Employing Workers

Doing Business measures the regulation of employment, specifically as it affects the hiring and redundancy of workers and the rigidity of working hours. Since 2009 the World Bank Group has been working with a consultative group — including labor lawyers, employer and employee representatives, and experts from the ILO, the OECD, civil society and the private sector — to review the employing workers methodology and explore future areas of research. The consultative group completed its work in 2011, and its guidance has provided the basis for several changes in methodology.

Employing Workers Data

Data points and details, 2013 (Excel, 1.2 MB)
Historical data, 2006-2013 (Excel, 256 KB)
Minimum wage data, 2006-2013 (Excel, 64 KB)

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About Doing Business

The data and analysis appearing on this page was collected as part of the Doing Business project, which measures and compares regulations relevant to the life cycle of a small to medium-sized domestic business in 185 economies.

The difficulty of hiring index measures:

Whether fixed-term contracts are prohibited for permanent tasks
The maximum cumulative duration of fixed-term contracts
The ratio of the minimum wage for a trainee or first-time employee to the average value added per worker

The rigidity of hours index has 5 components:

Whether there are restrictions on night work
Whether there are restrictions on weekly holiday work
Whether the workweek can consist of 5.5 days or is more than 6 days
Whether the workweek can extend to 50 hours or more (including overtime) for 2 months a year to respond to a seasonal increase in production
Whether the average paid annual leave for a worker with 1 year of tenure, a worker with 5 years and a worker with 10 years is more than 26 working days or fewer than 15 working days.

The difficulty of redundancy index has 8 components:

Whether redundancy is disallowed as a basis for terminating workers
Whether the employer needs to notify a third party (such as a government agency) to terminate 1 redundant worker
Whether the employer needs to notify a third party to terminate a group of 9 redundant workers
Whether the employer needs approval from a third party to terminate 1 redundant worker
Whether the employer needs approval from a third party to terminate a group of 9 redundant workers
Whether the law requires the employer to reassign or retrain a worker before making the worker redundant
Whether priority rules apply for redundancies
Whether priority rules apply for reemployment.

The redundancy cost indicator measures the cost of advance notice requirements, severance payments and penalties due when terminating a redundant worker, expressed in weeks of salary.

