Hiring in Lithuania, set up correctly
Whether it is your first hire or your fifteenth, the employment has to be right from day one. We prepare the contracts, register the employment and put the documentation in place — so nothing surfaces later as a liability.
What you need to know
- Sodra must be notified no later than one working day before the employee starts.
- The employment contract must be signed before the first working day, not on it.
- Fixed-term contracts carry a higher employer contribution and cannot be used for permanent work.
- Getting a contractor arrangement wrong is the most expensive mistake foreign companies make here.
What we prepare
Employment contracts
Compliant Lithuanian contracts in Lithuanian and English, drafted for the actual role rather than adapted from a template written for another country.
Contract annexes
Salary arrangements, remote work, confidentiality, non-compete where it is enforceable, and equipment.
Onboarding documentation
Everything that has to exist before the first working day, in the order it has to happen.
Sodra registration
Employment registration and the notification filed before the employee starts.
Working time records
Timesheets and the records employers are required to keep.
Internal HR documents
Work rules, leave policies, remote work policy, GDPR documentation for employee data.
Amendments and terminations
Changes to pay or role, resignation and dismissal documentation, final settlements and severance calculations.
Compliance review
For employment that is already in place — we tell you what is missing before an inspection or a dispute does.
Who this is for
- Companies making their first hire in Lithuania
- Companies moving people onto Lithuanian contracts from another country
- Companies leaving an Employer of Record arrangement and taking employment in-house
- Companies that inherited employment documentation and do not know whether it holds up
- Companies where contracts were adapted from another jurisdiction's template
Do you need an entity, an EOR, or something else?
Before contracts come the structural question. There are three routes into Lithuania and the right one depends on how many people you expect to have here in eighteen months, not today. We compare the real costs and tell you which fits.
Employer social contributions in Lithuania are 1.77% of gross for an open-ended contract — among the lowest in the EU. Because of that, an Employer of Record fee is a much larger share of your total cost here than in Western Europe. For a team you intend to keep, it rarely pays.
What goes wrong
A contractor who is actually an employee. Set hours, your instructions, your equipment, working only for you. Lithuanian authorities can reclassify the relationship, with back taxes, contributions and penalties landing on the company.
A contract translated rather than drafted. A template from another country will be missing terms Lithuanian law requires, and may contain terms it does not permit.
A fixed-term contract used for permanent work. It carries a higher employer contribution and can be challenged.
Untracked annual leave. Never properly accrued, and it surfaces as a liability when someone leaves.
Late Sodra notification. The employment was correct but the filing was not, and that alone is a breach.
How we work
We start with what exists. For companies already employing here, a review comes before anything else. There is no point drafting new documents on top of unresolved problems.
Bilingual by default. Contracts and documentation in Lithuanian and English, so your head office can read what it is signing.
One senior contact. The person who drafts your documents is the person you talk to.
Fixed fee. Quoted per engagement, so you know the cost before work starts.
Questions we are asked
- Do we need a Lithuanian entity to hire someone here?
- To employ someone directly, yes. Without an entity, an Employer of Record is the alternative. We can tell you which makes sense for your headcount and timeline.
- Can you review contracts we already have?
- Yes, and this is often where we start. A review identifies what is missing or unenforceable before it becomes a dispute.
- Can we use our standard employment contract from another country?
- Not as it stands. Lithuanian law requires specific terms and prohibits others. The commercial intent can usually be preserved; the document itself has to be rebuilt.
- What about hiring someone who is not an EU national?
- The employment and immigration routes have to be planned together, because the permit attaches to a specific employer.
- Do you handle payroll once the person is hired?
- Yes. See our payroll service.
- Can you help us find candidates as well?
- We do source and select candidates for some clients, both for roles in Lithuania and for placements across the EU. Tell us what you need and we will say whether it is something we can take on.
Tell us about the hire
Answer these and we will reply within one working day with what setting this up properly involves and what it would cost. No charge for this reply.