Companies looking to expand their hiring efforts into international markets shouldn’t overlook Sweden—especially their financial and business services talent. Their talent pool is highly educated, and the vast majority of Swedes speak English fluently, eliminating the language barrier that can often be an issue with international hiring.
However, hiring across borders typically involves many challenges, and hiring in Sweden is no exception. With the complications involved in setting up an entity, many look to EORs in Sweden to solve the problem.
EORs in Sweden
An employer of record (EOR) is a third-party organization that acts as the legal employer for your new international hire located in Sweden. The EOR handles the legal responsibilities of employing them to make hiring and managing your foreign workers easy and compliant.
The benefit of using an EOR is that you don’t have to go through the long and complicated process of creating an entity in each country where you want to hire foreign employees. Using an EOR in Sweden, you can tap into a strong talent pool without having to deal with the legal and logistical details of hiring across borders. Your Swedish EOR provider will handle compliance and other HR functions on your behalf.
For example, Oyster’s global employment platform makes hiring across borders simple by handling all aspects of employment for you, including:
- Compliance with local laws
- Onboarding
- Payroll
- Benefits
- Time off management
- Offboarding
Talk to one of our advisors today to find out how our global employment platform can help you onboard team members from Sweden without the usual headaches.
A few things to know about hiring in Sweden
If you’re interested in onboarding new team members from Sweden, there are some details to keep in mind since Sweden has its own unique labor laws and work culture. Here are the key details worth considering before hiring talent in Sweden.
Notice period
The amount of notice you’re required to offer Swedish employees prior to letting them go depends on how long they’ve worked for your company. The statutory notice periods are:
- One month for employees with less than two years of service
- Two months for employees with at least two but less than four years of service
- Three months for employees with at least four but less than six years of service
- Four months for employees with at least six but less than eight years of service
- Five months for employees with at least eight but less than ten years of service
- Six months for employees with at least 10 years of service
During this notice period, the employee is entitled to their normal wages. Accordingly, there are no statutory rights to severance payments in Sweden.
Pensions
There are both public and occupational pensions in Sweden. Employers contribute around 10% of each employee’s salary toward the public pension through employer taxes.
The vast majority of Swedish employers also choose to provide an occupational pension that’s typically equal to 4.5% of the employee’s gross salary, unless they’re earning a gross salary above a certain cap, in which case the costs for occupational pension are much higher. If you choose to provide an occupational pension to one employee, you’re legally required to offer it to everyone.
Employer tax
Employers of Swedish workers must pay 31.42% of each employee’s salary in employment taxes.
Vacation time
Employees in Sweden are entitled to 25 days of paid vacation per year. The employee can hold these vacation days for up to five years. In the summer (June, July, and August), employers must allow each worker to take four consecutive weeks of vacation.
Parental leave
Both parents are eligible for parental leave in Sweden. Mothers receive 240 days of paid leave and can begin taking this leave 60 days before the expected birth date. The other parent also receives 240 days of paid parental leave, of which 10 days can be taken in connection with the birth. Swedish employees may be eligible for this parental leave after adopting a child as well.
To learn more, check out our complete guide to hiring employees in Sweden.
How much does it cost to hire in Sweden?
Compared to hiring in many other countries, hiring employees in Sweden tends to be expensive for employers. Use our Sweden employment cost calculator to better understand how much you’d have to pay to hire Swedish employees. Once you enter the salary, the calculator will show you the total annual costs—the employee’s gross salary plus your mandatory employer costs.
And if you’re ready to hire employees in Sweden, Oyster can simplify the process. Oyster’s global employment platform makes it easy to hire, onboard, pay, and manage employees across the world—Sweden included.
Disclaimer: This article and all information in it is provided for general informational purposes only. It does not, and is not intended to, constitute legal or tax advice. You should consult with a qualified legal or tax professional for advice regarding any legal or tax matter and prior to acting (or refraining from acting) on the basis of any information provided on this website.
About Oyster
Oyster is a global employment platform designed to enable visionary HR leaders to find, engage, pay, manage, develop, and take care of a thriving distributed workforce. Oyster lets growing companies give valued international team members the experience they deserve, without the usual headaches and expense.
Oyster enables hiring anywhere in the world—with reliable, compliant payroll, and great local benefits and perks.
