How Much Does It Cost to Use an Employer of Record (EOR) in Armenia??
- Gegidze • გეგიძე | Marketing
- Jun 28
- 12 min read
Table of contents:
Introduction: You’re not paying for a service, you’re buying freedom from bureaucracy
Let’s say you want to hire a brilliant front-end developer in Yerevan.
You found them. They’re perfect. You’re ready to go.
But instead of onboarding them, you’re Googling “how to register a business in Armenia without losing your will to live.”
Twelve browser tabs later, you’ve entered a new stage of grief: “Maybe we just pay them as a freelancer and hope no one finds out.”
This is where most companies make their first mistake.
And it’s not because they’re reckless. It’s because they underestimate what hiring internationally really involves.
Let’s look at the un-fun stuff you don’t think about until it’s too late:
Pension contributions you didn’t know were mandatory
IP ownership clauses that don’t exist in your contract template
The very specific format Armenia requires for monthly tax filings
That weird rule about needing a local director, a physical office, and possibly a blood oath to the Revenue Committee
Oh, and your “contractor”?
They might actually be considered a full employee under Armenian law, which means back taxes, penalties, and possibly an awkward call with your lawyer.
Here’s the truth:
When you use an EOR, you’re not just paying for payroll.
You’re buying back your time, your legal sanity, and your ability to grow a team without a surprise subpoena from the Ministry of Labor.
That’s why Team Up exists.
So you can build globally, without becoming an expert in bureaucracy.
And yes, we’ll show you the full cost, down to the euro, right after we explain why it’s the best money you’ll ever spend on not screwing up hiring in Armenia.
What’s included in the EOR fee in Armenia?
Let’s kill the idea that “€199/month” just covers payroll.
It doesn’t.
You’re not paying for someone to press a button once a month and send a transfer.
You’re paying for a fully operational, legally airtight, human-first hiring set up in Armenia, minus the local entity headaches, legal exposure, and sleepless nights spent trying to decode tax forms in Armenian.
Here’s what’s actually baked into that flat fee. No fluff. No finance-speak. No surprises.
Local employment, the real kind, not “contractor cosplay”
Anyone can download a contract template.
But that won’t keep you compliant with Armenian labor law, or keep you out of hot water if the Revenue Committee comes sniffing around.
What you get:
Fully compliant, bilingual employment agreements
Local labor registration
Proper IP ownership clauses
No misclassification risks
It’s real employment. Backed by real infrastructure. Handled by people who do this every day.
Full payroll execution (taxes, filings, the works)
If you think payroll is just “send money + done,” you’re not ready to hire in Armenia.
Team Up runs:
Income tax withholding
Social and pension contributions
Monthly reporting through Armenia’s e-filing system
Payment distribution in local currency
You get a single invoice.
Your employee gets paid correctly, on time, every time.
And you never have to touch a local payroll portal.
Benefits administration, because the salary isn’t enough
Let’s be honest: great hires want more than just cash.
With Team Up, you can offer:
Health insurance (starting from €49/month)
Gym memberships, learning stipends
Paid leave tracking, holiday compliance
We handle the vendor setup, the admin, and the tracking.
You get the credit for offering a solid benefits package, without doing the paperwork.
Hardware & workspace
Need your hire to start with a MacBook? We lease it. Deliver it. Support it.
Want them to work from somewhere with ergonomic chairs and espresso? We’ve got coworking spaces in Yerevan on tap.
Options:
Equipment leasing from €69/month
Flex desks, dedicated desks, or private office space
It’s plug-and-play. And you never have to worry about the logistics.
Currency exchange & salary disbursement
You pay in euros. Your hire gets paid in AMD.
We handle the conversion, transfers, and taxes, with no FX drama or surprise deductions.
Ongoing compliance
Labor laws change. Contributions update. Filing rules shift.
You won’t notice, because we do.
Every contract, every payroll submission, and every document we handle is audit-proof and up to date. That’s not “support.” That’s protection.
EOR fee structure: Flat rate vs % of salary
If you’ve never used an EOR before, here’s what happens:
You find a provider.
You love the pitch.
You think, “8%? That’s nothing.”
Then you hire a $4K/month senior engineer and suddenly your EOR fee is bigger than your rent.
So let’s be honest, how your provider charges you matters almost as much as what they’re charging for.
There are two models on the menu. One of them’s built for grownups.
