reissue applications; they also apply to issuance or renewal applications pending on that date. An electronic application recorded by 5 June counts as pending for this protection only if the administrative fee was also paid by 5 June 2026.

Permit validity and filing records determine whether the transitional rules apply to an existing case. For a new hire, the appropriate category and employer requirements must support the proposed start, including the agency and sponsorship conditions where an EOR is involved.

The job requirement determines which minimum wage applies

Use the guaranteed minimum wage for a job that requires at least secondary education or a secondary vocational qualification. This higher floor is the garantált bérminimum (guaranteed minimum wage); the ordinary floor is the minimálbér (minimum wage). Both amounts below took effect on 1 January 2026 and refer to gross base pay for full-time work. An employee's diploma alone does not determine which floor applies to the job.

Ordinary minimum wage, full-time gross base pay	HUF 322,800 / month; HUF 1,856 / hour	Decree 426/2025
Guaranteed minimum wage, qualifying job	HUF 373,200 / month; HUF 2,145 / hour	Decree 426/2025

For part-time work, reduce the monthly, weekly and daily minima in proportion to working time. Apply the statutory hourly rate rather than deriving one by dividing the monthly floor; the decree also specifies adjustments where the applicable full-time day differs from the ordinary length. These national statutory floors set the legal base-pay minimum, while the role's market salary and employer tax remain separate budget decisions.

How the wage floor has changed

The ordinary monthly floor follows legal effective dates rather than a single observation for each calendar year. The February 2021 change and both January and December 2023 changes therefore have their own rows.

Effective 1 January 2017	HUF 127,500 / month	Decree 430/2016
Effective 1 January 2018	HUF 138,000 / month	Decree 430/2016
Effective 1 January 2019	HUF 149,000 / month	Decree 324/2018
Effective 1 January 2020	HUF 161,000 / month	Decree 367/2019
Effective 1 February 2021	HUF 167,400 / month	Decree 20/2021
Effective 1 January 2022	HUF 200,000 / month	Decree 703/2021
Effective 1 January 2023	HUF 232,000 / month	Decree 573/2022
Effective 1 December 2023	HUF 266,800 / month	Decree 508/2023
Effective 1 January 2025	HUF 290,800 / month	Decree 394/2024
Effective 1 January 2026	HUF 322,800 / month	Decree 426/2025

The chart plots the ordinary floor from January 2019 onward, showing that increases did not always take effect at the beginning of a year. Its connecting lines join the effective-date observations; they do not represent gradual wage increases between those dates or regional market salaries.

Budget employer tax separately from employee deductions

For ordinary Hungarian-insured employment, budget gross salary plus employer social contribution tax, or szocho, and any additional employment costs. Employee income tax and social security contributions are deductions from the employee's gross pay, so adding them again on top of gross salary would overstate your cost.

Employee: personal income tax	15% of the taxable base, subject to statutory rules and allowances	Personal Income Tax Act
Insured employee: social security contribution	18.5% of the applicable contribution base	Social Insurance Act
Employer: ordinary salary szocho	13% of the applicable base, before reliefs; ordinary salary is uncapped	Social Contribution Tax Act

The ordinary employee contribution base includes taxable employment income, with a monthly lower bound of 30% of the minimum wage subject to statutory exceptions and partial-month adjustments. Ordinary salary szocho has no ceiling: the ceiling of 24 times the minimum wage concerns selected other income categories, rather than employment salary.

The payer ordinarily owes szocho on employment income, including where the payer is foreign. For foreign-payer employment income that does not form a Hungarian social insurance contribution base, the statute assigns the tax liability to the individual, so a cross-border case needs its own assessment before applying the employer-cost model.

What an employee actually costs you

The ordinary model adds employer szocho to gross monthly salary, with no tax relief or alternative regime. These figures cover salary plus szocho for Hungarian-insured employment; benefits, overtime, rehabilitation contribution, sickness costs and any EOR provider fee are additional considerations.

