The best Employer of Record providers in Pakistan, ranked
Nine providers that can employ staff on your behalf in Pakistan, scored on what actually determines whether the arrangement works here: whether they employ through their own SECP-registered company rather than a subcontractor, how they cope with labour law that has been provincial since 2010 and differs between Karachi, Lahore, Peshawar and Islamabad, how accurately they run EOBI, provincial social security, gratuity and income-tax withholding, how plainly they explain their terms, and whether anyone answers the phone when a rupee devaluation or a bank remittance query lands on a Friday afternoon.
Quick verdict
RemotePeople is our pick — best for companies building a real team in Karachi, Lahore or Islamabad who want a named contact. Also worth a call: Deel for software-first teams hiring in Pakistan alongside many other countries, and Remote for distributed teams that also want stock options handled for Pakistani staff.
Read this before the ranking
Pakistan has no statute that says “Employer of Record”, and none that forbids it. A company registered with the Securities and Exchange Commission of Pakistan may employ staff and place them at a client’s disposal, and outsourced employment has been common in banking, telecoms and manufacturing for two decades. The complication is that, since the 18th Amendment in 2010, labour is a provincial subject. Punjab, Sindh, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Balochistan and the Islamabad Capital Territory each have their own Industrial Relations Act, their own Standing Orders law, their own Shops and Establishments law, their own minimum wage board and their own Employees’ Social Security Institution. A provider registered with SESSI in Karachi is not thereby registered with PESSI in Lahore, and a contract drafted for Islamabad may cite the wrong statute in Peshawar. Add a line of labour-court decisions treating long-serving third-party workers doing an establishment’s regular work as employees of the principal in substance, and the quality of the arrangement depends on how the provider is registered and how it documents the relationship. The first question to ask any provider is which SECP-registered company will employ your hire, and in which provinces that company holds live EOBI and social security registrations.
How we scored, and what we could not verify
Every provider below was assessed against the same five criteria: own-entity presence in Pakistan, handling of the provincial regulatory regime, payroll and statutory accuracy, transparency, and support. Where a lower-ranked provider beats a higher-ranked one on a criterion, we say so on the page.
An honest limitation: SECP’s company search confirms that a company exists, its status and its registered office, but it will not tell you whether that company holds EOBI and provincial social security registrations, or whether the people on your payroll are employed by it or by a subcontractor. Where a provider states that it employs through its own Pakistani entity we record that as a claim. Before signing, ask for the SECP incorporation number, the EOBI employer registration and the SESSI, PESSI or KP ESSI registration for the province your hire lives in, and check them yourself. For the global platforms this matters more than it sounds: Pakistan is a market several of them entered late, and partner arrangements are common.
| # | Provider | Score | Pakistan footprint | Best for |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 |  RemotePeople | 9.2 | Employs directly in Pakistan; from US$199 per employee per month | Companies building a real team in Karachi, Lahore or Islamabad who want a named contact |
| 2 |  Deel | 8.7 | Global platform; Pakistan covered with pension fund and social security benefits built in | Software-first teams hiring in Pakistan alongside many other countries |
| 3 |  Remote | 8.3 | Global platform with a Pakistan country guide, EOR and contractor products | Distributed teams that also want stock options handled for Pakistani staff |
| 4 |  Multiplier | 8.0 | Singapore-headquartered platform; Pakistan EOR and hiring guides; flat published pricing | Asia-focused companies that want a fixed fee and 24-hour support |
| 5 |  Skuad (Payoneer) | 7.7 | Singapore-founded, now part of Payoneer; Pakistan EOR marketed at a discounted monthly fee | Volume hiring of developers at the lowest platform price |
| 6 |  e-square | 7.4 | Karachi-founded, 2006; registered with SECP, FBR, EOBI, SESSI, PESSI and PSEB; offices in Dubai and Riyadh | Companies that want the deepest local statutory bench and do not need a platform |
| 7 |  HRBS | 7.1 | Pakistani HR outsourcer with offices in Karachi, Lahore and Islamabad; EOR added to recruitment and payroll | Recruit-and-employ in one contract, priced locally |
| 8 |  Alahad Group | 6.8 | Karachi-headquartered overseas recruitment agency, established 2005; HR and payroll outsourcing alongside | Blue-collar and Gulf-linked workforces rather than remote knowledge workers |
| 9 | HillSquare | 6.5 | Pakistan-based HR services provider; footprint not independently verifiable | Small local hires where a relationship already exists |
Rankings reflect our assessment of each provider for hiring in Pakistan specifically. A provider ranked lower here may be the better choice if most of your hiring is elsewhere.