Excel

Economy	Fixed-term contracts prohibited for permanent tasks?	Maximum length of a single fixed-term contract (months)	Maximum length of fixed-term contracts, including renewals (months)	Minimum wage for a 19-year old worker or an apprentice (US$/month)	Ratio of minimum wage to value added per worker
Afghanistan	No	No limit	No limit	0.0	0.0
Albania	Yes	No limit	No limit	196.6	0.4
Algeria	Yes	No limit	No limit	219.1	0.4
Angola	Yes	12 months - Art. 16-(1)-(b).	12	110.6	0.17
Antigua and Barbuda	No	No limit	No limit	569.2	0.36
Argentina	Yes	60	60	508.1	0.4
Armenia	Yes	No Limit	No limit	84.1	0.21
Australia	No	No limit	No limit	1,845.9	0.23
Austria	No	No limit	No limit	723.0	0.12
Azerbaijan	No	60 uniterrupted months (Article 45.5), after expiration of which the contract is turning into an indefite-term contract .	60	101.9	0.17
Bahamas, The	No	The law is silent - no limit	No limit	693.3	0.25
Bahrain	No	No limit	No limit	0.0	0.0
Bangladesh	Yes	No limit	No limit	41.0	0.41
Barbados	No	No limit provied by law - common practice is 6 to 12 months	No limit	0.0	0.0
Belarus	No	60	No limit	208.1	0.31
Belgium	No	No limit	No limit	1,757.4	0.3
Belize	No	2 years, since the worker works in the same city where he lives; hence, he is accompanied by his family (Art. 55(1))	No limit	381.9	0.77
Benin	No	24 - Art. 13	48	65.2	0.54
Bhutan	No	No limit	No limit	0.0	0.0
Bolivia	Yes	12 months (Ministerial Resolution No. 283/62 - June 13, 1962)	24	103.0	0.36
Bosnia and Herzegovina	No	24 (Art. 19, Labor Law of FBiH)	24	393.6	0.7
Botswana	No	No limit	No limit	92.5	0.09
Brazil	Yes	24 (Art. 445)	24	349.4	0.27
Brunei Darussalam	No	No limit	No limit	0.0	0.0
Bulgaria	No	36 - Art. 68 of the Labour Code	36	197.0	0.25
Burkina Faso	No	24 months for the national workers	No limit	66.8	0.74
Burundi	No	No limit	No limit	2.9	0.08
Cambodia	No	24 months	24	43.0	0.4
Cameroon	No	24 months - Art 25(1)a)	48	57.5	0.32
Canada	No	No limit	No limit	1,652.9	0.3
Cape Verde	Yes	60 months (Art. 360)	60	0.0	0.0
Central African Republic	Yes	24	48	39.3	0.56
Chad	No	24 - Arts. 58 et 59	48	119.8	1.08
Chile	No	12 months	24	0.0	0.0
China	No	No limit - after 10 years of work or 2 renewals of fixed-term contracts, provisions of article 14 of the PRC Labor Contract Law apply	No limit	204.2	0.36
Colombia	No	36 - Art. 46, CST	No limit	277.8	0.36
Comoros	No	24	36	0.0	0.0
Congo, Dem. Rep.	Yes	24	48	65.0	2.11
Congo, Rep.	Yes	24	24	92.1	0.27
Costa Rica	Yes	12 months in general; 60 months if the work requires special technical preparation	12	420.4	0.45
Côte d'Ivoire	No	24	24	0.0	0.0
Croatia	Yes	Normally, 36 months is the maximum duration of a fixed-term contract. (Art. 10(2), Labor Act). However, it may last longer if required to replacement a temporary worker or for other objective reasons permitted by law or collective agreement. (Art. 10(3),	36	521.5	0.31
Cyprus	No	There is no maximum.	30	0.0	0.0
Czech Republic	No	36 months - Sec. 39 of Act No. 262/2006 Coll., Labor Code, as amended.	108	440.1	0.2
Denmark	No	No limit	No limit	0.0	0.0
Djibouti	Yes	12	24	0.0	0.0
Dominica	No	No limit	No limit	234.1	0.25
Dominican Republic	Yes	No limit	No limit	277.2	0.4
Ecuador	No	24	24	251.9	0.47
Egypt, Arab Rep.	No	No limit, but employee may terminate after 5 years (Art. 104 Labor Law)	No limit	113.0	0.33
El Salvador	Yes	No limit	No limit	91.7	0.2
Equatorial Guinea	Yes	24 (Art. 7(2))	24	279.0	0.13
Eritrea	Yes	There is not any minimum or maximum duration for fixed-term contract Proclamation 118/2001 Article 11. Duration of Contract of Employment (1) The duration of a contract of employment may be: a. for an indefinite period; or b. for a definite period; o	No limit	0.0	0.0
Estonia	Yes	60 months - Art. 9 (1) New ECA	120	389.5	0.21
