Employer of Record (EOR) in Peru: 2026 Guide for US Startups

An employer of record (EOR) in Peru is a company that legally employs your hire on its own Peruvian payroll, so you can put someone on staff in Lima without registering an entity with SUNAT. Through Shor that costs $299 per employee per month, on top of Peru's statutory employer load of roughly 30-40%.

Peru is where US startups go for strong, affordable engineering talent in a timezone identical to US Eastern (UTC-5, no daylight saving). The surprise is that cost stack: two mandatory bonuses (gratificaciones), a severance-style savings fund (CTS), and 30 days of vacation, the heaviest employer load of any major LATAM hiring market.

Here's what you actually need to know.

Quick facts

What an employer of record in Peru actually does

The EOR is the legal employer on paper. You still choose the person, set the salary, direct the work, and own the output; the EOR carries the employment relationship in Peru so you don't have to incorporate to have one.

In practice, in Peru, that means it:

• Issues the Spanish-language employment contract and registers the employee in T-Registro from day one
• Files monthly electronic payroll (PLAME) with SUNAT and remits EsSalud at 9%
• Pays the two gratificaciones in July and December, and makes the CTS deposits into the employee's separate account each May and November
• Tracks the 30 calendar days of annual leave and the statutory sick, maternity, and paternity entitlements
• Runs the final settlement on exit: accrued salary, prorated gratificaciones, CTS balance, unused vacation, and any indemnification

What it does not do is make Peruvian employment law smaller. Dismissal after the three-month probation still needs documented cause, and the indemnification and the CTS balance are owed whoever holds the contract. The EOR absorbs the administration and the registration risk, not the statutory bill.

First decision: contractor or employee?

Most US startups start with contractors in Peru, and for independent senior engineers it's a clean structure: same-day onboarding, invoice-based payment, no statutory benefits to fund.

The misclassification line matters more in Peru than in most markets, because the cost of getting it wrong is bigger: an employee is owed gratificaciones, CTS deposits, 30 days of vacation, and health contributions retroactively. If you set their hours, they work only for you, and you manage them day to day, Peruvian authorities will treat them as an employee. Peru even requires employers to register workers electronically (T-Registro) from day one, so there's a paper trail. When someone becomes core to the team, convert them through an employer of record (EOR) or your own Peruvian entity.

Converting is not a rename. The person signs a new Peruvian employment contract with the EOR's entity, and their statutory clocks (gratificaciones proration, CTS accrual, vacation) start from that date rather than from the first contractor invoice. That is the point: the liability you are closing is the retroactive one, where an authority looks back at an employee-shaped contractor and assesses the benefits that should have been funded all along. Keep the role, manager, and pay continuous, put the change in writing, and time it to a month boundary so the first PLAME filing is clean. Converting a contractor to an employee through an EOR walks through the sequence, and your accountant should confirm the tax treatment for your specific case.

Paying contractors in Peru

The mechanics are simpler than most founders expect:

• Collect a W-8BEN before the first payment. It certifies the contractor is a non-US person, so you generally don't issue a 1099. Confirm your setup with your accountant.
• Sign a real contract with scope, rate, IP assignment, and termination terms, written with Peruvian law in mind rather than a copy of your US template.
• Pay in USD or PEN, their choice. Contractors can invoice in USD, and many prefer it. The expensive mistake is bank wires: $25-45 per wire plus an FX spread buried in the rate, arriving days later.

Shor pays Peruvian contractors over local rails, same-day, at a flat disclosed 2% FX margin, for $19/month per contractor. Contracts, W-8BEN collection, and invoicing are built in.

Hiring full-time employees

Employer-side statutory costs on top of gross salary:

Headline employer load: 30-40% on top of gross salary. A PEN 10,000/month engineer really costs you around PEN 13,000-14,000/month before platform fees. Budget offers with that number, not the gross. Pension (around 13%, AFP or ONP at the employee's choice) is employee-funded and withheld from gross, so it doesn't add to your side.

Two structural points founders miss:

• The bonuses are salary, not a nice-to-have. Gratificaciones are one full month of salary each, every July and December, prorated if the employee joined mid-period.
• CTS is severance you fund in advance. It's deposited into a separate bank account in the employee's name twice a year, and it's owed regardless of how or why employment ends.

Employees must be paid in PEN, on a Spanish-language contract, with monthly electronic payroll filings (PLAME) to the tax authority (SUNAT). Statutory rates change; confirm current figures with your accountant before making offers.

Leave and benefits

• Annual leave: 30 calendar days
• Sick leave: paid at full salary; the employer covers an initial period, then the social insurance system takes over
• Maternity leave: 14 weeks at full pay, state-funded
• Paternity leave: 10 days, paid
• Public holidays: ~15 days

Beyond statute, competitive offers in Peru commonly add private health insurance (EPS) on top of EsSalud, meal vouchers, life insurance, and performance bonuses.

Ending employment

Peru is a high-protection market. Expect:

• 30 days' notice
• Indemnification for unjustified dismissal of 1.5 months' salary per year of service, capped at 12 months
• CTS balance paid out regardless of the reason for termination
• A final settlement covering accrued salary, prorated gratificaciones, CTS, outstanding vacation pay, and any indemnification

Termination without documented cause is the most expensive mistake in Peruvian employment. Probation (the first 3 months) is the one window where separation is simple, so use it deliberately. This is exactly where an EOR earns its fee.

Documents we'll collect from your employee at onboarding

DNI (national ID), RUC (tax registration, where they have one), their AFP or ONP pension enrollment number, and a Peruvian bank account for salary plus a separate CTS account for the semi-annual deposits.

What it costs through Shor

• Contractors: $19/month each, same-day PEN or USD payouts
• Full-time employees (EOR): $299/month each, gratificaciones, CTS, EsSalud, and all filings handled

No setup fees, and the FX margin is a flat disclosed 2%. Deposits are country-dependent and quoted up front, so the cash-flow picture is on the table before you sign. The pricing calculator shows the full Peru math including every statutory line.

How that compares

Published list prices, taken from each provider's own pricing page as of September 2026:

Worth keeping in proportion: in Peru the platform fee is the small number whichever provider you pick. On a PEN 10,000/month engineer the statutory load alone is roughly PEN 3,000-4,000 a month, and every employer in the country pays it. Compare providers on the fee, the FX margin, and the deposit together, not on the headline alone.

Third-party pricing may change; confirm current terms directly with each provider. All trademarks belong to their respective owners, and no provider named here is affiliated with or endorses Shor.

Next steps, depending on where you are: the EOR pricing comparison puts published provider prices side by side, and EOR vs. your own entity has the breakeven math for when a local entity starts to win. To see Peru against the rest of our coverage, the reference tables compare employer costs, notice periods, and public holidays across every country here. Already with another provider? Switching EOR providers covers the traps worth planning around.