Contractor vs employer of record in Ukraine: cost at every pay level

In percent the EOR premium shrinks as pay rises, from 120% at $600 to 55% at $4,000; in money it goes from $777 to $2,218 a month.

The largest employer item is ЄСВ, unified social contribution at $600 at every level shown.

Where the employee side changes: the minimum wage: ЄСВ for an employee is never charged on less at about $191 a month (UAH 8,647 a month); the ЄСВ cap (22% stops growing above it) at about $3,816 a month (UAH 172,940 a month).

Confirmed EOR providers for Ukraine: Deel from $599 a month¹² (one-off USD 80 wet-ink employment agreement fee; 0.6% liability fee); Remote from $599 a month³⁴. Prices are list prices from the vendors' pages; ask for a country quote.

What the premium is made of: at $600 the provider fee over the contractor platform is $550, employer items $149 and the higher gross salary for the same take-home $78, so the provider fee weighs most; at $4,000 they are $550, $839 and $829, and employer items leads instead.

Over a year, at our open vacancies' midpoints: An executive assistant on $1,100: $13,788 in year one as a contractor, $26,129 through an EOR including Deel's one-off $80 agreement fee; A customer support specialist on $900: $11,388 in year one as a contractor, $22,555 through an EOR including Deel's one-off $80 agreement fee.

By role

At each role's starting pay the premium is widest for administrative assistants, virtual receptionists, office managers and narrowest for e-commerce order specialists, customer support specialists, executive assistants.

Employer items in Ukraine

• Unified social contribution (ЄСВ): 22% of gross, from UAH 8,647, up to UAH 172,940⁵⁶⁷⁸

Employee deductions in Ukraine

• Personal income tax (ПДФО): 18% of gross⁹¹⁰⁷
• Military levy (військовий збір): 5% of gross⁹⁷

ЄСВ cap: PwC (30 June 2026) gives 15 minimum wages = UAH 129,705; Дебет-Кредит (18 May 2026) and buhplatforma (30 January 2026) give 20 minimum wages = UAH 172,940 as the general 2026 cap, with 15 minimum wages only for military and police pay. We use UAH 172,940.

Deel's Ukraine page still shows a ЄСВ base of UAH 8,000-160,000 (2025 values) and estimates employer cost at 22.60% (22% + 0.6% Deel liability fee).

When an EOR is worth it

An EOR makes sense when the person must be an employee: an activity a contractor regime excludes, a long full-time job where the person wants employee social security, a company policy against contractors, or work that looks like employment (set hours, one client, your direction), where the misclassification risk is yours. Otherwise the contractor route costs less at every pay level in the table above.

Questions

Not tax or legal advice: rates depend on the person’s registration and activity. Corrections: hello@silkstaff.com.

Sources

How these pages are built: methodology and data sources. Last updated 2026-11-12.