Ethiopia	Yes	No limit, with two exceptions: (i) in the case of temporary placement of a worker who has suddenly and permanently vacated from a post and (ii) in the case of temporary placement of a worker to fill a vacant position in the period between the study of the	No limit	0.0	0.0
Fiji	No	N/A - No limit	No Limit	304.2	0.66
Finland	Yes	There is no specific maximum duration for fixed-term employment contracts. (Chap. 1 Sect. 3 - ECA) However, after 60 months a fixed-term contract is subject to the same requirements for termination as an indefinite term contract. (Chap. 6 Sect. 1 - ECA)	60	1,983.8	0.32
France	Yes	18 months; can be extended to 24 months for work abroad or in certain other specific circumstances listed at article L.1242-8 of the Labor Code	18	782.3	0.14
Gabon	No	24	48	66.7	0.06
Gambia, The	No	No limit	No limit	0.0	0.0
Georgia	No	No limit	No limit	21.7	0.06
Germany	No	No maximum duration for fixed-term contract with objective cause; 24 months for fixed-term contract without objective cause (Sect. 14 para. 2 TzBfG)	24	1,126.1	0.2
Ghana	No	No limit	No limit	29.7	0.15
Greece	Yes	36 months	No limit	672.2	0.21
Grenada	Yes	No limit	No limit	355.9	0.39
Guatemala	Yes	No limit; time limit depends only on the duration of the temporary task, on the expiration date or on the occurrence of any event or circumstance (Art.25)	No limit	325.3	0.74
Guinea	No	24	24	0.0	0.0
Guinea-Bissau	Yes	12 (Art. 10(3))	12	0.0	0.0
Guyana	No	No limit	No limit	0.0	0.0
Haiti	No	No limit	No Limit	122.5	1.26
Honduras	Yes	12 months in general; 60 months for work requiring special technical preparation; however, a longer term can only be found to be in violation of the law on the express request of the worker (Art. 47 and 48)	24	396.9	1.44
Hong Kong SAR, China	No	No limit	No limit	0.0	0.0
Hungary	No	60 (Sect. 79(5)) with a derogation if the contract is subject to official approval, in which case the term is that which was officially approved, which may exceed 5 years	60	447.1	0.29
Iceland	No	24 (AFTE)	24	1,527.3	0.35
India	No	No limit	No limit	29.7	0.16
Indonesia	Yes	24 Months extendable for another 12 months (Art. 59 (4)	36	151.1	0.42
Iran, Islamic Rep.	No	No Limit	No limit	344.6	0.47
Iraq	Yes	No limit. Law does not specify a maximum.	No limit	79.7	0.2
Ireland	No	No limit (PEFTWA)	No limit	1,659.3	0.34
Israel	No	No limit	No limit	1,087.8	0.28
Italy	No	44 months - After this period a fixed-term workers aquires the right to a permanent position in the same firm (Art. 4, letter A, Title I, Section IV of the Collective Bargaining Agreement of metal workers)	44	1,787.3	0.4
Jamaica	No	No limit	No limit	210.5	0.32
Japan	No	36	No limit	1,726.9	0.29
Jordan	No	60 (Art. 806 - CC)	No limit	199.6	0.32
Kazakhstan	No	No limit - Art. 29, Labor Code, 2007	No limit	101.4	0.1
Kenya	No	No limit for term contracts (excluding casual employees)	No limit	111.1	0.89
Kiribati	No	36 since worker lives and works in largest city, he would be inherently accompanied by his family (Art. 61(2) - EA)	No limit	0.0	0.0
Korea, Rep.	No	24	24	648.3	0.27
Kosovo	No	No limit	No limit	172.4	0.16
Kuwait	No	60 (Art. 13)	No limit	217.5	0.04
Kyrgyz Republic	Yes	60 - art. 55	60	15.0	0.13
Lao PDR	No	No limit	No limit	72.0	0.48
Latvia	Yes	36 (Sec. 45(1))	36	384.5	0.25
Lebanon	No	No limit but after 24 months worker is treated as indefinite term for purposes of severance pay (Art. 58).	24	432.7	0.39
Lesotho	No	No limit - Section 66 (3) establishes no limitation (in practice, 10 months for permanent tasks and 6 months for temporary tasks are the maximum lengths commonly used)	No limit	105.1	0.61
Liberia	No	Less than 6 months for an oral contract (Sect. 1501 - LPL) 2 years for a written contract (Sect. 1505(1) - LPL [would be 3 years if work were outside Liberia])	No Limit	52.0	1.4
Lithuania	No	60 (5 years x 12 months) (Art. 109(1))	60	307.0	0.21
Luxembourg	Yes	24 months - Art. L. 122-4 (1)	24	2,374.4	0.25
Macedonia, FYR	No	60 (Art. 46(1))	60	168.4	0.3
Madagascar	Yes	24	24	41.4	0.63
