GLOBAL EMPLOYER OF RECORD IN 190+ countries

Employer of Record in Ukraine

Acumen International employs your specialists in Ukraine under Ukrainian law, including the rules of martial law, so your business gains the team while the employer’s duties stay with us.

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Employing in Ukraine through an Employer of Record

With an Employer of Record, Acumen International is the legal employer of the people who work for your business in Ukraine. Acumen International signs the employment contract under the Labour Code, registers the employee with the tax authorities and the Pension Fund, pays salary, the single social contribution, personal income tax and the military levy, keeps the military registration records the law requires, and carries the employer’s legal obligations. Your business selects the person and directs the work. Where the right person has not yet been found, Acumen International can also run the search, from specialist recruitment to executive search, with background and education checks before the offer.

Situations where an Employer of Record serves a Ukrainian hire

• Contractor compliance. Specialists working full time for you as private entrepreneurs (FOPs) move onto Ukrainian employment contracts, removing the questions a tax audit would raise about their status and about your company’s presence in Ukraine.
• One accountable provider. Contracts, payroll, military records and compliance sit with Acumen International instead of being split between several suppliers.
• No entity to set up or maintain. You employ in Ukraine without registering a company, keeping statutory accounts or reporting to the authorities as a local employer.
• Market tests and short-term projects. Reconstruction projects, pilots and fixed-term assignments are staffed without permanent infrastructure, and scaled up or wound down as the situation and results allow.
• Bridge to your own entity. While your Ukrainian company is being registered, the first employees start with Acumen International and transfer once it can employ them.
• Fast team launch. Local hires and foreign specialists coming to Ukraine are onboarded with work permits and payroll handled together.
• Mergers and restructuring. Ukrainian staff stay employed without a break while the legal entities around them change.
• NGO staffing. Humanitarian and development organisations employ project staff in Ukraine under the Labour Code.
• Employer liability. Acumen International holds the local employer’s liability, so statutory obligations rest with the party the authorities hold responsible.
• Remote team expansion. Ukrainian members of a distributed team receive contracts, pay and social insurance that follow Ukrainian law.

Employing for another business in Ukraine: the legal basis and its limits

Article 39 of the Law of Ukraine on Employment of the Population allows a business to hire workers who then carry out work for another employer in Ukraine. The separate permit this once required was removed from the law in 2022. These limits apply:

• The arrangement must be provided for in the collective agreement and agreed with the primary trade union organisation, where one exists.
• The hiring employer and the business where the work is done sign an agreement on the use of the worker’s labour.
• Pay cannot be lower than the minimum wage or the pay the receiving business gives its own staff for the same work.
• Working time and rest follow the receiving business’s collective agreement and internal rules for its own staff.
• The hiring employer calculates and pays the single social contribution.
• The worker cannot be prevented from later signing an employment contract with the receiving business.
• Workers cannot be placed with a business that has cut its headcount in the past year, that falls short of staffing standards in its core professions, or for harmful, dangerous or heavy work and core production roles.

Where your business has no Ukrainian company, the work is provided under a service agreement with Acumen International, and these placement rules shape how the arrangement is set up once you employ in Ukraine yourself.

Employment in Ukraine under martial law

Martial law has been in force in Ukraine since 24 February 2022. The Law on the Organisation of Labour Relations under Martial Law (No. 2136-IX) and later amendments change several Labour Code rules while it lasts:

• Critical infrastructure employers can extend normal working time to 60 hours a week, and weekly uninterrupted rest can be reduced to 24 hours.
• Labour Code rules on public holidays and non-working days are suspended, so those days are not automatically days off.
• Basic paid annual leave can be limited to 24 calendar days, with other leave at the employer’s discretion, except maternity, childcare and adoption leave.
• Employees who have left Ukraine or have internally displaced person status can take up to 90 days of unpaid leave, which the employer must grant.
• An employment contract can be suspended when the war makes work impossible for both sides, for no more than 90 calendar days in total under the 2025 amendments.
• Both parties must stay reachable and report changes in contact details within 10 calendar days.
• Where hostilities make it impossible to pay on time, wages can be paid once operations resume, but the obligation to pay remains.

Military duties of employers and employees

Employers keep military registration records for employees liable for service and keep their data up to date. An employee called up for military service keeps their job and position, but the employer no longer pays their salary during service.

Only employers that hold critically important status can apply through Diia to reserve employees from mobilisation, generally for up to half of their conscription-eligible staff. Since 1 September 2026, a reserved employee must earn at least three times the minimum wage, UAH 25,941 a month. Whether a reservation is possible therefore depends on the employer’s own status and the role’s pay, and Acumen International confirms this case by case before an offer.

What Acumen International handles in Ukraine, from search to exit

In practice, this replaces the separate payroll provider, labour lawyer, military records specialist and immigration adviser a business would otherwise need in Ukraine.

Minimum wage and pay rules in Ukraine

From 1 January 2026, the minimum monthly wage is UAH 8,647, up from UAH 8,000. It is also the minimum base for the single social contribution and the reference for many fines.