RemotePeople
Pakistan’s labour law is provincial, its social security is split between EOBI and the provincial institutions, and its minimum wage differs by province, and RemotePeople’s Pakistan practice is built to handle exactly that: PKR payroll with EOBI and SESSI or PESSI contributions, gratuity accrual under the Standing Orders, and Board of Investment work-visa recommendations for foreign hires, at fees from US$199 per employee per month. Founded in 2018 by Antoine Boquen and Pierre Pradier and headquartered in New York, with its Asia-Pacific business run from Singapore, the company has more than 250 staff across 30 countries and over 3,000 clients, and Pakistan’s deep software-engineering pool is a regular source of its recruitment work. Every client has a dedicated account manager backed by HR and employment specialists. Recruitment, payroll for companies with their own Pakistani company, contractor management and incorporation sit alongside EOR. Deel leads on software integrations.
- Provincial labour law, EOBI and provincial social security handled correctly by province
- Recruitment depth in Pakistan’s software-engineering market
- Dedicated account manager backed by HR and employment specialists
- Recruitment, payroll, contractor management and incorporation alongside EOR
- EOR Flex from US$199 per employee per month
- Fewer third-party integrations than Deel or Rippling
- Total cost depends on a quote; ask for the all-in figure including gratuity accrual
- Work visas for foreign hires go through the Board of Investment case by case, as with every provider
- Pakistan entity
- Employs directly in Pakistan; EOBI- and provincial-SSI-registered employer
- Regional base
- Singapore (Asia-Pacific HQ); global HQ New York
- Also offers
- Recruitment, global payroll, US PEO, contractor management, Contractor of Record, benefits and visa support, entity incorporation
- Operating since
- 2018
Deel
The best software in this comparison, by a distance. Deel’s Pakistan page lists pension fund and social security as standard benefits, adds optional private health cover through Unisure or Allianz, and promises a start in as little as a day once documents are in. Onboarding, payslips, expenses, equipment and integrations with the usual HR and accounting stacks are all better than anything a Pakistani specialist offers. Deel says it owns around 250 entities worldwide and runs in-country payroll teams in more than 130 countries; whether Pakistan is one of the owned entities or served through a partner is not stated on the country page, and you should ask. Support is competent and largely asynchronous; for a PESSI query in Lahore, a ticket is a slower route than a call to someone who knows the Lahore office. If you are hiring in twelve countries this quarter and Pakistan is one, it is hard to argue against.
- Best-in-class platform, integrations and employee experience
- Pakistan-specific benefits, including optional private health cover, configured in the product
- Contractor management alongside EOR, useful given Pakistan’s large freelance workforce
- Entity set-up service if you later want your own SECP company
- Whether Pakistan is an owned entity or a partner market is not stated; ask
- Support is ticket-based rather than a named local contact
- Provincial nuance can be lost in a global contract template
- Pakistan entity
- Not stated on the country page; confirm owned entity or partner
- Regional base
- Global; Asia teams in Singapore and elsewhere
- Also offers
- Contractors, global payroll, HRIS, immigration, entity set-up
- Operating since
- 2019
Remote
Remote’s Pakistan country explorer is one of the more useful public references: it walks through the Industrial and Commercial Employment (Standing Orders) Ordinance, leave types, termination and benefits, and it is one of few platforms that will handle stock options for Pakistani employees, which matters for start-ups hiring engineers in Lahore who expect equity. The platform is clean and the pricing is public. Remote is known for preferring owned entities to partners, but the Pakistan page does not say which model applies here; ask before assuming. Deel edges it on integrations and its contractor product; Remote edges Deel on country documentation and equity handling. Neither offers the named local contact that RemotePeople or e-square will give you, and neither will find the candidate for you.
