Hiring in Kazakhstan

A foreign company can hire employees through its own Kazakhstan employer or an employer of record arrangement that qualifies under the personnel-provision rules. For independent services, it can engage a contractor. 4dev.com is a global contractor platform that works with contractors in Kazakhstan.

Three ways to hire in Kazakhstan

Choose the route by who will employ the person and how the relationship can end. A genuine contractor provides services independently.

Route	Legal employer	What you pay on top of salary	How you end it
Your own entity	Your Kazakhstan legal entity or eligible local branch	17.5% is the nominal sum of four employer rates, not an effective percentage of gross salary; the components have different bases, caps and eligibility rules. Mandatory accident insurance and the conditional harmful-work pension are separate.	15 workdays – 1 month, depending on the employer ground: 15 working days for reduced production or services caused by worsened economics, and at least one month for liquidation or workforce reduction.
Employer of record	The Kazakhstan-registered sending party or foreign branch is the employer under the personnel-provision framework.	The employee-route statutory stack is the same 17.5% nominal sum, with distinct bases, caps and cohort limits; mandatory accident insurance and the conditional harmful-work pension remain separate.	The sending employer must use the applicable employment-law ground, including the 15 workdays – 1 month notice range above; the client also has its agreement with the sending party.
Contractor	The contractor remains an independent service provider.	This is not an employee-salary route: a genuine services relationship does not by itself bring the employee payroll contribution stack.	The services contract governs the exit, rather than Labour Code notice.

The 17.5% nominal sum combines 3.5% employer pension for the eligible cohort, 5% social insurance, 3% employer health insurance and 6% social tax. The Social Code limits employer pension to a base of 50 minimum wages and excludes people born before 1 January 1975. Social insurance uses income after employee pension deductions, subject to a one-minimum-wage floor and seven-minimum-wage cap; employer health insurance has a 40-minimum-wage cap. Social tax uses a base after employee pension and health contributions under the Tax Code.

The Accident Insurance Act sets a separate occupational-risk premium that needs its own policy budget; the additional pension contribution applies only to listed harmful occupations. An employer of record arrangement also has to fit the Labour Code personnel-provision rules: they allow household work, a defined job, replacement of an absent worker or seasonal work, rather than every marketed staffing arrangement.

The labour market in Kazakhstan

Almaty and Astana had the highest enterprise vacancy counts in the Bureau of National Statistics’ Q2 2026 release, which indicates where recorded hiring demand was concentrated but does not establish city salary levels.

Salary reference points

National average salary	KZT 486,388 / month — Q2 2026; nominal monthly average, excluding employees of small enterprises engaged in entrepreneurial activity	BNS Q2 2026 wages
National median salary	KZT 348,415 / month — estimated median, Q2 2026	BNS Q2 2026 wages
Information and communications sector average	KZT 851,076 / month — Q2 2026 sector average	BNS Q2 2026 wages
Engineer average	KZT 702,000 / month — broad-role employee survey, April 2026	BNS 2026 role salary survey

The national average is a mean, and the median is an estimate. The sector average and broad engineer survey cover different populations. For an offer, check the role, seniority and location against current recruiting evidence; these figures establish neither a software-developer salary nor a city-specific rate.

Registering as a Kazakhstan employer, step by step

An eligible electronic registration application is processed within one working day. Foreign-founder documents, worker checks and the first payroll run have separate timelines.

Step	What happens	Takes
Choose the local employer route	A Kazakhstan legal entity or a registered foreign branch can sit within the local employment framework. Direct cross-border employment without local registration needs case-specific tax, immigration and payroll analysis; no general alternative route is established.	No verified universal timing
Prepare the foreign-founder file, where relevant	A foreign corporate founder ordinarily supplies a legalized trade-register extract with notarized Kazakh and Russian translations.	No verified statutory total
Submit the electronic registration application	An eligible application to register a private business legal entity or branch is processed under the registration law.	1 working day for processing
Add accident insurance when the company will employ people	A small or medium enterprise’s registration application normally includes the employee accident-insurance application.	No separate timing established
Clear the worker’s employment basis	Workers from other Eurasian Economic Union (EAEU) member states do not need a work permit. For a temporarily staying foreigner, the employer generally needs the relevant local foreign-workforce permission and required medical insurance before the employment contract, subject to statutory exemptions and alternative permissions.	No verified universal timing
Sign and record the employment contract	Sign the written or electronic contract before work begins, then record the new contract in the unified system under the employment contract registry rules.	Before work starts; registry record within 5 working days

The complete setup time depends on document preparation, the worker’s permit and insurance position, and the steps after registration. No end-to-end first-hire or payroll duration is established. Where an agency is involved, check its role in the specific arrangement; no single licence or timetable covers every arrangement.

