India's employer social security cost lands at 16.25% on top of gross salary, and for that you're covering a provident fund, a pension scheme, deposit-linked insurance, and state health insurance for lower-wage workers. That's a real bundle of statutory protections built into every employment relationship, not optional extras. The labour force here is enormous, over 617 million people, so talent access is rarely the problem. The compliance layer is where foreign employers need to pay attention.
Running payroll through an Employer of Record (EOR) in India means monthly pay cycles, a mandatory 13th-month salary, and 12 days of paid annual leave per year as the statutory floor. The minimum wage sits at 4,628 INR per month at the national reference level, though actual rates vary by state and sector, so your EOR needs to track the right floor for each worker's location. With a 48-hour statutory work week and a retirement age of 58, the framework is well-defined once you know where to look.