- Detailed public Pakistan guide covering leave, termination and statutory benefits
- Handles equity and stock options for Pakistani hires
- Clean platform; public pricing; contractor and EOR under one login
- Owned entity or partner in Pakistan is not stated; ask
- Support is asynchronous; no named person on the ground
- No recruitment, so you must bring your own candidate
- Pakistan entity
- Not stated; Remote generally favours owned entities but confirm for Pakistan
- Regional base
- Distributed; no Asian headquarters
- Also offers
- Contractor management, global payroll, PEO, entity set-up, relocation
- Operating since
- 2019
Multiplier
Multiplier was built in Singapore for Asian hiring and it shows in the Pakistan material, which is more specific than most platforms manage: minimum wage, EOBI, provincial social security and income-tax slabs are covered in its hiring guide, and the fee is published as a flat monthly rate per employee with insurance, ESOP handling and visa support as add-ons. Support is staffed around the clock, which for a company on the American west coast with staff in Karachi is worth more than it sounds. It is smaller than Deel or Remote, its integrations are fewer, and like the other platforms it does not state whether Pakistan is served through its own entity. Skuad undercuts it on price, Deel beats it on software and e-square on local registrations. It earns fourth place by being the platform most obviously designed with South Asia in mind.
- Asia-first design; Pakistan guides cite the right statutes and institutions
- Flat published pricing with clearly listed add-ons
- 24-hour human support, useful across the Pakistan–US time gap
- Own entity or partner in Pakistan not stated; ask
- Fewer integrations than Deel or Rippling
- Flat fee is higher than Skuad’s or RemotePeople’s entry price
- Pakistan entity
- Not stated; confirm
- Regional base
- Singapore
- Also offers
- Contractor management, global payroll, ESOP administration, visa support
- Operating since
- 2020
Skuad (Payoneer)
Skuad is the cheapest platform route into Pakistan on paper: its Pakistan page advertises EOR at a promotional US$199 a month against a US$349 list price, with the discount tied to hiring volume. It was built for South and South-east Asia, and since the Payoneer acquisition it sits next to a payment network that a very large number of Pakistani freelancers already use to get paid, which helps when a contractor in Faisalabad is being converted to an employee. Coverage of India and Pakistan is its home turf. The costs of the acquisition are a product and team still settling into a larger group, and a sales-led sign-up rather than self-service onboarding. Whether its Pakistan employer is its own company or a partner is not stated. For twenty developers on a budget, Skuad and RemotePeople are the two to price side by side; for two senior people who will stay for years, the ones above are safer.
- Lowest advertised platform fee for Pakistan EOR
- Payoneer rails for paying in rupees and converting contractors to employees
- Depth in South Asia rather than an afterthought
- Promotional pricing is volume-dependent; get the fee in writing
- Organisation still bedding in after the Payoneer acquisition
- Own entity versus partner in Pakistan not stated
- Pakistan entity
- Not stated; confirm
- Regional base
- Singapore
- Also offers
- Contractor payments, agent of record, recruitment with EOR, freelancer management
- Operating since
- 2019; part of Payoneer since 2024
e-square
If the ranking were decided on local registrations alone, e-square would be first. It began in Karachi in 2006 as a manpower outsourcing and payroll company, lists registrations with SECP, FBR, EOBI, SESSI, PESSI, the provincial revenue authorities and the Pakistan Software Export Board, holds ISO 9001 and 27001, and says it currently manages more than 1,800 outsourced employees for clients including PTCL and K-Electric. That is precisely the profile that survives a labour inspector or a SESSI audit. It expanded into the UAE and Saudi Arabia in 2010 and relaunched under a new domain in 2024, so Gulf-plus-Pakistan hiring can be run from one adviser. It sits sixth for the reasons a foreign start-up may hesitate: no self-service platform, a client base of Pakistani corporates outsourcing call-centre and field staff rather than foreign companies hiring remote engineers, and a quote-and-conversation sales process. For a company that wants the most defensible arrangement and does not care about software, it beats everything above it.