Hiring and onboarding: contract, registry and foreign-worker checks

Before work begins, confirm the person’s work basis, sign an employment contract and complete the required registry record on its own statutory timetable.

Legal limits on a new hire

Under the Labour Code, an employment contract must be signed in writing or electronically before work starts. It must identify the parties and their IDs, role, work location unless the work is fully remote, term, start date, hours, pay and termination procedure. Probation is up to 3 months; it may extend to six months only for specified senior roles.

Salary is set and paid in tenge at least monthly, no later than the first ten days of the following month. The contract and payroll rule are separate from the registry: a signed new contract must be recorded in the unified system within five working days.

Onboarding checklist

• Confirm identity and the basis on which the person may work in Kazakhstan before finalising the engagement.
• For a worker from another EAEU member state, apply the permit exemption; for a temporarily staying foreign worker, check the relevant local foreign-workforce permission and mandated medical insurance before signing, subject to the statutory exemptions and alternative permissions.
• Arrange mandatory accident cover where the employing setup requires it.
• Sign the written or electronic employment contract before work begins, then file the new record in the unified system within five working days under the employment contract registry rules.
• Record a signed contract amendment within 15 calendar days and an employment termination within three working days.

Can hiring create a Kazakhstan permanent establishment?

A foreign company may create a Kazakhstan permanent establishment without a subsidiary: Kazakhstan’s Tax Code has separate fixed-place, personnel-services and dependent-agent triggers for a nonresident.

• A fixed local place of business can create a permanent establishment regardless of how long it operates.
• Services or work through hired employees or other personnel can create one when the activity lasts more than 183 days in any rolling 12 months under one project or related projects.
• A dependent agent with authority to represent and act for the nonresident can create one regardless of duration.

The 183-day threshold applies only to personnel services. Review the company’s actual activity and any applicable tax treaty; a fixed place or an agent with authority has no duration threshold.

An employer of record arrangement changes the employment structure, but the foreign company’s own local presence, personnel activity and authority still need to be tested against these triggers.

Minimum wage: KZT 85,000 and its recent history

KZT 85,000 / month is the statutory monthly minimum wage from 1 January 2026.

2022	KZT 60,000 / month — effective 1 January	2022 budget law
2023	KZT 70,000 / month — effective 1 January	2023 budget law
2024	KZT 85,000 / month — effective 1 January	2024 budget law
2025	KZT 85,000 / month — effective 1 January	2025 budget law
2026	KZT 85,000 / month — effective 1 January	2026 budget law

The monthly minimum is a legal floor. It cannot be used as a local-market salary quote, hourly or foreign-currency rate, net-pay estimate or test of tax-regime eligibility.

Taxes and contributions: why 17.5% is not the final bill

Individual income tax is 10–15%, while 17.5% is a nominal sum of four employer rates on different bases, not an effective percentage of gross salary or a complete employment-cost figure.

The 10% rate applies to annual taxable income up to 8,500 monthly calculation indexes (MRP) and 15% applies to the excess. The employer rates are 3.5% pension for eligible employees, 5% social insurance, 3% health insurance and 6% general social tax. Employer pension uses a base from one to 50 minimum wages and excludes people born before 1 January 1975.

Each employer component has its own assessment base. Social insurance starts with gross employment income minus employee mandatory pension contributions, then applies a KZT 85,000 floor and KZT 595,000 monthly cap. Employer health insurance has a KZT 3.4 million monthly cap. Social tax excludes employee pension and employee health contributions from its base; social-insurance contributions no longer offset social tax. Employee deductions are separate from employer components.

What an employee actually costs you

Salary reference	Gross monthly salary	Selected employer components	Gross plus selected components	Effective share of gross	Salary source
National average salary, Q2 2026	KZT 486,388.00	KZT 79,183.97	KZT 565,571.97	16.28%	BNS Q2 2026 wages
Engineer average, April 2026	KZT 702,000.00	KZT 112,445.60	KZT 814,445.60	16.02%	BNS 2026 role salary survey
Information and communications sector average, Q2 2026	KZT 851,076.00	KZT 130,006.75	KZT 981,082.75	15.28%	BNS Q2 2026 wages

These scenarios use ordinary legal-entity payroll for an employee eligible for employer pension and not in a harmful occupation. They add employer pension, social insurance, employer health insurance and social tax to gross salary; the social-insurance cap lowers the effective share at higher salary anchors.