Malawi	Yes	No limit	No Limit	28.6	0.52
Malaysia	No	No limit	No limit	0.0	0.0
Maldives	No	24 months (Article 13.g of the new Employment Act 2008)	24	0.0	0.0
Mali	Yes	24	72	14.4	0.14
Malta	No	No limit. However, the law states that a temporary worker shall be considered permanent if (i) the employee has been continuously employed under one or several fixed-term contracts for more than 4 years, and (ii) if the employer cannot provide objective r	48	953.3	0.39
Marshall Islands	No	No limit	No limit	0.0	0.0
Mauritania	No	24 months	24	68.9	0.48
Mauritius	No	No limit	No limit	166.3	0.17
Mexico	Yes	No limit	No limit	121.4	0.1
Micronesia, Fed. Sts.	No	No Limit	No limit	271.7	0.68
Moldova	Yes	60	No limit	87.4	0.38
Mongolia	No	60 (Sect. 25(2)) [If "no limit", please provide the legal basis]	No limit	91.9	0.32
Montenegro	No	Article 24 of the Labor Code states that an employer cannot conclude one or more fixed term contracts with the same employee if their duration, continuously or intermittently, is more than 24 months.	24	294.8	0.34
Morocco	Yes	Article 17 of the Labour Code provides for a maximum period of 12 months	12	272.7	0.74
Mozambique	Yes	24	72	108.6	1.46
Namibia	No	No limit	No limit	0.0	0.0
Nepal	Yes	No limit	No limit	74.7	1
Netherlands	No	36	36	1,036.8	0.17
New Zealand	No	No limit	No limit	1,851.3	0.4
Nicaragua	No	No limit	No limit	137.2	0.86
Niger	Yes	24	24	58.5	0.95
Nigeria	No	No limit	No limit	106.5	0.57
Norway	Yes	No limit, but after 4 years the employee is regarded as a permanent employee, and thus enjoy the same job protection (with respect to termination provisions etc) as an indefinite term employee (Sect 14-9 para 5 WEA).	48	3,893.4	0.35
Oman	No	No limit	No Limit	520.2	0.19
Pakistan	Yes	9 months	9	36.7	0.24
Palau	No	24	No Limit	525.9	0.55
Panama	Yes	12 in general; 36 for work requiring special technical preparation (Art. 74)	12	438.6	0.43
Papua New Guinea	No	For attested (written contracts) 24 months if the employee is unaccompanied by dependants; 36 months if the employee is accompanied. Sect. 22(2) and (4), Employment Act, 1978	No Limit	115.4	0.55
Paraguay	Yes	12 months for laborers; 60 months for employees (Art. 49)	No Limit	198.7	0.5
Peru	Yes	60, as provided for by Article 53° and following, and article 74° of Labor Productivity and Competitiviness Law, T.U.O. of Legislative Decree N° 728 approved by Supreme Decree N° 003-97-TR.	60	253.2	0.35
Philippines	Yes	No limit	No limit	192.5	0.64
Poland	No	No limit. However, if a fixed-term contract is signed for extensive period not justified by objective reason, it may be considered as a breach of the so-called rules of social cohabitation. In consequence, the court may consider the contract as a contract	No limit	390.7	0.27
Portugal	Yes	36 months for fixed term contracts (24 months for new activities/undertakings; 18 months for first time workers) (Art. 148(1)). 72 months for undetermined term contracts.	54	775.6	0.29
Puerto Rico (U.S.)	No	No limit	No Limit	1,256.7	0.57
Qatar	No	60 months (5 years) - art. 40 Labor Law	No limit	0.0	0.0
Romania	Yes	36	36	216.4	0.23
Russian Federation	Yes	60	60	325.6	0.27
Rwanda	No	No limit	No limit	0.0	0.0
Samoa	No	No limit	No Limit	167.5	0.36
São Tomé and Príncipe	Yes	36 - Art. 4(3) of Law No. 6/92	36	0.0	0.0
Saudi Arabia	No	No explicit limit for a single term	No limit	0.0	0.0
Senegal	Yes	24	24	74.6	0.45
Serbia	Yes	12 - Art. 37, Labor Law, 2005	12	203.8	0.29
Seychelles	Yes	No limit when it is linked to the completion of a task, not expressed in units of time where the limit is 6 months. Sect. 19 (2)	No limit	349.8	0.24
Sierra Leone	Yes	12 months - Secs. 8 and 26 of the Employers and Employed Act	No limit	37.3	0.73
Singapore	No	No limit	No limit	0.0	0.0
Slovak Republic	No	36 months (Art. 48(2))	36	447.5	0.24
Slovenia	Yes	24 (Art. 53(2))	24	1,054.8	0.37
Solomon Islands	No	No limit	No limit	111.9	0.69