- Longest Pakistani track record in this list; registrations across all four provinces claimed
- PSEB registration, relevant for IT-export tax treatment and remittance handling
- Payroll, recruitment, HR outsourcing and background checks from the same Karachi office
- Gulf coverage from Dubai and Riyadh for regional teams
- Oriented to Pakistani corporate outsourcing rather than foreign remote hiring
- No meaningful platform; reporting is traditional
- Pricing on request only
- Pakistan entity
- Own Karachi company (claimed); registered with EOBI, SESSI and PESSI
- Regional base
- Karachi, with Dubai and Riyadh
- Also offers
- Payroll, recruitment, HR outsourcing, background checks, PEO in the Gulf
- Operating since
- 2006
HRBS
HRBS is a Pakistani HR outsourcing firm that grew from recruitment into payroll outsourcing and then, by its own account, into Employer of Record across South Asia, the Middle East and the Americas. It states offices in Karachi, Lahore and Islamabad, a client base of 150-plus businesses, 5,000-plus placements and ISO 9001 certification. Its Pakistan EOR page covers localised contracts, tax withholding, social contributions and local HR support; the natural use case is a foreign company that wants the person found and employed in one contract at local rates. It has a shorter history than e-square and lists fewer statutory registrations, and no software worth the name. It is a sensible choice for a first one or two hires where recruitment is the harder problem.
- Recruitment, headhunting and EOR from one Pakistani team
- Offices in the three main hiring cities (claimed)
- Priced for the local market
- EOR is a recent addition to a recruitment business
- Fewer statutory registrations listed publicly than e-square; ask for them
- No platform; reporting by email and spreadsheet
- Pakistan entity
- Own Pakistani company (claimed); ask for SECP, EOBI and provincial registrations
- Regional base
- Karachi, Lahore and Islamabad
- Also offers
- Recruitment, executive search, payroll outsourcing, HR outsourcing, HRIS
- Operating since
- Not verified; site timeline begins 2019
Alahad Group
Alahad Group is one of Pakistan’s larger privately owned overseas recruitment agencies, established in 2005 and best known for placing Pakistani workers with employers in Saudi Arabia and the wider Gulf; it states 40,000-plus placements and ISO certification. Alongside that core business it offers HR outsourcing, payroll outsourcing, contract staffing and staffing solutions within Pakistan, which is the basis on which it appears here. Its strengths are scale in recruitment, familiarity with the Bureau of Emigration and Overseas Employment, and offices in the three main cities. Its weakness for a reader of this page is that Employer of Record for foreign companies hiring white-collar remote staff is not what it was built for, and the public material does not set out EOBI, provincial social security or income-tax handling the way e-square or the platforms do. If you need a hundred technicians employed in Pakistan and rotated to a Gulf project, it is worth a call; for three software engineers in Lahore, the providers above are the better fit.
- Two decades of high-volume recruitment and Gulf deployment experience
- Contract staffing and payroll outsourcing within Pakistan
- Offices in Karachi, Lahore and Islamabad/Rawalpindi
- Overseas recruitment agency first; EOR is peripheral
- Statutory handling for white-collar EOR not documented publicly
- No platform
- Pakistan entity
- Own Pakistani company (claimed); ask for SECP, EOBI and provincial registrations
- Regional base
- Karachi
- Also offers
- Overseas recruitment, contract staffing, HR and payroll outsourcing, training
- Operating since
- 2005
HillSquare
HillSquare was put forward to us as a Pakistani provider of employer-of-record and HR services. We were unable to locate a company website or public documentation of its Pakistan EOR offering, so we cannot describe its entity, registrations, pricing or client base, and we have not scored it on anything we could not see. Small Pakistani HR firms of this kind do employ staff for foreign clients, usually through an introduction, and can be cost-effective for one or two hires. Treat it, and any provider with a thin public footprint, exactly as the checklist above suggests: SECP incorporation number, EOBI employer registration, provincial social security registration for the province your hire lives in, and a sample contract citing the right provincial Standing Orders law. If those come back clean, the absence of a marketing site matters less than it looks.