The totals exclude mandatory accident insurance, conditional harmful-work pension, benefits and provider fees. Accident insurance has an occupational-risk tariff, insured-payroll cap and annual policy minimum, so budget its policy separately. The Social Code, mandatory health-insurance law and 2026 Tax Code set the component rules.

Working hours, overtime and wage timing

Ordinary working time must not exceed 40 hours a week, and overtime needs a separate legal basis rather than becoming a standing scheduling rule.

Under the Labour Code, ordinary overtime generally requires the employee’s written consent, subject to statutory exceptions. The normal limits are two hours a day and 12 hours a month; where summed working-time accounting applies, the annual limit is 120 hours. Work in harmful or dangerous conditions has a one-hour daily overtime limit, and statutory emergency exceptions remain separate.

Hourly overtime must be paid at no less than 1.5 times the daily or hourly rate. The parties may instead agree rest time of at least one hour for each overtime hour. Salary must be set and paid in tenge at least monthly, no later than the first ten days of the following month.

In a personnel-provision arrangement, the receiving party must keep records of the sent worker’s hours, including overtime, holiday work and work in harmful or dangerous conditions, alongside its equipment and safe-condition duties. That recordkeeping rule does not create a universal shift pattern for every employer.

Leave, sick pay and parental leave

The basic paid annual leave entitlement is 24 calendar days, while sickness, maternity and childcare have separate rules and do not form one combined leave balance.

Entitlement or benefit	Rule	Scope
Paid annual leave	24 calendar days, unless a longer entitlement applies	Employment leave; listed harmful or dangerous work carries at least six additional calendar days where the work and assessment qualify
Temporary incapacity benefit	The employer pays from the first day on a sick-leave certificate; the ordinary monthly cap is 25 MRP, or KZT 108,125 in 2026	Employer-paid sick benefit; statutory exceptions apply, including listed work-injury, occupational-disease and protected-veteran cases
Maternity leave	70 calendar days before birth and 56 after; 70 after in specified complicated or multiple-birth cases	Leave period
Childcare leave	Unpaid leave until the child turns three	Available to an employee

The maternity and childcare entries describe leave periods and availability, without setting a social-benefit amount or eligibility calculation. Temporary-incapacity benefit follows a separate employer-paid rule under the Labour Code.

Which public holidays are statutory in Kazakhstan?

Kazakhstan has 13 + 2 religious days in the statutory count: 13 national and state holiday dates and two separate religious days off.

The current holidays law lists 13 national and state dates, counting 1 and 2 January and 21–23 March as separate dates. It now lists Constitution Day on 15 March. Separately, the first day of Qurban Ait and Orthodox Christmas on 7 January are days off regardless of the work schedule; they are not national or state holidays, and a weekend does not automatically create a substitute day for them.

Constitution Day changed from 30 August to 15 March with effect from 1 July 2026. That change updates the statute but does not make 15 March 2026 a retroactively observed day off under a law that took effect later. For a specific 2026 schedule, check the applicable calendar decision for transferred and observed days.

Termination: the ground changes notice and payment

The employer notice range is 15 workdays – 1 month because the applicable period follows the statutory ground. Resignation and employer-paid compensation are separate questions.

Ending route	Notice	Compensation
Employer: liquidation or workforce reduction	At least one month; the employment or collective contract may provide a longer period	One average monthly wage
Employer: lower production or services that worsens the employer’s economic situation	15 working days; the employment or collective contract may provide a longer period	Two average monthly wages
Employee resignation	At least one month; the employment contract may provide a longer period	No employer severance amount is set by these cited rules for an ordinary resignation

Identify the statutory ground before calculating notice and compensation under the Labour Code.