Scenario	Gross monthly salary	Employer szocho	Salary plus szocho	Basis
Ordinary full-time minimum, 2026	HUF 322,800	HUF 41,964	HUF 364,764	Decree 426/2025; Social Contribution Tax Act
Guaranteed minimum for a qualifying job, 2026	HUF 373,200	HUF 48,516	HUF 421,716	Decree 426/2025; Social Contribution Tax Act
National full-time gross average, July 2026	HUF 745,500	HUF 96,915	HUF 842,415	KSH; Social Contribution Tax Act
Senior Java developer, Hays 2026 mode	HUF 2,100,000	HUF 273,000	HUF 2,373,000	Hays Hungary; Social Contribution Tax Act
Senior DevOps / Cloud Engineer, Hays 2026 mode	HUF 1,900,000	HUF 247,000	HUF 2,147,000	Hays Hungary; Social Contribution Tax Act

For a job requiring the higher wage floor, modelled monthly salary plus szocho is HUF 56,952 above the ordinary-floor scenario. The difference excludes other employment costs.

The separate bars compare gross salary and employer tax at the July national average and the two senior-role benchmarks; the table gives their combined amounts. The national input is a full-time earnings mean, while the Hays inputs are employee base-salary modes, so they serve different offer decisions.

Rehabilitation contribution applies when an employer has more than 25 employees and workers with reduced working capacity account for less than 5% of its staff under the statutory counting rules. The annual contribution per missing quota employee is nine times the minimum wage in force on the first day of that year.

For ordinary statutory sickness benefit paid during incapacity or hospital treatment, the employer contributes one-third of the benefit. Allow for these conditional liabilities separately from the salary-plus-szocho model, alongside agreed benefits, reimbursable employment expenses and overtime where incurred.

Allowances change take-home pay, not the offered gross salary

Apply employee-specific reliefs to the relevant tax or contribution calculation rather than promising one net amount for everyone with the same gross salary. The 2026 family allowance reduces the tax base per eligible dependant and qualifying month, with the amount determined by the number of dependants.

One dependant	HUF 133,340 tax-base allowance per eligible dependant per qualifying month	Personal Income Tax Act
Two dependants	HUF 266,660 tax-base allowance per eligible dependant per qualifying month	Personal Income Tax Act
Three or more dependants	HUF 440,000 tax-base allowance per eligible dependant per qualifying month	Personal Income Tax Act

The under-25 allowance applies to specified earned income for eligible citizens of EEA states or neighbouring non-EEA countries, including the month of the 25th birthday. Its annual cap is the number of qualifying months multiplied by the preceding year's July national average gross earnings; age alone does not establish eligibility for every foreign employee.

For the two-child mothers allowance, a qualifying biological or adoptive mother generally must be entitled to family allowance for two children, or previously have held that entitlement for at least 12 years for those children, with a statutory exception for a deceased child. Covered income includes employment wages but excludes severance above the statutory amount.

From 1 January 2026, the allowance applies to qualifying mothers who turn 40 after 31 December 2025. The enacted extension from 1 January 2027 covers qualifying mothers who turn 50 after 31 December 2026 and have not already qualified under the earlier cohort. From 1 January 2028 it extends to qualifying mothers who turn 60 after 31 December 2027 and have not already qualified; from 1 January 2029 it covers the remaining qualifying mothers.

Allowance ordering also matters: the law places the relevant mothers' allowances before relief for maternity, childcare and adoption benefits, followed by under-25 relief, personal allowance, newlywed allowance and family allowance. From 1 January 2026, an eligible mother can use the combined ANYACSKA advance-tax declaration for her selected two-, three-, or four-or-more-child mothers allowance and the family tax and contribution allowances toward an employer or regular-income payer. Only the mothers-allowance part is treated as continuing; the family component does not carry forward on that basis.

Before the offer, connect the job, budget and hiring route

The job's qualification requirement, proposed pay, legal employer and work-permission position determine the offer budget and whether the proposed start can proceed. Record them together before committing to the offer.

Decision to record	What to check in Hungary	What changes next
Job requirement and wage floor	Does the job require at least secondary education or a secondary vocational qualification? Apply the ordinary or guaranteed minimum accordingly, with the relevant part-time adjustment.	Build the base-pay budget from the required floor, then use the corresponding salary-plus-szocho scenario above.
Salary benchmark	Use the national gross mean and median for context, and the relevant Hays range and mode for the role and experience level. Hays employee base pay excludes bonuses and benefits.	Set the proposed gross salary against the role benchmark and budget employer tax separately.
Legal employer and insurance registration	Identify the employer and applicable insurance rules. A qualifying foreign employer needs the correct representation or NAV registration and worker notification; the domestic form route differs. An EOR arrangement also has agency obligations.	Assign responsibility for the correct employer and worker filings before confirming the start arrangements.
Work-permission category	Distinguish a new guest-worker application from the separate employment-purpose category, and check the candidate's existing or transitional position and all applicable conditions.	Keep the proposed start conditional on the candidate having the required permission for the employment.
Actual working relationship	Compare the planned direction and control over place, time and manner of work with a service provider's organisation of its activity.	Choose employment or genuine independent services from the actual arrangements, rather than relying on the contract label.