- Potentially the lowest cost for a small local hire
- Local relationship model rather than a queue
- No public documentation of entity, registrations or terms
- Verify every claim independently before relying on it
- Not suited to multi-province or multi-country plans
- Pakistan entity
- Not verifiable
- Regional base
- Pakistan (stated)
- Also offers
- HR services (stated)
- Operating since
- Not verified
How we scored
- Own-entity presence in PakistanWhether the provider employs through its own SECP-registered company, or through a local subcontractor. Own entities mean one point of accountability; partners are acceptable when named, and when the partner’s registrations are shown to you.
- Handling of the provincial regimeWhether the provider can say which Industrial Relations Act, which Standing Orders law and which Shops and Establishments law govern your hire, holds social security registrations in that province, and drafts the contract accordingly rather than from a national template.
- Payroll and statutory accuracyEOBI at 5 per cent employer and 1 per cent employee on the applicable minimum wage; SESSI, PESSI, KP ESSI or Balochistan ESSI at 6 per cent of wages up to the provincial ceiling; gratuity or provident fund accrual under the Standing Orders; income-tax withholding under section 149 of the Income Tax Ordinance 2001 at the current salaried slabs; Eid bonuses where contractual; Workers’ Welfare Fund and Workers’ Profit Participation where the employing entity is liable.
- TransparencyAre the fee, the deposit, the notice period, the FX conversion basis and what happens to gratuity on termination explained before signature, or only after a sales cycle?
- SupportIs there a named person who knows your account and can reach the EOBI regional office or the SESSI directorate, or a queue?
Frequently asked questions
Is Employer of Record legal in Pakistan?
Yes, in the sense that no federal or provincial law prohibits a registered company from employing staff and placing them with a client, and outsourced employment has been standard practice in Pakistani banking, telecoms and utilities for years. There is no EOR-specific statute or licence. The risk sits in labour-court jurisprudence: where a worker performs the regular, permanent work of an establishment for years through a third party, courts have sometimes looked through the arrangement and treated the principal as the real employer, particularly for “workmen” covered by the Standing Orders laws. Managerial and most white-collar remote roles fall outside the workman definition, which is one reason EOR for software engineers is lower-risk than for factory staff. Our regional guide sets out the position across Asia at Is EOR legal in Asia?.
What does an EOR cost in Pakistan, and what are the employer contributions?
Providers charge a monthly fee per employee, from roughly US$199 at the cheaper end to US$400 or more at the platforms, on top of salary and statutory costs, which are passed through. The statutory layer is modest by regional standards because it is largely calculated on the minimum wage rather than actual salary: employer EOBI is 5 per cent of the applicable minimum wage (about PKR 2,000 a month at a PKR 40,000 wage), and provincial social security is 6 per cent of wages up to the provincial ceiling, so on a PKR 300,000 software salary the two together are a few thousand rupees. The larger real cost is gratuity, thirty days’ wages for each completed year of service under the Standing Orders laws unless an approved provident fund is run instead, which most EORs either accrue monthly on your invoice or charge at exit. Income tax is withheld from the employee at progressive slabs that reach 35 per cent. For a comparison with other markets see employer costs across Asia.
Which minimum wage applies?
The province where the employee works. For 2025–26, Punjab, Sindh and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa notified PKR 40,000 a month for unskilled workers while Balochistan and the Islamabad Capital Territory remained at PKR 37,000. The June 2026 budgets announced increases for 2026–27, with the federal figure moving to PKR 40,700 and Sindh and KP announcing higher provincial rates; the binding figures are the provincial minimum wage board notifications, which often follow the budget speech by weeks or months. Because EOBI is calculated on the minimum wage, a good provider updates the contribution the month the notification takes effect and can show you which figure it used.
Can an EOR sponsor a work visa in Pakistan?
