An Employer of Record (EOR) is a Thai company that legally employs your staff while you manage their work. The EOR’s name is on the Thai employment contract, the Social Security registration, the PND.1 tax filings and, for foreign employees, the work permit. You choose the people, direct the work and set the pay. In Thailand the arrangement is usually called payroll parking, and for a foreign company it is very often the only realistic way to have people working legally in Bangkok within weeks.
Why Thailand makes an EOR unusually useful
Two Thai rules push companies towards the model. The first is the Foreign Business Act, which limits most service businesses to 49% foreign ownership unless they obtain a Foreign Business Licence, Board of Investment (BOI) promotion or treaty protection. Setting up a company you can legally control therefore takes months and legal fees, not days. The second is the work permit arithmetic: a standard Thai company needs THB 2 million of registered capital for each foreign employee and must employ four Thai nationals per foreigner, both checked at the WP.3 pre-approval stage.
An EOR already has a licensed Thai company, the registered capital and the Thai headcount. Your first hire, Thai or foreign, can start on a compliant contract within a week or two of signing.
EOR, staffing agency or your own Thai company
A staffing or recruitment agency finds candidates. Once placed, they are your employees, or, for temporary assignments, the agency’s for a short period. The agency’s role ends at placement.
An Employer of Record employs the people you have chosen, indefinitely, and carries the full employer obligations under Thai law: the Labour Protection Act, the Social Security Act, the Revenue Code withholding rules and the Alien Working Act for foreign staff. You direct the work; the EOR is the employer.
Your own Thai company or BOI entity gives you full control and is the right long-term home for manufacturing, a large office or any business that needs to hold licences, contracts or incentives in its own name.
Many companies move through all three: an agency to find the country head, an EOR to employ the first team, and a Thai entity once the business case is proven, with staff transferring across.
What the EOR handles in Thailand
- Contracts. Thai-language contracts that meet the Labour Protection Act: 48-hour week, overtime at 1.5 times on working days and 3 times on holidays, capped at 36 hours a week, annual leave of at least six days after a year, 13 or more public holidays, and a probation period, normally 119 days.
- Social Security. Registration within 30 days and monthly contributions of 5% each from employer and employee, on the THB 17,500 ceiling introduced on 1 January 2026 (maximum THB 875 a month each).
- Tax. Monthly PND.1 withholding at progressive rates from 0% to 35%, the PND.1 Kor annual return and the 50 Tawi certificate for each employee.
- Minimum wage compliance. Provincial daily rates, THB 400 in Bangkok, Phuket, Chonburi, Rayong, Chachoengsao and Koh Samui in 2026, and THB 337 at the lowest.
- Severance. The statutory scale of 30 days’ wages after 120 days of service rising to 400 days after 20 years, with no cap, calculated and paid correctly when a role ends.
- Work permits. WP.3 pre-approval, Non-Immigrant B visa support and the work permit itself, using the EOR’s capital and Thai headcount to satisfy the 2 million baht and 4 to 1 rules.
- Benefits and administration. Provident fund, medical insurance, leave, claims and payslips through a self-service portal, with a Thai-speaking HR contact for the employee.
The benefits, honestly stated
Speed and legality are the first two: people working within weeks, on the right side of the Foreign Business Act and the work permit rules. Risk transfer is the third: severance in Thailand is generous and uncapped, and an EOR that drafts contracts and manages exits correctly keeps you out of the Labour Court. Cost is the fourth: for up to fifteen or twenty staff, a monthly EOR fee is usually less than structuring and running a Thai entity with the capital, accountant and payroll officer it needs.
The trade-offs: an EOR is not the right vehicle for a factory, for a business that needs BOI incentives in its own name, or for a headcount that will quickly run into the dozens. In those cases, start the entity early and use the EOR as the bridge.
What is different about People Profilers’ EOR in Thailand
People Profilers has operated in Thailand for more than twenty years and runs EOR, payroll parking, recruitment and work permit services from Bangkok, alongside our offices in Singapore, Malaysia, Vietnam and Indonesia. Employees sit under our Thai headcount with Social Security, provident fund and medical coverage, are paid through our cloud payroll platform with self-service payslips, leave and claims, and have a Thai-speaking HR contact. A client hiring in Thailand and Singapore, or Thailand and Vietnam, gets one contract, one monthly cycle and one invoice across the group.
Read more about our Employer of Record services in Thailand and work permit services in Thailand, or contact People Profilers Thailand.
