Mozambique: A Guideline to Payroll and Employer of Record

Establish your presence globally with Neeyamo as we help you go beyond borders to manage your international payroll and hire new talent in Mozambique.

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Overview

Despite its relatively recent establishment as an independent nation, Mozambique boasts a notably youthful demographic profile, with more than 45% of its populace aged below 15 years and an additional approximately 28% falling within the 15 to 29 age bracket. This demographic composition offers compelling advantages for potential investors and businesses considering expansion into Mozambique, as it signifies a continuous influx of dynamic and skilled individuals into the country's labor pool over the years. This youthful population presents a promising resource for enterprises seeking to tap into Mozambique's vibrant and growing market.

Do your organization's expansion plans require hiring employees in a country that guarantees talent across all ages? If you lack a physical entity in the country – a key requisite to hiring local talent- your solution is the best HR payroll software, Neeyamo – Global Payroll Services. Neeyamo's international payroll system assists in onboarding and managing employees in Mozambique- processing payroll and payroll accounting, managing global payroll compliance requirements, benefits, and more.

Tools And Instances

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Global Payroll

Neeyamo’s global payroll solution covering 180+ countries

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Global Work

A tech-based EOR solution to manage your extended workforce

Facts And Stats

Capital

Maputo

Currency

Mozambican Metical

Official Language

Portuguese

Fiscal Year

1 January - 31 December

Date Format

DD/MM/YYYY

Country Calling Code

258

Other Languages

Makhuwa, Chngana, Nyanja, Ndau, Sena, Chwabo and Tswa

Time Zone

UTC + 02:00

Global Payroll

Overview

What is Global Payroll?

Handling payroll for a widespread workforce can pose a significant challenge for any organization, and the added complication of compliance can make things worse. If companies spend more time processing payroll, it directly impacts day-to-day operations and their overall productivity. The solution to this is global payroll outsourcing.

What is a global payroll system?

Over the years, Neeyamo – a Global Payroll Services provider,  has observed these complexities and strived to provide global payroll solutions through a single technology platform – Neeyamo Payroll. Mozambique payroll is made easy with Neeyamo's global payroll system, as it eases the process for companies looking to outsource their global payroll requirements and aids them in maneuvering the tricky payroll system in Mozambique. Neeyamo's payroll software provides the perfect solution for all your global payroll needs – for employees working in primary geographies, the long-tail region, remote or internationally located.

Payroll Taxes

Payroll tax is the percentage amount retained from an employee's salary and paid to the government to invest in the general population's welfare. These are statutory in nature and are levied from both the employer and employee. Additional statutory contributions are made by employers towards aiding both short-term and long-term benefits for their employees.

Employee Taxes

Employees have to contribute 3% towards social security.

Income tax rates are levied on a progressive scale, ranging from 10% to 32%.

Mozambique's national personal income tax rates and minimum and maximum amounts of annual income for each tax bracket are as follows:

Up to 42,000 MZN 10.00%
42,001 - 168,000 MZN 15.00%
168,001 - 504,000 MZN 20.00%
504,001 - 1,512,000 MZN 25.00%
Above 1,512,000 MZN 32.00%

Employer Taxes

Employers have to contribute 4% towards social security.

Payroll Cycle

Overview

Undoubtedly, payroll is a critical process for any organization. The pay cycle refers to the period an organization pays its employees, which can vary depending on the pay frequency that the organization chooses to adopt.

Frequency

Mozambique follows a monthly payroll cycle.

13th Month Cycle

Mozambique does not mandate employers to provide bonus payments to employees.

Global Work

Overview

An Employer of Record (EOR) service provider helps you eliminate the hassle of handling complexities while onboarding a new employee in an international location. They help bridge the gap that otherwise mandates organizations to have a local registered entity and a local bank account prior to making a job offer to an international hire.

An EOR service provider acts as a legal employer, facilitates salary payments, and manages other statutory requirements such as health insurance, payroll taxes, and employee benefits, ensuring compliance with local tax laws and regulations.

This allows organizations to focus on collaborating with the employees in Morocco for operational tasks, with the knowledge that they have a cost-effective solution to support their global payroll & HR requirements as they continue their global expansion.