In principle yes. Pakistan’s work visa is issued on the recommendation of the Board of Investment to a foreign national employed by a company registered in Pakistan, so the EOR, as the registered employer, is the sponsoring entity and the application is made in its name. In practice most EOR hires in Pakistan are Pakistani nationals, and only RemotePeople and e-square among the providers here document visa support for Pakistan specifically. Processing runs through the online visa system, requires an employment contract with the sponsoring company, and can take several weeks. If you are relocating a non-Pakistani into the country, ask the provider how many work visas it has sponsored there and in which year.
How long can an employee stay on EOR in Pakistan?
There is no statutory cap. The practical consideration is the one described above: the longer a worker performs the same core role for the same client, the more an arrangement looks like disguised direct employment to a labour court, and gratuity liability grows by thirty days’ wages every year. Most companies that pass ten to fifteen employees or three years in Pakistan incorporate their own private limited company with SECP, register with FBR, EOBI and the provincial institution, and transfer the staff across with continuity of service. Several providers on this page, RemotePeople and Deel among them, offer entity set-up for that transition. IT and IT-enabled services companies should also register with the Pakistan Software Export Board, which unlocks reduced final tax on export receipts and helps with the State Bank’s remittance and retention rules; an EOR arrangement does not give you that.
What are the probation and termination rules?
The Standing Orders laws set a probationary period of three months for workmen, and three to six months is customary in white-collar contracts. After probation, termination of a permanent employee for reasons other than misconduct requires one month’s written notice or pay in lieu, and misconduct dismissals require a charge sheet and inquiry. Gratuity at thirty days’ wages per completed year, or the provident fund balance, is payable on exit together with accrued leave. The details differ by province: Sindh has its own Terms of Employment (Standing Orders) Act 2015, KP its own Standing Orders Act 2013, and Punjab and ICT continue to apply the 1968 Ordinance as amended. For the wider picture see employment law in Asia and employee benefits in Asia.
Should we use an EOR or set up our own entity?
An EOR is the right answer for the first hires, for testing the market, and for anyone who does not want to deal with the State Bank of Pakistan’s foreign-exchange rules on capitalising and repatriating from a local company. Incorporation with SECP typically takes six to eight weeks including tax registration and bank account opening as a foreign-owned company, but the ongoing obligations are real: monthly withholding statements, EOBI and social security returns, provincial sales-tax registration for services, annual filings and, above a headcount threshold, Workers’ Welfare Fund and profit participation. Rupee volatility also matters: an EOR invoices you in dollars at an agreed rate, while your own entity carries the FX risk on every payroll. For the regional comparison see the best EOR providers in Asia.
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Ask usSources
- Constitution of the Islamic Republic of Pakistan, Eighteenth Amendment (2010), devolving labour to the provinces; Industrial Relations Act 2012 (federal, trans-provincial establishments) and the Punjab, Sindh, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and Balochistan Industrial Relations Acts.
- Industrial and Commercial Employment (Standing Orders) Ordinance 1968, as applied in Punjab and the Islamabad Capital Territory; Sindh Terms of Employment (Standing Orders) Act 2015; Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Industrial and Commercial Employment (Standing Orders) Act 2013.
- Employees’ Old-Age Benefits Act 1976 and the Employees’ Old-Age Benefits Institution (EOBI); Provincial Employees’ Social Security Ordinance 1965 and the Sindh, Punjab, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and Balochistan Employees’ Social Security Institutions.
- Minimum Wages Ordinance 1961 and provincial minimum wage board notifications for 2025–26 (Punjab, Sindh and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa at PKR 40,000; Balochistan and ICT at PKR 37,000) and the 2026–27 budget announcements.
- Income Tax Ordinance 2001, section 149 (salary withholding) and the Federal Board of Revenue’s salaried tax slabs; Pakistan Software Export Board registration and the tax treatment of IT and IT-enabled services exports.
- Board of Investment, work visa recommendation procedure; State Bank of Pakistan, Foreign Exchange Manual, on remittances and exporters’ foreign-currency retention.
- Securities and Exchange Commission of Pakistan, company search; provider websites and published documentation, reviewed September 2026.