Carry the recorded job, employer and working arrangements into the written employment terms so the offer, filings and planned start describe the same engagement. The budget also needs agreed benefits and necessary expense reimbursement alongside salary and employer tax; estimating take-home pay requires employee-specific declarations, including separate treatment of the family component where an eligible mother uses ANYACSKA.

Set the salary date and define additional benefits in the offer

Set a salary date that meets the ordinary deadline: the tenth day of the following month. Unless otherwise agreed, wages must be calculated in arrears at least once a month. Include the calculation method, frequency and salary date in the written employment information, except where the parties have already expressly agreed those terms in writing.

The employer must also provide a written wage-calculation statement by the tenth day of the following month. It must let the employee check the calculation and the grounds and amounts of deductions. If a subsequent event requires a correction, notify the employee by the next monthly calculation and pay any wage difference with the next monthly wages.

Specify gross base salary separately from any promised bonus or additional benefits. The employment contract must state base salary and job role, while the written employment information also covers pay beyond base salary and other benefits. When comparing the offer with the Hays employee benchmarks, compare base pay with base pay: those figures exclude bonuses and benefits. For any agreed addition, record its conditions and timing so the candidate can distinguish recurring salary from the rest of the offer.

Necessary and justified employment expenses are a separate employer obligation. Budget their reimbursement alongside agreed benefits, and describe the arrangements separately so a negotiated benefit does not obscure an expense that the employer must reimburse.

Control working hours, overtime and rest together

Plan ordinary full-time work around an eight-hour day and a five-day Monday–Friday schedule. Scheduled working time generally cannot exceed 12 hours a day or 48 hours a week, including overtime under the statutory counting rules. With an uneven schedule, the weekly limit is assessed as an average over the applicable statutory period.

Communicate the schedule in writing for at least one week, at least 168 hours before the scheduled daily start. Subject to an applicable collective-agreement variation, an unforeseen operating circumstance allows a change at least 96 hours before that start; a change is also possible at the employee's written request. Record actual hours, overtime and compensatory rest against the schedule so you can check both the limits and the resulting pay.

A working-time bank allows an uneven distribution of hours, with its start, end and total hours specified and published in writing. Its default maximum duration is four months or 16 weeks, while specified work patterns and roles allow six months or 26 weeks. A collective agreement may allow up to 36 months where objective, technical or work-organisation reasons justify it; these are limits on bank duration, rather than one payroll-settlement period for every employer.

Overtime limits and premiums

The ordinary annual limit is 250 hours of ordered overtime, with up to 150 additional hours under a separate written voluntary-overtime agreement. Apply the limits proportionately where employment starts during the year or is fixed-term or part-time. The employee can terminate the voluntary agreement at the end of the calendar year.

An applicable collective agreement can permit up to 300 hours of ordered overtime. Under that collective arrangement, up to 100 additional voluntary hours require a separate written agreement with the employee.

Overtime remuneration is additional to the wages for ordinary working time. The premium or lawful time-off substitute depends on when the overtime is worked, so distinguish ordinary days, weekly rest days and statutory public holidays in the records.

Ordinary overtime	50% premium, or time off where an employment rule or the parties' agreement permits; time off must at least match the overtime and carry proportionate base pay	Labour Code
Overtime on a weekly rest day	100% premium, reduced to 50% if another weekly rest day is provided	Labour Code
Overtime on a statutory public holiday	100% premium	Labour Code

The default shift premium is 30% for work between 18:00 and 06:00 where daily starting times change regularly: starts must differ on at least one-third of the month's working days, with at least four hours between the earliest and latest starts. The default night premium is 15% for more than one hour of night work, defined as 22:00–06:00, except where the employee is entitled to the shift premium. Specified premiums may instead be included in agreed base pay or a contractual monthly premium lump sum, so their treatment depends on the contract.

