what does a native-speaking employee really cost you?

Home cost = gross salary + the 2026 statutory employer costs of that country, averaged per month over the year. In Sweden and Denmark you can add the pension most employers pay under a collective agreement. Bonuses, benefits, equipment and office costs are not included, so the real cost at home is usually higher.

Abroad cost = what a native speaker who lives abroad costs you per month. It depends on the role and the language, not on your country’s taxes. We start from published 2026 pay for that role in the usual hubs (Malta, Lisbon, Cyprus), the typical figure below. People on a B2B contract often live somewhere cheaper and invoice less, as our proven cases below show. Move the slider or type the quote you have. An Employer of Record, if you use one, adds its own monthly fee.

First-year saving = 12 × the monthly difference, minus our fee. We count our fee at its maximum: one month of the rate abroad, which is usually about 4–8% of the first-year salary at home.

Sources: FreeMalta: customer support salaries 2026 · FreeMalta: salary benchmarks 2026 · SalaryExpert: account manager, Malta · Glassdoor: marketing manager, Lisbon · Expat-U: multilingual jobs in Lisbon 2026. Example salaries at home: the published average for each role in each country; the source is named under the salary field.

• Germany

  Employer shares of pension (9.3%), unemployment (1.3%), health (7.3% + half of the 2.9% average supplement) and long-term care (1.8%) insurance, up to the 2026 ceilings of €8,450 and €5,812.50 a month. Plus the maternity levy U2 (0.44%), the insolvency levy U3 (0.15%) and accident insurance (1.08% on average). The sick-pay levy U1 (about 2.1%) only applies to employers with 30 staff or fewer and is not included.

  Sources: vdek: Beitragssätze 2026 · Bundesregierung: Beitragsbemessungsgrenzen 2026 · TK: Umlagen U1, U2 und Insolvenzgeld 2026 · DGUV: average contribution rate · StepStone: Account Manager salaries 2026

• Austria

  Employer social insurance (about 20.5%, up to the 2026 ceiling of €8,085 a month) plus DB (3.7%), DZ (about 0.36%), municipal tax (3%) and employee provision fund (1.53%). Austria pays 14 salaries a year, which the yearly figures include.

  Sources: Sozialversicherung: aktuelle Werte 2026 · WKO: Lohnnebenkosten 2026 · karriere.at: Account Manager salaries

• Netherlands

  Statutory 8% holiday allowance (vakantiegeld), plus employer premiums on salary and allowance: unemployment AWf 2.74%, disability Aof 6.27% (small employers; 7.63% for large), health levy Zvw 6.10% and childcare 0.50%, up to the 2026 maximum of €79,409 a year.

  Sources: Belastingdienst: employee insurance contributions · Taxlive: premiepercentages 2026 · Nationale Beroepengids: brand manager

• Sweden

  Standard employer contributions (arbetsgivaravgifter) of 31.42% on all pay, with no ceiling. Lower rates apply to employees aged 18–22 (April 2026 to September 2027) and 67 or over. Optional: the ITP1 occupational pension that most employers with a collective agreement pay (4.5% of salary up to SEK 52,125 a month, 30% above), plus the 24.26% special payroll tax on it.

  Sources: Skatteverket: arbetsgivaravgifter · Alecta: premier ITP 1 · SCB: average monthly salary by occupation 2025

• Denmark

  Denmark has no percentage-based employer social tax. Statutory employer costs are ATP (DKK 198 a month), AUB (DKK 2,821 a year) and FIB (DKK 82 a quarter) for a full-time employee, plus the 1% holiday supplement. Optional: the labour-market pension most collective agreements require, where the employer usually pays 8–12% of salary; we use 8%.

  Sources: Virk: ATP for employers · Virk: AUB · Boundless: cost of employing in Denmark 2026 · Danmarks Statistik via Ansøgningshjælpen: kundeservice løn 2026

• Norway

  Mandatory occupational pension (OTP) of at least 2%, and employer national insurance contributions (arbeidsgiveravgift) of 14.1% in zone 1, which covers most cities, charged on salary and pension. Holiday pay replaces salary during holidays, so it is not added.

  Sources: Skatteetaten: arbeidsgiveravgift 2026 · SSB: monthly earnings by occupation

Agency fee range: hiring-hub.com · tb-group.se · recruitmentcenter.nl. Converted at DKK 7.46, SEK 11.29 and NOK 10.93 per euro (ECB, August–September 2026).