The % of the salary trap
It sounds harmless, like a gentle nibble off the top.
Spoiler: it’s not.
Let’s do some numbers (yes, briefly, I promise it won’t hurt).
Most % EORs charge 10–15% of gross salary.
So, if your developer earns €3,000/month?
At 10%, you’re paying €300/month
At 15%, you’re paying €450/month
For one person
Multiply that by 5 hires and suddenly you’re paying an extra €18K/year... just for the privilege of legally hiring them.
And it’s not like the EOR is doing more work because you hired someone with a better LinkedIn profile.
They’re still:
Filing the same paperwork
Running the same payroll
Clicking the same buttons
But hey, congrats on your “enterprise-level” invoice.
The flat-rate model (aka the adult-in-the-room approach)
Now let’s talk flat rate.
No matter the salary, Team Up charges €199/month per employee.
Simple. Transparent. Doesn’t spike when you hire senior talent.
It’s the same fee for:
A junior frontend dev
A lead ML engineer
A marketing manager who still uses Notion like it’s Excel
Flat rate = consistent costs = real planning.
You don’t have to do mental gymnastics every time you promote someone.
So why do % fees even exist?
Because they sound cheap upfront and get very expensive later.
Also, math is hard when you’re excited about making a hire.
But the real kicker?
The service doesn’t scale with the cost.
It’s the same EOR checklist, just with more money sucked out of your budget each month.
What smart teams choose
Smart teams aren’t just cutting costs. They’re cutting noise.
Flat fee = cleaner budget, no variable nonsense, no “Oh wait, why is this invoice €728?” emails.
So if your EOR’s fee grows every time your team levels up?
They’re not a partner. They’re a tax.
Ditch the variable fee model.
Hire a senior. Pay predictable. Sleep fine.
Salary + Taxes + EOR Fee = Total monthly cost
This is the part everyone really wants.
The line item breakdown.
The “okay, but what does this actually cost us?” moment.
So let’s do it. No vague ranges. No corporate riddles. Just clean math and the kind of transparency your finance team dreams about at night.
Start with salary (you control this)
You decide how much to pay your hire. Armenia’s market makes that easier.
Here’s what we see most often:
Junior Developer: €1,200–€1,800
Mid-Level Developer: €2,000–€2,800
Senior Engineer / Product Manager: €3,000–€4,000
Team Lead / Head of Dept: €4,500+
You set the number. We don’t touch it. No markup. No commission.
Add employer taxes (we file them)
Hiring in Armenia means paying:
Social security contributions: 7.5% of gross salary
Pension contributions: ~2.5%
Misc. fees and reporting costs: ~1%
Total employer tax burden? Roughly 11% on top of base salary.
(And yes, we handle all filings, payments, and that thrilling tax portal login.)
So if your hire earns €2,500/month, employer taxes = ~€275.
Now add our flat EOR fee
Team Up’s fee: €199/month. Fixed.
Doesn’t care how senior your hire is. Doesn’t sneak up on you mid-quarter.
It covers everything from legal employment and compliant payroll to benefit admin, equipment handling, and work permit support.
This is where most providers get vague.
We’re not most providers.
So, total monthly cost = salary + taxes + EOR fee
Let’s run a live example:
Hiring a senior engineer at €3,000/month.
Salary: €3,000
Taxes (~11%): €330
EOR fee: €199
Total: €3,529/month
No ballooning percentages. No mystery charges.
Just a fully employed, fully compliant, fully operational team member, minus the infrastructure headache.
Optional add-ons: Benefits, equipment & workspace
Let’s get one thing out of the way.
If you think salary is the finish line, you haven’t hired in Armenia. Or anywhere, really.
Because while your new hire might accept the job without perks, they won’t stay without them.
And then you’re back on LinkedIn, writing another “fast-growing team looking for rockstars” post that even your dog wouldn’t apply to.
Let’s avoid that.
What follows are the extras that aren’t technically required, but functionally non-negotiable if you want to attract and retain actual professionals who don’t live in a cave.
Health insurance policies for remote EOR employees in Armenia
You can skip this.
Just be prepared to watch your competitor offer it and poach your hire six months in.
Good local health insurance starts at €49 per employee per month.
That gets your team access to real clinics, actual doctors, and coverage that doesn’t expire if Mercury is in retrograde.
We set it up.
We manage it.