Breaks and rest

Provide a 20-minute break when daily working time exceeds six hours, and an additional 25 minutes when it exceeds nine hours. Count the relevant overtime beyond the daily schedule when testing those thresholds; the break must interrupt work.

Ordinary daily rest is at least 11 consecutive hours between finishing work and the next start. Split shifts, continuous operations, multiple shifts and seasonal work have a specified eight-hour exception, with two consecutive daily rest periods together totalling at least 22 hours. The applicable work pattern and any statutory clock-change variation govern a shorter rest period, so plan the next start alongside the previous day's overtime.

Leave grows with age and family circumstances

Budget annual leave from the statutory basic entitlement plus the employee's applicable age and family additions. Sickness and childcare rights have separate rules for employer absence pay and insurance benefits.

Annual leave and public holidays

Basic annual leave is the statutory floor. Age-based additions apply from the year the employee reaches the relevant age; add the applicable working days below to the basic entitlement.

Basic annual leave	20 days, counted as working days	Labour Code
From age 25	1 additional working day	Labour Code
From age 28	2 additional working days	Labour Code
From age 31	3 additional working days	Labour Code
From age 33	4 additional working days	Labour Code
From age 35	5 additional working days	Labour Code
From age 37	6 additional working days	Labour Code
From age 39	7 additional working days	Labour Code
From age 41	8 additional working days	Labour Code
From age 43	9 additional working days	Labour Code
From age 45	10 additional working days	Labour Code

Children bring further additions: two working days for one child, four for two children and seven for more than two, with another two working days for each disabled child. A child counts from the year of birth through the year of their 16th birthday.

The employer grants leave after consulting the employee. After the first three months of employment, seven annual-leave working days must be granted at the employee's requested time, in no more than two parts, with the request made at least 15 days before the leave starts. The employer must also communicate the leave date at least 15 days beforehand; child-related additional leave and parental leave are granted at the employee's requested time on that notice.

Unless otherwise agreed, leave must allow at least 14 consecutive calendar days free from work and availability once each year. Weekly rest days, public holidays and applicable free days under an uneven schedule can count toward that period, so it does not require 14 days deducted from the annual-leave balance.

Annual leave generally belongs in the entitlement year. Where employment begins on or after 1 October, it may be granted by 31 March of the following year; where an employee-side obstacle prevents it, grant it within 60 days after that obstacle ends. Other statutory exceptions include a calendar-year agreement allowing age-based additions to be granted by the end of the following year. Ordinary leave cannot be exchanged for cash during employment, but unused proportionate leave must be paid out on termination, except paternity and parental leave.

The 11 statutory public holidays are 1 January, 15 March, Good Friday, Easter Monday, 1 May, Whit Monday, 20 August, 23 October, 1 November, 25 December and 26 December. Changes to working-day schedules around holidays do not add statutory holidays, so distinguish a moved workday or bridge day from the statutory list when planning coverage.

Sick leave and sickness benefit

For ordinary incapacity due to sickness, the employer grants 15 working days of sick leave per calendar year, paid at 70% of absence pay. The entitlement is proportionate when employment begins during the year. Occupational accidents, occupational disease and high-risk pregnancy are excluded from this ordinary sick-leave rule and need their applicable benefit route.

Once applicable sick leave is exhausted, eligible employees may receive the separate statutory sickness insurance benefit. It is generally 60% of its statutory benefit base with at least 730 days of continuous insurance, and 50% with less qualifying insurance or during inpatient care. Its daily maximum is twice the minimum wage at entitlement commencement divided by 30; the benefit base follows statutory income and insurance-history rules, rather than simply the offered gross salary.

For the employee's own sickness, benefit generally runs while insurance continues for up to one year, limited by the qualifying continuous-insurance period and reduced by relevant benefit days in the preceding year. The conditional employer contribution to sickness benefit and the employer's sick-leave absence pay are distinct costs.

Maternity, paternity and childcare

A mother is entitled to 24 continuous weeks of maternity leave and must take at least two weeks. Unless otherwise agreed, no more than four weeks should fall before the expected birth. The leave entitlement is separate from eligibility for CSED, the maternity insurance benefit.

