Category
Global Payroll
Global payroll is what you use when you have your own legal entities in multiple countries and need a single system to process payroll across all of them. The provider calculates salaries, deducts taxes, files statutory returns, and disburses payments in local currencies. You remain the employer.
The provider is the processor.
If you do not have your own entities, you need an Employer of Record instead. The distinction matters because the cost difference is dramatic: $25-29/employee/month for global payroll versus $399-699/month for EOR.
Most companies use both : EOR in countries where they are early-stage and global payroll in countries where they have established entities.
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How does global payroll work?
In our assessment of how global payroll operates in practice, we find the division of responsibility between provider and client is the most commonly misunderstood element: the provider processes payroll, but labour law compliance and employment decisions remain the client’s responsibility.
Your company establishes a legal entity in the target country. You hire employees directly through that entity.
A global payroll provider processes the payroll: calculating gross-to-net pay, withholding income tax and employee social contributions, calculating employer contributions, filing statutory returns with local tax authorities, and disbursing net pay to employees’ bank accounts.
The provider handles the calculations and filings. You handle the employment relationship: contracts, benefits, HR management, and compliance with local labour law.
This division of responsibility is the key difference from EOR, where the provider handles both.
When does global payroll make sense for your business?
We find the entity consolidation case is often the most compelling justification internally: replacing five separate local payroll relationships with one system, one invoice, and one reporting layer is a Finance argument, not just an IT one.
Global payroll makes sense when you have established entities and enough employees in each country to justify the entity maintenance cost.
15+ employees in a single country. Below 15, EOR is typically cheaper because the entity setup ($50,000-$150,000) and maintenance ($10,000-$30,000/year) exceeds the EOR platform fee saving.
Above 15, the saving of $370-$670/employee/month versus EOR pays back the entity investment within 6-15 months.
You need direct control over the employment relationship. With global payroll, you are the employer. You control the contracts, the benefits, the HR policies, and the termination process.
This matters when your compliance team, your board, or your insurer requires direct legal control over employment in key markets.
You are consolidating multiple local payroll providers. If you run separate payroll providers in 5+ countries, the reconciliation overhead is real.
A global payroll provider replaces those separate relationships with one system, one invoice, and one reporting layer.
The consolidation value is not just cost: it is the day per month your Finance team gets back from reconciliation.
What are the alternatives to global payroll?
In our assessment of the local-provider-per-country model, we find reconciliation overhead scales non-linearly with country count: manageable at two countries, unwieldy at five, and genuinely disruptive to Finance close cycles at ten.
EOR. For countries where you do not have an entity or your headcount is below 15.
Costs $399-699/month but eliminates the entity requirement. See global payroll vs EOR for the transition framework.
Local payroll providers. Country-specific payroll services that handle one market each. Cheaper per country than a global provider, but the coordination overhead multiplies with every country you add.
Works well for 1-2 countries. Becomes unwieldy at 5+.
In-house payroll. Running your own payroll team with local expertise in each country. Only practical for large enterprises with dedicated payroll staff.
The compliance risk of getting it wrong in a single country usually outweighs the cost saving.
Which global payroll providers should you evaluate?
We assessed four providers across pricing, setup fees, native processing engines, and EOR-to-entity transition capability to produce these recommendations.
For deepest financial reporting: Papaya Global ($25/month). Payments infrastructure, workforce analytics, and consolidated financial reporting built for CFOs. Best when Finance is the primary stakeholder.
For EOR-to-entity transition: Deel ($29/month + $1,000/entity) or Remote ($29/month). Both offer EOR and global payroll on one platform. Best when you are transitioning employees from EOR to your own entity.
For native UK payroll: Rippling. One of 7 markets where Rippling processes payroll in-house. Best for US-headquartered companies with UK entities.
For competitive pricing: Oyster ($25/month, 26-28 countries). Lowest per-employee rate alongside Papaya. Narrower country coverage than Deel or Papaya.
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What does global payroll typically cost?
$25-$200/employee/month depending on provider and country. Deel and Remote charge $29/month.
Papaya and Oyster charge $25/month. Rippling’s pricing is quote-based (~$200/month reported for global payroll). Setup fees range from $0 (Remote) to $1,000/entity (Deel) to quote-based (Papaya, Rippling).
The cost is a fraction of EOR, but the comparison must include entity setup and maintenance: $50,000-$150,000 per country to establish, plus $10,000-$30,000/year to maintain. At 15 employees, the total cost (entity + payroll) is still lower than EOR.
Below 15, it usually is not.
Payroll deadline tracker
When are payroll filing deadlines worldwide?
Filter by country, obligation type, and frequency to find the deadlines that matter for your team.
Frequently asked questions
What is the cheapest global payroll provider?
Papaya Global and Oyster at $25/employee/month are the cheapest per-employee rates. Deel and Remote charge $29/month. Deel adds a $1,000/entity setup fee; Remote does not publish one.
For a 50-employee operation across 5 countries, the annual payroll processing cost is $15,000-$17,400 depending on provider.
Can you use global payroll without your own entity?
No. Global payroll processes payroll through your own legal entity. If you do not have an entity in the target country, you need an Employer of Record (EOR) instead.
EOR costs $399-699/employee/month but eliminates the entity requirement. Most companies use both models: EOR in countries where they are early-stage and global payroll where they have established entities.
How is global payroll different from EOR?
Global payroll processes payroll through your own entity : you are the employer. EOR employs people through the provider’s entity: the provider is the employer. Global payroll costs $25-29/month.
EOR costs $399-699/month. The price difference reflects the legal employer role that EOR includes and global payroll does not. See global payroll vs EOR for the full comparison.