HR Mandates and Practices

Minimum Wage

There is no single minimum wage in Mozambique, but numerous industry sectors have a nationally mandated monthly minimum wage or have at least one subsector with its own nationally mandated minimum wage, or have a generally applicable sector rate and at least one subsector rate that is nationally mandated.

Mozambique’s monthly minimum wage has increased in the eight sectors and subsectors, effective May 1, 2023.

Following are the increases in the monthly minimum wage that the government has announced.

Monthly Minimum Wage

Agriculture, livestock, hunting, and forestry : 5 800.00 MTn

Industrial Fishing : 6 220.75 MTn

Mineral Extraction Industry - Large Industries : 12 020.20 MTn

Manufacturing Industry - Industrial Sector : 8 747.50 MTn

Electricity and Water Production and Distribution - Large companies : 10 745.00 MTn

Construction : 7 409.08 MTn

Non-Financial Services Activities : 8 574.00 MTn

Financial services - Banks and insurance companies : 16 061.32 MTn

Financial Services - Microfinance : 14 241.29 MTn

Hotel industry : 7 715.00 MTn

Public administration, defense, and security : 8 758.00 MTn
 

Overtime

The standard working hours in Mozambique are 8 hours per day and 48 hours per week. However, employees are permitted to work overtime only for excessive workload or material reasons. The overtime duration cannot exceed 8 hours per week, 96 hours per quarter, and 200 hours per year.

Data Retention Policy

Tax records generally must be kept for a minimum of 10 years.

Employers must keep records of the payroll list or the relevant payslips. Tax and social security payment forms must also be kept on file.

Hiring and Onboarding Requirements

Hiring

All jobs must be advertised in non-discriminatory terms. Ads should set out the basic terms and conditions for recruitment and hiring, including the type of employment contract, the workplace, and the work schedule (ie, full-time or part-time).

Onboarding

Local employees must give the following during onboarding:

  • Candidate information (Name, Address, Nationality, and Date of Birth)
  • Mozambique National Identity card

Additionally, expat employees must provide the following:

  • Work permit
  • Valid passport
  • Proof of yellow fever vaccination
  • Proof of educational qualification
  • Passport size Photograph
  • CV
  • Invitation letter from company
  • Income tax return

Probation

Probation period is as follows:

  • 180 days for mid-level and senior technicians and employees engaged in leadership and management positions jobs,
  • 90 days for employees as a whole

Leave

Paid Leave

The government recognizes nine public holidays in Mozambique. Employers must provide employees with paid leave on these days.

The public holidays are:

  • Jan. 1 and Jan. 2: New Year's Day
  • Feb. 3: Mozambican Heroes' Day
  • April 7: Mozambican Women's Day
  • May 1: International Workers' Day
  • Jun. 25 and Jun. 26: Mozambique's Independence Day
  • Sept. 7: Lusaka Agreement's Day
  • Sept. 25: Mozambique Armed Forces' Day
  • Oct. 4: Peace and Reconciliation Day
  • Dec. 25: Family Day

Whenever a public holiday falls on a Sunday, work is suspended the following Monday.

Annual Leave

Employees are entitled to the following periods of paid annual leave:

  • one day for every month of actual service, during the first year of service;
  • two days for every month of actual service, during the second year of service
  • 30 days for every year of actual service, from the third year onward.

Sick Leave

Regarding medical leave, per the Labour Law, employers must grant sick leave for an uninterrupted period of up to 15 days, or five non-continuous days in one quarter, after which they can refer the employee to a health board to determine their capacity to work. In addition, social security regulations establish that employees are entitled to up to 365 continuous days of sick pay under the social security system in case of a non-occupational illness or an accident. Therefore, employees who fall ill or suffer a non-work-related accident can receive sick pay under the Social Security system. The employer need not pay their salary during this absence.

Maternity Leave

Female employees receive paid maternity leave of 60 days, which may begin up to 20 days before the due date. Benefits are paid through Mozambique’s social security system. Employees receive 100% of their average daily earnings if they have made at least 12 months of contributions in the 18 months before the expected due date.

When an abortion or a miscarriage occurs more than seven months before the anticipated birth, female employees may be granted periods of convalescence.

Paternity Leave

Male employees are entitled to one day of paternity leave every two years; it must be taken the day immediately following the birth.