CSED generally requires 365 insured days in the two years before birth and a birth during insurance or within the specified post-insurance conditions. Those conditions include birth within 42 days of insurance ending or being suspended, with a further statutory route linked to accident sickness benefit. CSED corresponds to the maternity-leave period and generally runs no later than 168 days from birth, subject to the preterm-child exception.

CSED is generally 100% of its statutory daily benefit base. It is not payable where the recipient works in any legal relationship during the first 90 days after birth, apart from the statutory foster-parent employment exception. If the recipient works after that initial restriction, the rate becomes 70% of the base.

A father receives ten working days of paternity leave, at his requested time in no more than two parts by the end of the fourth month after birth or the final adoption decision. The first five working days carry full absence pay, while days from the sixth carry 40% of absence pay.

Parental leave provides 44 working days until the child turns three, provided the employment relationship has existed for at least one year. It carries 10% of absence pay, reduced by GYED or GYES paid to the employee for the same period.

An employee may also take unpaid leave to care for their child until the child turns three. That employment right does not itself establish eligibility for an insurance benefit: ordinary GYED, the childcare insurance benefit, generally requires an insured parent caring for the child in their own household with 365 insured days in the two years before birth. A qualifying CSED recipient whose insurance ended during that benefit can also qualify where CSED entitlement began while insured and the required insurance-history and household-care conditions are met.

GYED begins after CSED or the corresponding period ends and normally continues until the child turns two; twins receive a further year, and adoption has a separate statutory duration rule. It pays 70% of its statutory daily base, with a monthly maximum of 70% of twice the current minimum wage. Its duration therefore differs from the longer unpaid-childcare-leave entitlement.

Ordinary employer notice increases with tenure

Ordinary employer notice is 30–90 days, depending on qualifying service with the same employer. The parties may agree to a longer period of up to six months, and a collective agreement may extend the statutory baseline; the exit date depends on those terms and the qualifying-service calculation.

Under 3 years	30 calendar days	Labour Code
3 to under 5 years	35 calendar days	Labour Code
5 to under 8 years	45 calendar days	Labour Code
8 to under 10 years	50 calendar days	Labour Code
10 to under 15 years	55 calendar days	Labour Code
15 to under 18 years	60 calendar days	Labour Code
18 to under 20 years	70 calendar days	Labour Code
20 years or more	90 calendar days	Labour Code

The steps show ordinary employer notice, with the complete tenure bands retained in the table. They determine the baseline duration, while the grounds for notice, protected status and paid release require separate checks.

Labour leasing has separate agency notice and severance rules, so the ordinary tenure table does not determine those entitlements. For ordinary fixed-term employment ended by notice, the notice period cannot run beyond the agreed term's expiry.

Reasons, protection and release from work

Prepare a written notice stating the specific reason and retain the records that support it. Employer notice generally must be based on the employee's employment-related conduct or capability, or the employer's operations, subject to statutory exceptions. A change in the employer's identity alone, or the employee ending a specified voluntary-overtime or extended-hours agreement, cannot itself supply the reason.

Ordinary notice for fixed-term employment is limited to the statutory cases: liquidation or bankruptcy proceedings, a reason based on the employee's capability, or an unavoidable external cause making continued employment impossible. For indefinite employment, a statutory reason-giving exception applies where the employee qualifies as a pensioner.

Employer notice is prohibited during pregnancy, maternity leave, paternity leave, parental leave and unpaid childcare leave, as well as other listed protected periods. Pregnancy and statutory fertility-treatment protection require notification to the employer; the fertility-treatment protection lasts no more than six months from treatment starting. If the employee supplies the relevant notification after notice has been communicated, the employer may withdraw the notice in writing within 15 days of that notification.

Additional restrictions apply to a non-pensioner in indefinite employment within five years of pension age, and to a mother or single father of a child under three who is not taking the relevant maternity or unpaid childcare leave. Depending on the proposed ground, those rules restrict conduct-based notice or require a check for suitable vacant work.

On employer notice, release the employee from work for at least half the notice period, generally with absence pay unless they would otherwise have no wage entitlement. Grant that release at the employee's requested time in no more than two parts, and plan the handover around the remaining working portion of notice.

Severance and final documents

Severance depends on the ending ground and qualifying service, so the amounts below are not automatic for every departure. They apply to qualifying employer termination, cessation without a successor and the other specified statutory ending case.