You get credit for caring about your team’s well-being without lifting more than a finger.
Gym memberships & training in Armenia
Technically, your dev doesn’t need a gym membership.
They could just pace around the apartment and call it a “wellness routine.”
But here’s the thing: physical and mental health are directly tied to performance.
And if they burn out because you saved €49 a month? That’s on you.
We offer:
Gym access
Yoga studio memberships
Professional training and language course stipends
You decide what to include.
We roll it into their benefits like it’s been there the whole time.
Equipment policies for remote EOR employees in Armenia
You’ve got two choices:
Send them a new MacBook on day one, or start every stand-up with “Can everyone hear me?”
We lease top-tier hardware starting at €69/month per employee.
Need to buy instead? No problem. We’ll source it, deliver it, and make sure it actually turns on.
No shipping drama. No, IT panic. No excuses.
Workspace options for remote employees hired through an EOR in Armenia
Remote-first is cool.
But it assumes your hire has a desk that isn’t the kitchen table and internet that doesn’t break every time their neighbor uses the microwave.
We provide:
Flex desks (€150/month)
Dedicated desks (€250/month)
Private offices (€1,250/month)
You can offer a professional workspace with actual lighting and coffee that doesn’t taste like regret.
So what do these extras really do?
They tell your team, “We planned for this.”
That you didn’t just wing it. That you actually care.
Because hiring someone without giving them the tools to succeed isn’t efficient.
It’s lazy. And it’s expensive.
These add-ons don’t just upgrade the experience.
They make sure you’re not rehiring for the same role again three months from now.
Is it cheaper than setting up a company in Armenia?
Let’s not waste time pretending this is a close call.
Setting up a company sounds smart until you do the math.
Spoiler: it’s not cheaper. It’s just slower, harder, and more paperwork than most startups survive.
But fine. Let’s play this out.
Step 1: Incorporate a legal entity in Armenia
You’ll need:
A registered address
A local director (or nominee)
An Armenian-speaking lawyer who doesn’t charge in limbs
A bank account that takes three visits to open and four more to activate
Patience
More patience
A backup plan for when you realize you forgot to file Form H-0B4/7 by the 15th
Cost: Around €3,000–€5,000 upfront, not including the brain cells you’ll lose figuring out local compliance.
Step 2: Hire someone to manage all of it
Because unless your founding team speaks Armenian, knows local labor law, and has nothing better to do, you’re going to need help.
So you’ll hire:
An accountant
A payroll manager
A lawyer
Maybe even an HR consultant if you want to get fancy
Monthly costs? Easily €1,000–€2,000+.
Still think this is the budget option?
Step 3: Realize you now run a back office
Congratulations. You just opened a business… to open a business.
Now, instead of scaling your product, closing sales, or hiring engineers, you're:
Chasing down tax filings
Learning what a pension top-up is
Wondering why your transfer bounced
Reading angry emails from a government portal you didn’t know existed yesterday
Meanwhile, back at Team Up...
You could’ve just hired your dev through an EOR for €199/month.
Legally. Compliantly. No setup. No downtime. No surprise.
You’d be:
Paying one flat invoice
Offloading tax, payroll, benefits, and workspace logistics
Scaling your team, not your admin
And you’d still have your original liver function intact.
Common myths about EOR pricing
You’ve heard them. Your CFO’s probably repeated one.
Maybe you’ve even said one out loud while doomscrolling your options on hour three of “EOR research.”
Let’s clear it up.
Because EOR pricing isn’t expensive.
It’s misunderstood, mostly by people who haven’t seen the bill for setting up a local entity.
Myth # 1: “EORs are more expensive than hiring directly.”
Sure. If you ignore all the costs you're not counting.
You’re not just comparing salary vs. EOR invoice.
You’re comparing:
Entity registration
Legal fees
Payroll setup
Tax compliance
Ongoing local HR support
Oh, and the 3 months you’ll lose navigating it all
Team Up charges €199/month.
That’s not a premium. That’s a shortcut.
Myth # 2: “EOR fees scale with seniority.”
Only if you fall for the percentage model.
Plenty of EOR providers in Armenia will slap you with 10–15% of your salary.
This sounds fine, until your €4,500/month engineer comes with a €675/month service fee attached. That’s a second hire… of regret.
Team Up? Flat rate. Senior or junior. Fixed. Predictable. CFO-friendly.