Other Leave

Study Leave

Student employees are employees who work under the authority and direction of an employer and have permission from their employer to attend the course at an educational establishment to develop and improve their skills, particularly their technical and occupational skills.

Maintaining student employee status is conditional upon successful school results, in the terms set down in specific legislation.

Student employees have the right not to attend work during examination periods, without loss of remuneration, provided they shall give their employer advance notice of at least seven days.

Unpaid Leave

The employer may provide the employee unpaid leave for such period as the parties agree, provided that the employee has previously taken the annual holidays to which the employee is entitled in that calendar year.

Bereavement Leave

Employees are entitled to up to five days for the death of the employee’s spouse, father, mother, children, stepchildren, siblings, grandparents, stepfather, or stepmother.

Employees are entitled to up to two days for the death of the employee’s parents-in-law, uncles, aunts, cousins, nieces, nephews, grandchildren, sons-in-law, daughters-in-law, brothers-in-law, and sisters-in-law.

Marriage Leave

Employees are entitled to five days of marriage leave.

Termination

Notice Period

  1. A fixed-term employment contract by the employee shall require prior notice of at least thirty days.
  2. permanent employment contract by the employee shall require prior notice in accordance with the following time periods:

    • fifteen days, where the period of service is greater than six months but not more than three years;
    • thirty days, where the period of service is greater than three years.

Severance Pay

Severance pay in Mozambique is calculated as follows:

  • One to seven times the national minimum wage: receive 30 days of pay per year of service.
  • Eight to ten times the national minimum wage: receive 15 days of pay per year of service.
  • 11-16 times the national minimum wage: receive 10 days of pay per year of service.
  • More than 16 times the national minimum wage: receive three days' pay per year of service.

Visa

Overview

Foreign workers must have a visa to enter Mozambique unless they are from Angola, Botswana, Brazil, Cabo Verde (Cape Verde), Eswatini (Swaziland), Guinea-Bissau, Malawi, Mauritius, Portugal, South Africa, Zambia, or Zimbabwe in which case, no visa is required.

Individuals wanting to work in Mozambique must obtain work and residence permits. The residence permit is called a DIRE (identification document of a foreign resident).

Employee Background Checks

Legal and Background Checks

  1. Criminal records:

    Under the Labour Law, when appointing an employee or during an employment agreement, employers cannot require the employee to provide information about their private life (including their criminal record), except where the law or particular nature of the job demands. If this is the case, the employer must provide the employee with the reasons in writing beforehand.

  2. Medical history:

    Under the Labour Law, employers may require job applicants or employees to undergo or submit to medical tests or examinations for admission or performance of an employment contract to confirm the individual's fitness for work. However, the medical practitioner responsible for the medical tests or examinations cannot provide information to the employer other than that relating to the individual's fitness or unfitness to work.

    Under Article 53 of Law 19/2014, employees cannot be tested for HIV and AIDS and related medical history unless the employee freely and expressly consents.

  3. Drug screening:

    Under the Labour Law, employers may require job applicants or employees to undergo or submit to medical tests or examinations for admission or for the performance of an employment contract to confirm the individual's fitness for work. However, the medical practitioner responsible for the medical tests or examinations cannot provide information to the employer other than that relating to the individual's fitness or unfitness to work.

    Under Article 53 of Law 19/2014, employees cannot be tested for HIV and AIDS and related medical history unless the employee freely and expressly consents.

  4. Credit checks:

    Under the Labour Law, when appointing an employee or during an employment agreement, employers cannot require the employee to provide information about their private life – including their credit status – except where, by the law or the job, the particular nature of the job so demands, and provided that the reasons for the requirement are stated in writing beforehand.

  5. Immigration status:

    Employers must confirm the nationality and immigration status of all employees.

  6. Social media:

    According to the Labour Law, employers must respect employees' right to privacy – particularly their right to keep their personal lives private. The right to privacy relates to accessing and disseminating matters relating to employees' private lives. It implies employers cannot discriminate against employees based on their private lives (including personal information on social networks).

  7. Other:

    Other background checks and inquiries must be based on the employer's need to confirm an employee's suitability for the job. They are permitted only where the law or particular nature of the job demands and provided that the reasons for the checks and inquiries are stated in writing beforehand.

Last updated on October 8, 2023

If you have any queries or suggestions, reach out to us at irene.jones@neeyamo.com

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