At least 3 but under 5 years	1 month of absence pay	Labour Code
At least 5 but under 10 years	2 months of absence pay	Labour Code
At least 10 but under 15 years	3 months of absence pay	Labour Code
At least 15 but under 20 years	4 months of absence pay	Labour Code
At least 20 but under 25 years	5 months of absence pay	Labour Code
At least 25 years	6 months of absence pay	Labour Code

Severance is excluded if the employee qualifies as a pensioner when notice is communicated or the employer ceases without a successor, or if the notice reason concerns employment-related conduct or capability unrelated to health. A qualifying ending within five years of pension age adds one month of absence pay to the first two tenure bands, two months to the next two and three months to the last two.

Calculate qualifying service using the statutory counting rules. Continuous periods longer than 30 days without wage entitlement are excluded, with exceptions for maternity and parental leave, unpaid childcare leave and up to three months of unpaid leave for actual voluntary reserve military service. The ordinary notice calculation uses the same specified service exclusions.

During an agreed probation period, either party may end employment immediately without giving a reason. An employer can also end fixed-term employment immediately without a reason under the separate statutory route, but then owes 12 months of absence pay or, where less than one year remains, absence pay for the remaining term. These exceptions do not create a general right to dismiss without a reason.

For termination by notice, pay final wages and other entitlements and issue the required certificates no later than the fifth working day counted from the last day worked. For other endings, count the five working days from employment ending. Include unused proportionate leave in the final settlement, except paternity and parental leave, and arrange the required handover and accounting.

Remote work needs separate IP and tax checks

Remote work must be agreed in the employment contract, and the employer must reimburse necessary and justified employment expenses. Record the agreed work location and duties so the contractual arrangement can be assessed against actual practice.

Put employment-created IP and any non-compete in writing

Unless otherwise agreed, delivery of a work to the employer transfers the author's economic rights to that employer where creating the work was an employment duty. Define the relevant duties and record delivery to the legal employer, because the default depends on both conditions. Legal declarations concerning work created in fulfilment of employment duties must be made in writing.

The ordinary rules grant the employee-author appropriate remuneration if the employer licenses the work or transfers its economic rights to another party. For software created as an employment duty, those specific employee-author remuneration provisions do not apply, and software economic rights can be transferred. The employer's ability to exercise or transfer rights therefore depends on the work type.

Under an EOR arrangement, the legal employer and the customer receiving the work may differ. To secure onward IP rights to the customer, address them in the contract: delivery and the employment default do not establish that transfer. Independently provided services need their own IP terms; the employment-duty default does not establish the customer's rights under a service agreement.

A post-employment non-compete must be agreed in writing and may last no more than two years. The employer must pay appropriate compensation for the restriction, taking account of its effect on the employee's ability to obtain new work, and the amount cannot be less than one-third of base salary for the restricted period.

Payroll registration does not settle permanent establishment

Assess permanent establishment, or PE, under domestic corporate-tax law and the applicable treaty independently of employer registration. Hungarian domestic law includes several possible mechanisms, so a day count alone does not resolve the question.

Fixed business place	A fixed place or equipment used wholly or partly for business, including an office, regardless of the legal title under which it is used	Corporate Tax Act
Habitual contract authority	A person in Hungary regularly exercises authority to conclude contracts on the foreign company's behalf, subject to statutory exceptions	Corporate Tax Act
Connected services	Services through employees or individuals performing the same activity under another legal relationship exceed 183 days in any 12-month period, with connected services counted together	Corporate Tax Act

An applicable international treaty takes precedence where it differs from the corporate-tax statute. Determine which treaty applies and assess the actual premises, activities and contract authority under its provisions before reaching a PE conclusion.

NAV's home-office guidance on the OECD Model Convention and Commentary's 2025 changes provides an interpretation framework based on actual facts. A lack of commercial reason for the location can weigh against PE, but does not exclude PE arising from other facts, and a sole or primary business operator is assessed differently. The guidance does not create a domestic-law safe harbour.

Personal-income-tax and social-security obligations may arise even without PE, under different thresholds and administrative requirements, as Deloitte explains in its 28 September 2026 analysis. Employee-tax, insurance-registration and immigration duties therefore require assessment alongside corporate tax; neither an employer-registration filing nor a favourable PE conclusion resolves the employee's work and insured status.

