How to hire employees in Australia through an employer of record (EOR) [2025]

Hiring in Australia? Foreign employers keen on tapping into the country’s skilled workforce can start by hiring Australian contractors and sending international payments. But if you want to expand and hire full-time employees, you’ll need to establish a legal entity or hire through an EOR.

Registering a legal entity can take months. Once established, it requires knowledge of complex Australian employment laws. Any misstep can incur fines and legal action from the Australian Taxation Office (ATO), the Australian Government’s Fair Work Commission, and other state and territorial authorities.

Alternatively, you can use an “employer of record” (EOR), which handles Australian payroll, tax, and compliance considerations. Through Rippling EOR’s entities, you can start hiring and working with employees in Australia quickly and compliantly.Learn more about What is an Employer of Record (EOR)?

Here’s a step-by-step guide for hiring through an EOR in Australia.

Step by step: How to hire through an employer of record in Australia

Step #1: Decide between an Australian EOR and a legal entity

Should you hire Australian employees through an EOR, or set up your own entity? This depends on your company’s resources, size, and plans to scale.

• Legal entity in Australia. Setting up a legal entity from scratch usually requires registration with local authorities, opening a local bank account, and consulting with local experts to ensure compliance with tax and labor laws.

• Australian EOR. An EOR is a third-party service that operates as an employer on a company’s behalf—meaning you don’t need to set up your own entity. As well as allowing you to hire full-time Australian employees, EORs handle all the legal requirements for complying with Australian laws for payroll, contracts, and benefits. EOR services also include calculating and withholding taxes, onboarding and managing employees, and running payroll.

Step #2: How to choose the best EOR for your business

Several EORs on the market—including Deel, Papaya Global, and Rippling—can help hire, pay, and manage Australian employees. Before you choose a platform, you should consider the services you will need, and how much you plan to grow your global hiring presence.

Most EOR platforms are not HRIS's (human resource information systems). They were built with the express purpose to hire and pay people internationally. They aggregate local payroll providers in every country and manually transmit your payroll files to them. This approach comes with many limitations.

All-in-one global HR platforms, like Rippling, allow you to hire, pay, and manage employees and contractors worldwide. They are also “payroll processors,” which means they process your payroll, transmit funds, and calculate and file taxes in every country through their own software. This allows you to manage and automate the entire employee journey in one place, all around the world.

Normally, setting up a corporate entity abroad is a long, expensive process. But through Rippling EOR’s entities, you can start hiring and working with people abroad quickly and compliantly.

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Step #3: How to hire and onboard your Australian employees

Once you’ve picked an EOR that works in Australia, you can begin the onboarding process by collecting the following information from your new employees:

• Name (matching the account where you’ll deposit their pay).

• Date of birth and date of hire.

• Contact information, including their mailing address in Australia.

• Bank account information.

• Amount to be paid in Australian dollars (including any bonuses).

• Completed Tax File Number (TFN) declaration forms, which every employee needs to fill out to determine withholdings.

Next, you need to send out an employment agreement that outlines key working conditions. An EOR can automatically localize and distribute employment agreements. Every Australian hire will have a legally compliant contract offering statutory requirements for probationary periods, working hours, national minimum wage, modern award coverage, benefits, and termination policies like severance pay and notice periods.

Rippling EOR automatically flags non-compliant sick leave policies and tells you how to fix them. If you'd like to give your employees more leave to match policies in other countries, you can do that too.

Step #4: Run payroll

For the A-to-Z on global payroll, read our comprehensive guide to running international payroll for employees in Australia.

Once you’ve collected a new hire’s information and both parties have signed employment agreements, an EOR will pay your Australian employees in AUD, while withholding legally required taxes from salaries. This includes contributions to:

• Superannuation funds

• Employee taxes

• Healthcare (if applicable)

• Payroll taxes

• Workers’ compensation insurance

Keep in mind many EOR companies are payroll aggregators, meaning they pay employees via third-party vendors. This makes for slower processing times and headaches when it comes to managing international employees under the same system.

Rippling EOR, by contrast, simplifies global employment by using native payroll software to send funds and handle taxes, allowing you to pay Australian employees alongside your local workforce—all within a single pay run.

Below is a preview of how Rippling’s one-click global payroll system works:

Frequently asked questions about hiring through an EOR in Australia