Hire in the Philippines.Skip the entity.
We employ your chosen people through our Philippine entity, usually within days. You direct the work; we carry the contracts, payroll, statutory contributions and labour-law exposure.
25+
Years in the Philippines
10K+
Companies served
200+
Local team members
3
Languages supported
What is an Employer of Record?
It is a company that becomes the legal employer of your staff on your behalf. The employment contract, the payroll and the filings sit with the EOR. The work, and the decisions about it, stay with you.
It is not outsourcing and it is not recruitment. Nobody else takes over the job — the person you picked does the job you hired them for. What changes is whose name is on the paperwork, and who answers to the SEC, BIR and DOLE for it.
You
The client company
- Choose who to hire and what to pay them
- Direct the day-to-day work
- Set targets, review performance
- Own the commercial relationship
Starlight
The Employer of Record
- Employs the person through our Philippine entity
- Runs payroll and withholds the right taxes
- Registers and remits SSS, PhilHealth, Pag-IBIG
- Carries the statutory and labour-law exposure
Your hire
The employee
- Holds a compliant Philippine employment contract
- Receives statutory benefits and 13th month pay
- Works to your direction and priorities
- Is covered by Philippine labour protections
What we carry for you
Employing someone in the Philippines means a monthly cycle of registrations, contributions and filings, each with its own agency and deadline. Under an EOR arrangement these become our responsibility, not yours.
| Obligation | Employer share | Detail |
|---|---|---|
| SSSSocial Security System | 10% of monthly salary credit | Total contribution is 15%, split 10% employer / 5% employee, on a salary credit of ₱5,000–₱35,000. |
| PhilHealthNational health insurance | 2.5% of monthly basic salary | 5% total, halved between employer and employee, with a ₱10,000 floor and ₱100,000 ceiling. |
| Pag-IBIGHome Development Mutual Fund | 2% of fund salary | Employer share on a fund salary capped at ₱10,000. |
| ECEmployees' Compensation | ₱10–₱30 per month | Employer-only contribution for work-related injury and illness cover. |
| 13th monthMandatory 13th month pay | 1/12 of annual basic salary | Required by Presidential Decree 851 for rank-and-file staff, payable on or before 24 December. |
| BIRWithholding tax | Withheld and remitted monthly | Plus annualisation, BIR Form 2316, and the year-end alphalist. |
Rates and thresholds reflect the schedules in force in 2026 and are revised periodically by the agencies concerned. We confirm the current figures against the applicable circulars for your specific headcount and salary bands before anything is signed.
Your people work for you. On paper, they work for us — and that is the whole point.
You keep the hiring decision, the priorities and the performance conversation. We take the part that makes employing someone here complicated: the contract, the payroll, the six agencies and the deadlines that come with them.
- You decide
- Who to hire, what to pay, what they work on
- We employ
- Contract, payroll, contributions, filings
- Nobody waits
- No entity registration before day one
EOR or your own entity?
Neither is automatically right. It depends on how committed you are to the market, how fast you need people, and whether you will earn revenue locally. Here is the honest comparison.
| Employer of Record | Your own entity | |
|---|---|---|
| Time to first hire | Days | Two to four months, typically |
| Upfront capital | None | Paid-in capital, registration and professional fees |
| Who signs the contract | Our Philippine entity | Your new subsidiary |
| SEC, BIR and LGU registration | Already done | Yours to complete and maintain |
| Statutory filings | We file | Your finance team or retained agent |
| Ongoing overhead | One monthly fee per employee | Bookkeeping, audit, renewals, statutory reporting |
| Exit if it does not work out | End the service agreement | Formal dissolution, which takes months |
| Best when | Testing a market, hiring a small team, moving quickly | Committed long-term presence, local revenue, scale |
If you decide the entity is the right answer, that is work we do too — company registration is one of our core services, and plenty of clients start on an EOR and move across once registration completes.
EOR, PEO, staffing — not the same thing
These get used interchangeably in sales conversations. The difference matters, because it decides who is liable when something goes wrong.
Employer of Record
Becomes the legal employer of your chosen hire. You need no local entity. Compliance, payroll and statutory liability sit with the EOR.
PEO / co-employment
Shares employer duties with you. It generally assumes you already have a registered local entity, and liability stays partly yours.
Staffing or recruitment
Finds and places candidates, then steps back. Sourcing is the service; the employment relationship and its obligations are not. We offer this too — separately, or paired with the EOR.
How it works
- 1
Scope the roles
We look at the positions, salaries and locations you have in mind, then confirm what Philippine law requires for each — classification, benefits, and anything role-specific.
- 2
Paper it properly
You sign a service agreement with us. We issue each hire a compliant Philippine employment contract that reflects your terms and satisfies DOLE requirements.
- 3
Register and onboard
We enrol every employee with SSS, PhilHealth, Pag-IBIG and the BIR, set up payroll, and get them working on your schedule.
- 4
Run it month to month
Payroll, payslips, contributions, withholding and year-end filings happen on time. You get one consolidated invoice and a named contact.
When an EOR is the right call
Testing the market first
You want two or three people in Manila before committing to a subsidiary you may not need.
One hire does not justify an entity
A single engineer, accountant or account manager is not worth the cost of incorporating and maintaining a company.
The timeline will not wait
A client win or project start date lands before an SEC registration could realistically complete.
Keeping someone you already found
Your preferred candidate is in the Philippines and you have no lawful way to put them on payroll yet.
Entity registration is in progress
You are incorporating anyway, but need people working now. We employ them and transfer across when you are ready.
Winding a presence down
You are closing a local entity but must retain a few roles through the transition.
Roles we employ
The arrangement is not role-specific — if a position can lawfully be filled by a Philippine employee, we can employ it. These are the sectors we see most.
- Technology & software
- Finance & accounting
- Shared services & BPO
- Manufacturing & supply chain
- Logistics & freight
- Construction & engineering
- Education & training
- Retail & e-commerce
Built for cross-border hiring
Most people who need an EOR are not in the Philippines. We work across English, Filipino and Chinese, with teams on both the Philippine and China sides, so the entity employing your staff and the people explaining the rules to you are the same firm.
That matters when a question is genuinely local — why a benefit is mandatory, how a termination has to be handled, what an agency will actually accept.
Common questions
Do I need a Philippine company to use an EOR?
No. That is the point of the arrangement. Your hires are employed through our existing Philippine entity, so you can have people working legally here without registering a company of your own.
Who is the legal employer?
We are, on paper. Starlight signs the employment contract, runs payroll and carries the statutory obligations. You keep full control of the work itself — what gets done, how, and to what standard.
How is this different from a staffing agency?
A staffing agency's service is finding candidates. An EOR's service is employing them compliantly. If you already know who you want to hire, the EOR on its own is what you need — and if you do not, we run recruitment as well, so you can take the search and the employment together.
Can I move employees to my own entity later?
Yes, and it is a common path. Clients often use an EOR while incorporating, then transfer staff to their own entity once SEC and BIR registration completes. We handle the transition so continuity of employment and benefits is preserved.
What am I still responsible for?
Commercial decisions and the work. You choose who to hire, agree their pay, direct their tasks and manage performance. We take on the compliance machinery underneath that.
Does an EOR work for a single employee?
Yes. One hire is one of the most common reasons companies come to us — the cost of incorporating for a single role rarely makes sense.
Tell us who you want to hire
Send us the roles, the salaries and where the people sit. We will come back with what it costs, what the law requires, and whether an EOR or your own entity is genuinely the better route.
Get in touch