Recent changes for 2026 hires and January 2027 planning

The 2026 changes affect wage floors, insured-relationship reporting, employee allowances and new guest-worker applications. The enacted January 2027 measures have their own eligibility conditions for employees and contractors.

• 1 January 2026 — wage floors. The ordinary full-time gross monthly base-pay floor is HUF 322,800, and the guaranteed floor is HUF 373,200 for a job requiring at least secondary education or a secondary vocational qualification.
• 1 January 2026 — domestic insured-relationship reporting. The form is displayed as 08E, while its installed ÁNYK identifier remains T1041, and relationships starting on or after that date require a relationship serial. Carry that serial into later changes, subject to the exception for an initial notification made before 2026 without one. NAV recommends coordinating it with the monthly ’08 numbering; this is a recommendation, not automatic identification across the two systems.
• 1 January 2026 — employee allowances and declarations. Apply the 2026 family tax-base amounts according to eligible dependants and qualifying months; the two-child mothers allowance covers qualifying mothers who turn 40 after 31 December 2025 on the specified earned income, including employment wages. The child-related eligibility conditions also apply. An eligible mother may use the combined ANYACSKA declaration toward an employer or regular-income payer; only its mothers-allowance component is continuing.
• 6 June 2026 — new guest-worker applications. The decree selects no nationality for new guest-worker residence permits, while the separate employment-purpose category remains subject to its own conditions. Existing permit validity and specified renewal, reissue and pending cases have transitional protection under the conditions described in the work-permission section.

Enacted for 1 January 2027:

• 1 January 2027 — the next two-child mothers cohort. The allowance extends to qualifying mothers who turn 50 after 31 December 2026 and have not already qualified under the earlier cohort. It applies to the specified income acquired after that date, or employment income for periods after that date, with the same child-related eligibility conditions.
• 1 January 2027 — contractor tax regimes. The default expense ratio for sole-trader flat-rate income taxation rises from 45% to 50%, while the separate domestic small-business VAT exemption ceiling rises from HUF 20,000,000 in 2026 to HUF 22,000,000 in 2027. The VAT election requires the other statutory conditions and counted supplies in actual 2026 and expected/actual 2027 not exceeding the 2027 ceiling. Use the Hungary contractor guide to apply the separate regime and election rules to the engagement.

Employment mistakes: employer penalties and worker duties

Liability for an employment mistake depends on the responsible party and the breach. Penalty amounts depend on the applicable statutory conditions, including employer size, the affected workers and the nature of a shortfall; the listed maxima do not form one combined penalty.

Party	Risk	Amount
Employer responsible for worker notification	An undeclared worker, or an incorrect, incomplete or untrue notification	NAV default penalty up to HUF 2,000,000 per undeclared worker; up to HUF 500,000 per worker affected by an inaccurate notification, subject to statutory exceptions
Employer subject to labour inspection	Employment-law breaches under the labour-inspection decree	Minimum fine HUF 150,000; for legal persons and organisations, maximum HUF 20,000,000 for a statutory medium-sized enterprise, or HUF 25,000,000 where headcount exceeds 249 when inspection begins
Employer/payer	Failure to determine, deduct or report the individual's contributions	Contribution shortfall, tax fine and late-payment charge assessed against the employer/payer, except where the shortfall results from the individual's unlawful statement
Employer/payer and employee	Failure to determine, withhold or report the individual's personal income tax, outside the deducted-but-unreported case below	PIT shortfall assessed against the individual; the associated tax fine and late-payment charge assessed against the employer/payer
Employer/payer	Tax or contributions deducted from the individual but not reported	Shortfall, tax fine and late-payment charge assessed against the employer/payer
Taxpayer liable under the applicable allocation rules	Tax shortfall or an unjustified claim	Ordinary tax fine of 50% of the shortfall or unjustified claim; 200% where linked to concealed revenue or false, fabricated, falsified or destroyed records, subject to statutory exceptions
Ordinary employer	Unlawful termination	Compensation for resulting damage; the lost-employment-income component is capped at 12 months of absence pay, with separate statutory remedies including qualifying severance
Qualifying foreign employer and worker	No appropriate representative and failure to complete required NAV employer registration for a Hungarian-insured engagement	Worker must perform insurance reporting, payment and filing duties and bear the consequences of non-compliance, except default and tax fines; no single fixed penalty amount

For worker notification, timing and completeness can change which NAV penalty applies. If a late notification covers the full actual employment period before inspection begins, NAV may penalise only the late notification, and the penalty may be waived under that rule. Labour inspection has its own statutory exclusions and correction conditions, so assess those separately from the tax-authority penalty.

