Tanzania
Employ in Tanzania without an entity.
A contract under Tanzania's employment law, pay in shillings, and social security and income tax handled every month. One contact and one invoice.
The facts of employing in Tanzania.
Paid in shillings, every month.
A 45-hour week.
Nine hours a day at most, over six days.
28 days of annual leave.
Consecutive, after six months' service.
A minimum wage by sector.
From 1 January 2026, TZS 175,000 a month where no sector rate applies.
What employing in mainland Tanzania involves, in plain words.
Each is handled for everyone you employ through Global Kinect EOR.
- Contracts
A written contract. A fixed term is allowed only in listed cases, such as temporary work or a set project.
- An employer that materially breaches a fixed term can be ordered to pay for the rest of the term.
- NSSFSocial security
The National Social Security Fund, at 20% of the wage.
- Split between employer and employee, or paid wholly by the employer.
- WCFWorkers' compensation
0.5% of gross earnings, paid by the employer.
- SDLSkills levy
3.5% of gross pay, for employers with 10 or more employees.
- PAYEIncome tax
Withheld by the employer each month.
- Nothing up to TZS 270,000 a month, rising through 8%, 20% and 25% to 30% above TZS 1,000,000.
- Leave
28 consecutive days of annual leave, after six months' service.
- Sick leave: 126 days in each 36 months, 63 on full pay and 63 on half pay.
- Maternity leave: 84 paid days, and 100 for more than one child.
- Paternity leave: three paid days, within seven days of the birth.
- Ending employment
28 days' written notice for monthly-paid staff, with the reasons.
- Severance, after a year's service: seven days' basic wage for each completed year, up to ten years.
- An unfair termination costs 6 to 24 months' pay, depending on what made it unfair.
Hiring in Tanzania, step by step.
You choose the person
And agree the role and the salary in shillings.
The contract is put in place
Under Tanzania's employment law, with a work permit where one is needed.
They are paid monthly
In shillings, with social security and income tax handled.
You get one invoice
With every other country you hire in.
Questions about employing in Tanzania
What does an employer pay on top of salary in Tanzania?
Employers in mainland Tanzania pay into the National Social Security Fund, at 20% of the wage, split with the employee or paid wholly by the employer. They pay 0.5% of gross earnings to the Workers Compensation Fund. Employers with 10 or more employees also pay the Skills Development Levy at 3.5% of gross pay.
Can we employ a foreign national?
Does this cover Zanzibar?
Employing in Tanzania, worked through in full.
The guide goes further than this page.
- Hiring in Tanzania: the work permit, the contract and what comes off pay, step by step
How you hire in mainland Tanzania without an entity of your own: the work permit step by step, moving someone already in Tanzania, the contract, the employee test, what comes off pay each month, leave, and what changed this year.
8 min read