International hiring has become a standard tool for fast-growing businesses. Sourcing talent across borders is rarely the hard part. The challenge often lies in navigating compliance requirements, which can differ significantly from country to country.
We’ve delved into Deel’s APAC Cross-Border Hiring Playbook (download for free here), to bring you 10 practical things to understand before you hire.
Pay floors vary significantly across the region. Australia sets a national minimum wage of A$24.10 per hour (A$916 per week). South Korea’s minimum is KRW 10,030 per hour. Vietnam and Indonesia use location-based rates – Vietnam ranges from VND 3.45m to VND 4.96m per month depending on region; Jakarta’s rate sits at IDR 5,067,381 per month. Singapore has no national minimum wage, though work pass salary thresholds effectively set a floor for sponsored hires.
Founders often budget for base salary but underestimate employer-side contributions. In Australia, superannuation sits at 12% for 2025-26, with payroll tax varying by state and workers’ compensation on top. Singapore has no payroll tax, but employers contribute around 17% to CPF (Singapore’s mandatory social security savings scheme) for local employees. Japan carries a stack of mandatory insurance obligations that can add up quickly.
An eight-hour day and 40-hour week is the common standard across Japan, China, South Korea, Vietnam and others. Overtime is where the rules start to diverge sharply. China caps overtime at three hours per day and 36 hours per month, with higher rates for weekends and public holidays. South Korea caps overtime at 12 hours per week, paid at 150% of average salary.
With paperwork ready, several markets allow fast onboarding. South Korea can be as quick as two business days. Japan and Vietnam both sit at around three days. China takes longer – around seven business days – largely due to social insurance and housing fund registrations.
A single global leave policy will not hold across APAC. Australia provides 24 weeks of government-funded paid parental leave for eligible employees, plus up to 24 months unpaid. Singapore provides 16 weeks of paid maternity leave and four weeks’ paternity leave, with costs shared between employer and social security. Vietnam provides six months of paid maternity leave via social security. Building this into any global HR template from the start can help avoid any expensive surprises later.
Singapore’s lack of a national minimum wage is sometimes misread as a simple hiring environment. In practice, work pass salary thresholds set a de facto floor. An Employment Pass requires a minimum salary of S$5,000 – or S$5,500 in financial services. This means the hiring constraint shifts from “what’s the wage floor?” to “does this candidate qualify under immigration rules?”
Singapore has no statutory severance requirement, with notice periods based on tenure. South Korea requires 30 days’ paid salary per year of service. China’s termination process involves multiple steps, with severance that depends on contract type and reason for exit. Everyone exits eventually, so factoring exit costs into the true cost of any hire can give you a clearer picture.
Without a local entity, an Employer of Record (EOR) employs the worker on your behalf and manages contracts, payroll, statutory contributions and local compliance, letting you hire in a new market without waiting for entity paperwork to clear. Deel’s EOR service is built for exactly this purpose.
There are important regional limits to consider. Thailand may restrict EOR use to Thai citizens. In Singapore, the Ministry of Manpower has clarified that EOR services cannot apply for work passes for foreign employees working for overseas customers. In those cases, local incorporation may be the only path forward for sponsoring foreign hires.
Even when hiring through an EOR, staff who are closing deals or generating local revenue can quickly establish a taxable presence. That’s why some businesses start with support, engineering or delivery roles in a new market and hold off on sales hiring until they’re ready to set up a formal entity.
The headline rules across APAC may look similar, but payroll add-ons, overtime, leave entitlements, termination obligations, immigration thresholds and tax exposure are where unprepared businesses can lose time and money. Getting compliance before you hire is usually cheaper than fixing it afterwards.
Expanding in APAC? Download Deel’s full APAC Cross-Border Hiring Playbook here.
Carolyn Tate is a journalist and brand storyteller with a fascination for big ideas and the people behind them. She likes to find the human stories at the heart of brands and businesses, and has worked across global brands, government and the not-for-profit sector, including Amazon, PepsiCo, the Australian Government, Cancer Council and Medibank. Carolyn enjoys asking unexpected questions and following the rabbit holes they lead to.