The contribution and PIT rows allocate different liabilities even where the same employer made the error. Who bears the shortfall depends on whether the amount was never determined or deducted, or was deducted but omitted from the return. The ordinary tax-fine rate is a shortfall rule with its own exceptions and aggravating conditions, rather than a fixed percentage for every classification error.

The daily tax late-payment charge is calculated by adding 5 percentage points to the MNB base rate applicable that day and dividing the result by 365. The charge depends on the tax due and the delay period.

During labour leasing, the client acting as user retains duties concerning workplace safety, working and rest time, and their records. The agency and user are jointly and severally liable for damage to the worker or violations of the worker's personality rights during assignment. Allocating responsibilities in the provider contract does not remove the user's statutory duties.

Frequently asked questions

Can I hire employees in Hungary without a local entity?

Yes, a qualifying foreign employer can employ a worker insured under Hungarian law if it has no Hungarian business-registration obligation. It must fulfil the insurance reporting, contribution and filing duties through an appropriate representative or directly, with NAV registration before insurance starts when acting directly and separate worker notification. An employer of record offers another route in which the provider is the legal employer, with agency and client duties allocated under the applicable rules.

What is the minimum wage in Hungary in 2026?

From 1 January 2026, the ordinary full-time gross minimum base wage is HUF 322,800 per month. The guaranteed minimum is HUF 373,200 per month for a job requiring at least secondary education or secondary vocational qualifications. Monthly, weekly and daily floors are reduced in proportion to part-time hours; the statutory hourly rate remains applicable, subject to the decree's adjustment for a full-time day longer or shorter than eight hours.

Does the guaranteed minimum wage apply to every employee with a degree?

A degree alone does not trigger the guaranteed minimum wage: the rule concerns the qualifications required for the job. Record the role's education or vocational requirement before choosing the applicable floor, rather than selecting it from the employee's CV alone.

What is a good salary in Hungary?

Assess the offer against the role and experience level rather than treating a national figure as the target for every hire. In July 2026, national full-time gross mean earnings were HUF 745,500 per month and the gross median was HUF 618,200. Hays 2026 reports monthly modes of HUF 2,100,000 for senior Java developers and HUF 1,900,000 for senior DevOps / Cloud Engineers, both with five or more years of experience. These are role-specific full-time gross base salaries excluding bonuses and benefits, with a different population and method from the national earnings figures.

How much does a Hungarian employee cost above gross salary?

Under ordinary Hungarian-insured employment taxation, employer social contribution tax adds 13% to the salary tax base without the ceiling that applies to certain other income categories. At HUF 745,500 gross per month, that means HUF 96,915 in employer tax and HUF 842,415 in salary plus that tax, assuming no relief. Agreed benefits, provider fees, necessary expenses, overtime and any applicable sickness-benefit or rehabilitation obligations sit outside this calculation.

Can a foreigner work in Hungary under the new 2026 rules?

Some foreign candidates can still qualify, but the answer depends on the permit category and their existing status. Since 6 June 2026, no nationality is selected for new guest-worker residence permits; the separate employment-purpose category names Georgia, Armenia and the Philippines, subject to a readmission agreement with Hungary or the EU, or, in its absence, a state-recognised organisation or office in Hungary that undertakes to ensure the citizen's departure and return following non-compliance. Existing permits retain their validity, and the transition protects specified renewals or reissues for permits valid on 5 June and applications pending that day. An application recorded electronically by 5 June counts as pending for that protection only if its administrative fee was also paid by 5 June 2026.

How much annual leave do employees get in Hungary?

Basic annual leave is 20 working days, with age and family additions where applicable. Age additions begin with one day in the year the employee turns 25 and rise through the statutory bands to ten days from the year they turn 45. Child-related additions are two days for one child, four for two and seven for more than two, with two further days for each disabled child. For these additions, a child counts from the year of birth through the year of their 16th birthday.

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