Recent changes that affect a Kazakhstan hire

• 1 January 2026 — payroll tax rules changed. Individual income tax is now 10% on annual taxable income through 8,500 MRP and 15% on the excess. The general employer social-tax rate is 6%, with separate statutory exceptions such as the 1.8% rate for qualifying agricultural activities. Payroll settings should therefore use the current Tax Code, rather than treating a contractor-status or business-regime threshold as a general employment-tax threshold.
• 12 March 2026 — employment-register reporting gained a specific penalty. Employers can be fined for missing, late, incomplete or incorrect entries about a contract, its changes or its end in the unified employment-contract system. Put the register deadlines into the onboarding and offboarding calendar: a new contract is recorded within five working days, an amendment within 15 calendar days, and termination within three working days. The relevant Administrative Code provision sets category-based fines; the reporting deadlines remain in the unified-register rules.
• 1 July 2026 — Constitution Day moved in the law. The statutory date changed from 30 August to 15 March. It does not mean that 15 March 2026 became a retroactively observed day off: use the applicable calendar decision when reviewing an earlier 2026 schedule. See the current holidays law.
• 1 January 2027 — employer pension rate rises. The rate rises from 3.5% to 4.5% for eligible employees. Refresh forward payroll budgets and confirm whether the worker falls within the contribution rules and base; the Social Code provides the rate schedule.

What a hiring mistake costs and who pays

The clearest preventable breach is allowing someone to start work before a written employment contract is signed. Under Article 86 of the Administrative Code, these are the 2026 first-offence fines for that specific trigger; they use the KZT 4,325 monthly calculation index.

Party	Risk	Amount
Employer official	Admitting a person to work without a signed employment contract	KZT 129,750 (30 MRP)
Small business or nonprofit	Same first offence	KZT 259,500 (60 MRP)
Medium business	Same first offence	KZT 346,000 (80 MRP)
Large business	Same first offence	KZT 648,750 (150 MRP)

The table covers work without a signed contract. A separate employment-register offence covers missing, late, incomplete or incorrect entries about a contract, its changes or its termination. That offence also depends on the offender category, with penalties of 30–150 MRP; its deadlines are set in the unified-register rules. Repeat offences follow separate provisions, so do not reuse the table’s first-offence amounts for them.

Late payment of wages or late-payment compensation is another distinct offence, with category-based fines from 30 to 150 MRP. A signed contract before work, a timely registry entry and wages paid by the agreed date address three distinct obligations.

Hiring in Kazakhstan: common questions

Can a foreign company hire in Kazakhstan without opening an entity?

A company can employ through its own Kazakhstan legal entity or an eligible local branch. An employer of record route has to fit the statutory personnel-provision conditions. A genuine contractor relationship is a separate services route and is not a substitute label for employment.

Can a foreigner work in Kazakhstan without a permit?

Workers from another EAEU member state do not need a Kazakhstan work permit. For a temporarily staying foreign worker, the employer generally needs the relevant local foreign-workforce permission before signing, subject to statutory exemptions and alternative permissions; check the individual’s work basis before committing to the hire.

What is the minimum salary in Kazakhstan in 2026?

The statutory monthly minimum wage is KZT 85,000 from 1 January 2026. It is a legal floor, not a market salary for a role, an hourly rate or a statement of net pay.

What is a good salary in Kazakhstan?

Use the reference point that matches the question. The Q2 2026 national average was KZT 486,388 a month and the estimated median was KZT 348,415, while the information and communications sector average was KZT 851,076. Those figures do not establish a city-specific rate or a software-developer salary, so role, seniority and location still need current recruiting evidence.

How much does an employee actually cost at the average salary?

At the Q2 2026 national average gross salary of KZT 486,388, the selected employer contribution components total KZT 79,183.97 and produce a monthly cost of KZT 565,571.97, or 16.28% of gross. That illustration assumes an employee eligible for employer pension and not in a harmful occupation; it excludes mandatory accident insurance, the conditional harmful-work pension, benefits and provider fees because they are not part of the four-component model.

Is probation always three months?

No. Probation can be up to three months, but specified senior roles can have up to six months. The term needs to be set in the employment contract; it is not an automatic rule for every hire.

Does a contractor need the same payroll treatment as an employee?

No, provided the relationship is genuinely independent. A civil-law services contract cannot contain employment features: a defined job function, personal work under internal work rules and salary for labour point to employment regardless of the document’s label. The exit for an independent services relationship follows the services contract, whereas ending employment follows the Labour Code process.

Does one-day registration mean payroll can start tomorrow?

No. The one-working-day statutory processing period applies to an eligible electronic company or branch registration application, not to the whole hiring sequence. Foreign-document preparation, work-permission checks where relevant, accident cover, the signed employment contract and the employment-register record each have their own requirements.

Sources

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