Myth # 3: “EORs are just payroll companies.”
If that were true, they’d charge you €19/month and vanish when the labor inspector shows up.
A proper EOR (like Team Up) is:
A legal employer
A tax shield
An immigration gatekeeper
A compliance bodyguard
A logistics department with fewer excuses
You’re not paying for button-pushing.
You’re buying infrastructure without having to build it.
Myth # 4: “EORs are only for big companies.”
Right. Freelancers never need contracts.
Startups never get audited.
And nobody ever made a mistake on payroll and ended up fined into oblivion.
Here’s the truth:
If you’re hiring across borders, even just one hire, you’re already playing in regulated waters.
You either get an EOR or you gamble on YouTube tutorials and hope the Armenian tax authority doesn’t call.
Your choice.
What could go wrong if you don’t pay for compliance?
So you skipped the EOR in Armenia.
Went rogue. Hired “directly.” Saved €199/month and felt like a genius.
Until your developer got flagged by the tax authority.
Until their visa expired mid-project.
Until your contractor asked for paid leave because they “thought they were an employee.”
What could go wrong?
Literally everything.
Misclassification fines
Hiring someone as a contractor when they’re working full-time, reporting to a manager, using your tools, and getting paid monthly?
That’s not freelance. That’s employment, and governments know it.
Get audited, and you’re looking at:
Back taxes
Unpaid benefits
Interest
Fines
And a really nice letter that starts with “You are in violation of…”
In Armenia, misclassification can cost you thousands per employee, and permanently ban you from hiring again under the same model.
All for skipping the EOR fee. Congrats.
Payroll violations
Think sending a bank transfer = paying someone?
Not when you forget to withhold income tax.
Or when you wire it in euros instead of Armenian drams.
Or when you miss the monthly declaration to the Revenue Committee.
It’s not about good intentions.
It’s about doing it right.
And “doing it right” is a lot harder when you’re navigating a tax system in a language you don’t speak, in a country you don’t live in.
In labor disputes, you will lose
Here’s how labor law works:
When there’s a dispute, it favors the employee, especially when the company is a foreign business with no local registration, no compliance history, and no EOR.
If your contractor claims they were an employee and sues for:
Unpaid vacation
Severance
Benefits
Overtime
...you won’t just owe them.
You’ll owe the government, too.
An EOR prevents this. It gives you structure, legitimacy, and legal distance without having to build it yourself.
Immigration headaches
Oh, you hired a non-local to work in Armenia?
Hope you like the paperwork. And embassy visits. And delays.
Immigration rules are strict — and random “remote contracts” aren’t a legal loophole.
A proper EOR handles:
Work permits
Visa sponsorship
Residency Registration
Paper trails that actually hold up in front of a border agent
Because “They said I could work from anywhere” is not a valid immigration strategy.
Still want to skip compliance?
You can. Sure.
Just don’t act surprised when your “low-cost hire” ends up costing €10,000 in fines, lawyer fees, back pay, and a replacement you’ll need to onboard from scratch.
Or, hear us out, you could simply use an EOR and not worry about any of this.
TL;DR: EOR cost in Armenia isn’t just low. It’s lean, legal, and scalable.
If you’ve made it this far, congrats, you now know more about hiring in Armenia than most global founders.
So here’s the quick version for your board deck, Slack update, or midnight anxiety scroll:
Flat EOR fee: €199/month. No percentages. No salary tax. No surprises.
Total monthly cost = salary + ~11% in taxes + flat fee
Optional add-ons: Health insurance, gym, equipment, workspace, all plug-and-play, priced clearly.
Cheaper than setting up an entity (by a long shot).
Smarter than hiring “contractors” and hoping no one asks questions
Faster than figuring it out on your own
And most importantly?
It scales. Whether you’re hiring one developer or building a whole satellite team, the cost stays predictable, and your legal exposure stays near zero.
Here’s what you’re really paying for:
A senior backend engineer who doesn’t get stuck at the border.
A team that gets paid on time, in local currency, without 3 a.m. tax calls.
A hiring engine that runs quietly in the background while you focus on building actual value.
That’s not overhead. That’s acceleration.
So if Armenia is on your radar, whether it’s your first hire or your fifth, let’s make it real.
Book a free consultation with Team Up today.
Skip the legal mess. Get straight to great hires.
And finally, grow your team without growing your compliance burden.