Salaries are agreed as a gross monthly amount in hryvnia and must be paid at least twice a month. Overtime, where it is allowed, is paid at double the hourly rate.

Employment contracts and working time in Ukraine

Ending employment in Ukraine

An employer can end employment only on grounds the Labour Code lists, such as redundancy, unsuitability found during probation or a breach of duties. Redundancy requires two months’ notice and severance of at least one average monthly salary. An employee on an open-ended contract can resign with two weeks’ notice.

Under martial law, an employer can also end employment when an employee has been absent for more than four months in a row for unknown reasons, or when the business cannot provide work because its property was destroyed in the fighting. Trade union consent to dismiss a member is generally not needed while martial law lasts.

Collective redundancy triggers notice to the trade union and the State Employment Service, generally two months ahead, when it reaches 10 or more employees in a month at a business of 20 to 100, 10% of staff in a month at a business of 101 to 300, or 20% of staff within three months at any business.

Ukrainian employment risks and how Acumen International covers them

Work permits in Ukraine and Ukrainian specialists abroad

A foreign national working in Ukraine needs a work permit, which the employer obtains from the regional employment centre, and applications can be filed electronically during martial law. A permit can run for up to three years, depending on the grounds. Highly paid professionals earning at least 50 minimum wages, IT professionals, creative professionals, graduates of the world’s top 100 universities and founders of Ukrainian companies have easier access. Permanent residents and the other categories listed in the law do not need a permit.

What Acumen International contributes

The permit is issued to the employer, so a business without a Ukrainian company has no one to apply. Acumen International applies as the employer, prepares the contract, tracks the permit to its end date and returns it to the employment centre when the employment ends.

Ukrainians under temporary protection abroad

At the end of May 2026, 4.38 million people displaced from Ukraine held temporary protection in the EU, and the main schemes let them work:

• In the EU, temporary protection has been extended to 4 March 2028 and gives the same access to the labour market in every member state, although a person can hold it in only one member state at a time.
• New EU applicants since 31 July 2026 must show, where it applies to them, that they meet their military obligations in Ukraine, for example through proof of legal exit or a record from the Reserv+ system.
• In the UK, people with 18 months under the Ukraine Permission Extension scheme can apply from 8 April 2026 for a further 24 months, within 90 days before their permission expires.

A Ukrainian living in Poland, Germany or the UK works under that country’s employment and tax rules, not Ukraine’s. Acumen International can employ them where they live, with checks that their protection status remains valid.

Family members

Temporary protection in the EU also covers close family members who fled with the person, and they have the same right to work. In the UK, family members apply for their own extension, and the Home Office can align their permission with the main applicant’s.

Employer cost and income tax in Ukraine

In 2026, the single social contribution is calculated on at least the minimum wage, a minimum of UAH 1,902.34 a month, and on no more than 20 minimum wages, UAH 172,940 a month.

Diia City

IT companies that become Diia City residents can apply a separate regime to their employees and gig specialists: 5% personal income tax on annual income up to the equivalent of EUR 240,000, with 18% above that, and the employer’s 22% contribution calculated on the minimum wage. Residence requires, among other conditions, average pay of around EUR 1,200 a month, at least nine employees or gig specialists, and 90% of income from qualifying IT activities.

The Global Payroll Calculator separates the employer’s 22% from the 23% withheld from a Ukrainian salary and applies the contribution cap, so the cost of a senior engineer can be read at a glance.

Sectors employing through an Employer of Record in Ukraine

• Software and IT services companies employ developers, QA engineers, data specialists and product teams, a sector served by the Diia City regime.
• Defence technology and drone developers hire engineers and technicians for research and production.
• Energy companies restoring and decentralising power supply need engineers and project managers.
• Construction and infrastructure firms working on reconstruction employ engineers, surveyors and project staff.
• Agribusiness and food exporters employ agronomists, logistics and trade specialists.
• International humanitarian and development organisations employ programme managers, analysts and field staff.

Ukrainian hiring cases and how they are handled

Benefits, payroll and leave in Ukraine

Ukrainian packages for skilled roles often add private health insurance, wellbeing allowances and equipment for remote work.

Payroll obligations

Leave entitlements

Sources

• Labour Code of Ukraine, English text, ILO NATLEX
• Article 39, Law of Ukraine on Employment of the Population
• Permits for hiring workers for another employer, State Employment Centre
• Labour issues under martial law, UkraineInvest
• EU extends temporary protection until March 2028, Council of the EU
• Council extends temporary protection and introduces a new requirement, EUAA
• Ukraine: key labour law developments in 2025, Baker McKenzie
• Labour law in Ukraine, CMS expert guide
• Criticality and reservation status in 2026, IT Ukraine Association
• Maximum base for the single social contribution in 2026
• Employment of foreigners in Ukraine: how to obtain a permit, Legalaid
• Taxation of Diia City residents’ specialists, State Tax Service of Ukraine
• Further 24-month extension of the Ukraine Permission Extension scheme