Hiring your first employee: the complete 2026 checklist
Registration before the first working day, the real cost of a salary with overhead expenses, and small details that come at a high price.
The first hired employee changes a company more than the first major client. From this moment on, you have monthly deadlines that cannot be missed and documents that are reviewed regardless of your wishes. The good news: the list of these obligations is finite.
Before the first working day
Registration with ÖGK — before work begins, not after. This is the most important item on the entire list: an unregistered employee discovered during an inspection costs more than any other payroll error.
Next — the collective agreement for the sector: it determines the minimum wage, job classification, allowances, and deadlines. You cannot pay less than it requires, even if the employee agrees. And the employment contract or Dienstzettel — in writing, with a description of the position, working hours, and remuneration.
What a salary actually costs
Add approximately thirty percent in overhead to the gross amount: the employer's share of social insurance, the family allowance fund contribution, the chamber surcharge, municipal tax, and the severance fund contribution. In Vienna, a housing surcharge of 1.5 %, split equally between both parties, applies from 2026.
And keep in mind the fourteen payments: the thirteenth and fourteenth salaries in Austria are not a bonus but the norm. The annual budget for a position is fourteen gross salaries plus thirty percent — not twelve.
Calculate the annual cost of a position before posting the vacancy. The worst moment for this arithmetic is after the candidate has said yes.
After hiring
Monthly payroll processing with data submission to ÖGK and Finanzamt. Maintaining the Lohnkonto and recording working hours — these are the items most frequently reviewed. The maximum contribution base for 2026 — € 6,930 per month: everything above this threshold is not subject to contributions.
Small details that come at a high price
A Probemonat is only valid if it is set out in the contract. A fixed-term contract without a valid basis may be reclassified. Annual leave accrues from the first day, not from the end of the year. And from 2026, combining marginal earnings with unemployment benefits is no longer permitted — this should be verified with the candidate from the outset.
The first hire is almost always worth handling with an accountant — not because it is complicated, but because the cost of the first mistake in this area is measured in more than hundreds of euros.
We work with small business owners in Vienna — from a first Gewerbe to steady growth. This rubric collects the decisions our clients actually had to make.