South Africa	Yes	There is no prescribed maximum duration. The parties can agree on a particular date or a particular event upon the occurrence of which the employment automatically terminates. The length of the contract should relate to the duration of the task which th	No limit	621.6	0.7
Spain	Yes	It depends on the type of fixed-term contract: (i) for a particular task or service, the contract terminates when the service or task is completed with a maximum duration of 36 months (that can be extended up to 12 months if provided in the relevant colle	No limit	1,022.9	0.27
Sri Lanka	No	No limit	No limit	40.2	0.12
St. Kitts and Nevis	No	No limit - There is no legislation on fixed-term contracts.	No limit	501.5	0.31
St. Lucia	No	No limit	No limit	0.0	0.0
St. Vincent and the Grenadines	No	No limit	No Limit	191.2	0.25
Sudan	No	24 - Art. 29(2), Labor Act of 1997	48	75.0	0.26
Suriname	No	No limit	No limit	0.0	0.0
Swaziland	No	No limit	No limit	96.3	0.21
Sweden	No	Fixed term contracts are allowed for permanent and temporary tasks up to 2 years (24 months)	24	0.0	0.0
Switzerland	No	120 months There is no maximum duration. However, a fixed-term contract entered into for more than 10 years can be terminated by each party after 10 years with a notice period of 6 months for the end of a month. In this case, if terminated as soon as it c	120	0.0	0.0
Syrian Arab Republic	No	5 years. (Art. 54, Labor Law of 2010)	60	209.7	0.54
Taiwan, China	Yes	Generally 6 to 12 months, but no limit for a "specified work" contract if the prior approval of the competent authority has been obtained - Art. 6, Enforcement Rules of the Labor Standards Act.	12	621.5	0.26
Tajikistan	Yes	60 months (5 years)- Art. 31, Labor Code	No limit	16.4	0.14
Tanzania	Yes	0 - Not allowed at all for "our worker" (however, no limit for professionals and managerials cadres.) - Sec. 14(1), Employment and Labour Relations Act, 2004	No Limit	52.5	0.61
Thailand	Yes	No limit	No limit	117.9	0.23
Timor-Leste	Yes	36 months, Sec.11.4 Labour Law 4/2012	36	0.0	0.0
Togo	Yes	48	48	71.7	0.88
Tonga	No	No limit	No limit	0.0	0.0
Trinidad and Tobago	No	No limit by law. Generally fixed term contract can be from one month (even less) to as much as five years.	No limit	0.0	0.0
Tunisia	No	48 months including renewals -Art 6-4(2) labor code	48	119.6	0.25
Turkey	Yes	No limit - Art. 11, Labor Law No. 4857, 2003	No limit	529.7	0.41
Uganda	No	No limit	No limit	2.7	0.03
Ukraine	Yes	No limit. (Except for seasonal works where the duration or a single fixed-term contract may not exceed the duration of a season--6 months at the most.)	No limit	119.1	0.32
United Arab Emirates	No	48 months - Article 38 of the Labor Law	No limit	0.0	0.0
United Kingdom	No	No limit, but employees who have worked successive fixed term contracts for a period of four years or more will become permament employees unless the employer can objectively justify the continued use of a fixed term arrangements.	No limit	1,338.2	0.28
United States	No	No limit	No limit	1,245.5	0.21
Uruguay	Yes	There is no legal regulation. However, legal scholars and judges would probably agree that a contract longer than 12 months will not be acceptable, unless there is strong objective need of such term for the employeer and the term is not intended to merely	No limit	355.9	0.23
Uzbekistan	Yes	60	60	34.4	0.18
Vanuatu	No	36 - Art. 15	No limit	264.8	0.65
Venezuela, RB	Yes	1 year for manual laborers; 3 years for skilled laborers and white collar workers - Art. 76, Organic Labor Law	24	301.1	0.2
Vietnam	No	36 - Article 27.1 of Labor Code (as amended 2 April 2002)	72	64.5	0.43
West Bank and Gaza	No	24 months - (Art. 25)	24	0.0	0.0
Yemen, Rep.	No	No limit - Art. 29	No limit	78.9	0.47
Zambia	No	No limit	No limit	75.8	0.4
Zimbabwe	No	No limit	No limit	167.4	1.8

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