PEO & Employer of Record in Australia

Expand Your Business With Our Australia PEO

GlobalPEO delivers a top tier employer of record service for clients that are looking to recruit, hire, and operate payroll services without first setting up their own subsidiary in Australia.

How it Works: Our Australia PEO & EOR hires your candidate while abiding by local labor laws and cultural customs. The newly hired employee will communicate directly with your company and perform all job functions as if they were your own employee. We act as your in-country HR department and handle the entire onboarding, payroll, and benefits process in strict accordance with Australia’s regulations.

Why Choose our Australia PEO?

Market Entry Cost Savings

Without needing to setup a local entity in Australia, companies save thousands when expanding with GlobalPEO. From $400 USD.

Quicker Time to Hire

Scale and onboard your workforce in days, not months by using our local entities and experts in Australia.

Mitigate Risk

Minimize risk by ensuring your company is compliant with local laws and cultural customs and protecting your business from potential fines and legal fees.

Convenience + Flexibility

Streamlined process for managing your payroll, benefits, and HR responsibilities with full flexibility to make changes at any time.

Australia PEO & Employer of Record

Hire, onboard, and manage employees in Australia quickly and easily with GlobalPEO. Working with our Australia PEO and Employer of Record solution eliminates the headaches that come with establishing a foreign legal entity and guarantees full compliance with local regulations.

Local Employer of Record

Your employees based in Australia will sign a local employment contract with GlobalPEO's in-country entity. Labor contracts are available in English, with employee payments processed in the local Australian Dollar currency. As the local Employer of Record, GlobalPEO operates with full compliance to the laws and regulations of Australia's Bureau of Labor.

Payroll Processing

GlobalPEO's complete payroll processing includes:

- New employee setup
- Social Insurance contributions
- Individual income tax declaration
- Expenses declaration
- Payslip provision
- Dedicated payroll officer
- Support for standard employment documents

Employee Onboarding

After officially hiring your local candidate, our Australia HR team will schedule an onboarding conference call with both the candidate and client. The onboarding process typically takes between 3-5 days.

Legal Liability Coverage

Our PEO solution covers the following functions to take legal liability as the local employer of record:

- Obligatory social and pension insurance enrollment.
-Employee income tax withholding
- Liabilities of early-termination, including severance calculation and mediation.
- Onsite health and safety liability coverage, which is shared with the client

Termination Guidelines

In the event a client decides to pause or end their presence in Australia when employing staff through our PEO and Employer of Records service, there are no termination fees to be paid as long as the client adheres to the 60 day termination-notice period.

#1 - Fast Facts For Hiring in Australia

Communication is Straight to the Point

We recommend being straight to the point when communicating with Australians in business partnerships. Culturally, Australians do not dance around the issue at hand and prefer to speak in direct, concrete terms.

Abide by the Fair Work Act

Employers are required to abide by the ten employee requirements that are stipulated in the Fair Work Act.

Know the "Pay As You Go" Tax System

With the Australian "Pay As You Go System," employers are required to withhold the employee's taxes and pay the withholdings directly to the government.

#2 - Working Hours in Australia

Australia’s National Employment Standards state that the recommended workweek for employees in Australia should be 38 hours per week. However, there are no limits to the amount of overtime hours employees may work.

#3 - Australian Employment Contracts

The National Employment Standards provide multiple options for covering Australian workers under an employment contract. These options include an official contract, agreement, or an award. Awards include the minimum standards of employment and has a set list of rules and conditions for all employees within a unique industry. They cover the basic rate of pay, type of employment, rates for overtime work, annual salary, allowances, redundancy, and stipulations of taking leave or placing a formal resignation. An agreement (sometime referred to as an Enterprise Agreement) stated the working conditions for a group of employees within a single organization. These agreements are the most common way employers state their set wages and workplace conditions. Written contracts are traditionally used for employees who do not qualify for an enterprise agreement or award. These include the employee’s personal and official job information, their pay rate, expected weekly hours, and entitlements for taking leave.

#4 - Australian Holidays

Australians observe and celebrate 7 national public holidays. They include New Year’s Day, Australia Day, Good Friday, Easter Monday, Good Friday, Anzac Day, Christmas Day, and Boxing Day.

#5 - Bonus Payments in Australia

There are no legal requirements that entitle employees an annual bonus. However, approximately 33% of employees in Australia receive an annual bonus ranging from 7% to 10% of their annual pay.

#6 - Health Insurance & Employment Benefits

Australia operates with a partially public, partially private health care system. It is extremely common for employer’s to provide their workers with an allowance to put toward purchasing supplemental health insurance on their own, as there is a high fringe benefits tax placed on employers providing such insurance directly.

GlobalPEO recommends budgeting approximately 18% in addition to the cost of employee workers in Australia to cover the costs of providing statutory benefits.

#7 - Sick Leave in Australia

Full-time employees working in Australia are granted 10 paid personal sick days per year. Sick leave is often referred to as Personal Leave in Australia, and it allows employees to take time away from work to either recover from an injury or illness themselves or to take care of someone to who they are an official caregiver.

All sick/personal leave is payed for by the employer.

#8 - Maternity Leave in Australia

Female employees can receive up to 18 weeks of paid maternity leave, which is provided by the federal government as part of Australia’s public health care system. Employers have the option to provide these employees with additional benefits if they so choose.

In order to be eligible to receive maternity leave to its fullest extent, parents must be the primary caregiver of a newborn child or a child they have recently adopted. Also, the Australian government requires that these employees have worked for the same company for at least 10 of the prior 13 months in order to be eligible. Additional requirements include meeting local residence requirements, earning less than $150,000 in the preceding fiscal year, and not returning to work during the period in which they are receiving the Parental Leave Pay.

Partners are entitled to receive two weeks of paid leave by the government as long as they are not already receiving paid leave from their employer.

#9 - Termination & Severance in Australia

Employer’s are legally required to give employees the minimum statutory notice, which depends on the duration of the employee’s service with the company. The minimum notice works as follows:

Less than 1 year with the company – one weeks’ notice.

1-3 years – two weeks’ notice.

3-5 years- three weeks’ notice.

5+ years – four weeks’ notice.

Employee’s have the ability to negotiate a longer notice period in their employment contract. If an employee feels they have been terminated unfairly, they have 21 days from the day they were terminated to file an official claim with Australia’s Fair Work Commission. If the employee wins the case, the employer may owe up to six months compensation to the employee.

#10 - Australia's Tax Laws

Australia requires the majority of employers to pay payroll tax on wages, benefits, and other matters pertaining to compensation on behalf of their employees. This tax is levied by individual states in Australia, so check and see if the city/state where you are operating applies this type of tax.

Employers operating in Australia must contribute at least 9.5% of employees’ gross salaries toward their individual retirement funds. This applies to all employees making more than $450 AUD per month.

Employers must also pay taxes on the specific value of the fringe benefits offered to their employees, which include the use of a company car, parking fees, a gym membership, and private health insurance.

Why Choose GlobalPEO?

Global expansion is a great step for your business – and now it’s easier than ever. Setting up your own entity in each country where you wish to operate can be expensive, complicated, and requires deep knowledge of the specific rules and regulations. Let GlobalPEO take care of everything. From International PEO & EOR, Global Payroll and International Recruiting we deliver our exceptional services at an affordable price.