When hiring talent, if you determine the talent in your engagement is best classified as an employee (rather than an independent contractor), we offer the Upwork Payroll service through a trusted, third-party Employer of Record (EOR) . In such cases, the talent will become an employee of an EOR and be assigned to you for the purposes of the project.
Hourly and salaried assignments are available through Upwork Payroll; fixed-price contracts are not supported through this service. This article refers to Upwork Payroll hiring in the U.S. Go here to learn more about international hiring with Upwork Payroll.
Our EOR service provider will employ the talent in compliance with country or locale-specific laws and handle the administration of the talent’s employment.
When hiring U.S.-based talent as employees, the EOR will:
- Enter into an employment agreement with the talent
- Manage the talent’s pay
- Maintain workers’ compensation insurance coverage for the talent
- Administer payroll taxes
- Provide legally mandated benefits (e.g., as required by the Affordable Care Act)) as well as voluntary benefit offerings
As the client receiving work from the EOR service provider’s employee you’re responsible for:
- Directing the talent’s day-to-day work on your project
- Complying with laws prohibiting workplace discrimination and harassment
- Providing a physically safe and harassment-free working environment
- Allowing the talent to take legally-required breaks or leave
Important:
You must not start work until the employee completes onboarding with their employer (the EOR service provider). This can include background checks and other steps required by law or by the employer. The EOR will also provide the talent with any legally required notices or benefits information and help the talent set up their account for timekeeping and pay. On average, the onboarding process for U.S. based talent takes 3-5 business days to complete. Legal compliance and payments to talent for any work that happens before that process is finished will be your company’s responsibility.
We will notify you once onboarding is complete. You can then seamlessly communicate with the talent through the Upwork platform to share details about the work to be done and align on scheduling, timelines, and work product expectations.
Timekeeping will occur between the employee and their employer using the employer’s time tracking tools where applicable. The contract on Upwork will be "paused" to prevent duplicate reporting.
Upwork Payroll is generally available for engagements involving administrative or professional work or responsibilities but cannot be used to support engagements requiring talent to perform more physical or dangerous duties like manual labor, operating heavy equipment, or driving. Learn more about how Upwork Payroll can help your business here. Enterprise clients can contact their account representatives for more information.
Frequently Asked Questions
As the client, you will pay a 23% service fee for Upwork Payroll engagements, calculated from the total bill rate. This means your talent will receive 77% of that bill rate as their gross wages.
You’ll also be responsible for any additional costs for items you require or that are required by law, such as overtime premium pay, expense reimbursements, and paid sick leave. Typically, health care premiums are cost-shared between the employee and EOR. However, in some cases, you may be responsible for reimbursing the EOR for the employer’s portion of the insurance cost.
An Employer of Record (EOR) is an organization that legally employs workers on behalf of another business, taking on the responsibility for all legal and administrative employment tasks. This includes handling paying workers, payroll taxes, benefits, and compliance with local labor laws. The EOR provides a comprehensive, compliant solution that allows businesses to hire and manage workers in different regions without the need to set up a local entity or navigate complex employment regulations directly.
Unless you are notified otherwise before work starts, talent employed by an EOR will be eligible for overtime pay. Overtime varies by location, but in most U.S. states it applies to hours worked over 40 in a week. Should you have questions regarding overtime in Upwork Payroll engagements, please contact upworkpayroll@upwork.com.
For contracts with talent based in the U.S., you can view the hours worked and payments from your Upwork account by going to Manage Work > Timesheet and choose a date range to see entries.
Upwork is here to help you resolve issues. Please contact Upwork immediately at payrollspecialist@upwork.com if:
- You’re concerned with the employee’s work performance, so we can help facilitate a resolution between you and the employer
- Your talent alerts you (or you become aware) of a need for a leave of absence or disability accommodation so we can be a conduit of a compliant reasonable accommodation process as directed by the employer
All contractual requests including ending or modifying a contract should be emailed to upworkpayroll-us-specialist@upwork.com Typically, to end a U.S.-based Upwork Payroll assignment, you’ll need to provide at least 72 hours notice. This allows the Employer of Record (EOR) to comply with any termination requirements, such as state laws governing final paychecks or termination paperwork. The notice period for assignments outside the U.S. can vary from country to country.
You can see your Upwork Payroll service fee as a line item on your invoices and in your transaction history.