Macau PEO Solutions

Overview

Macau is an autonomous territory and a Special Administrative Region of China, located in the country’s Southeastern coast. It is a free port that benefits from its openness to global trade and foreign investments. The importance of foreign trade is reflected in the combined value of Macau’s imports and exports, which is equal to 110% of its GDP. The most prominent industries are tourism, gambling, banking, construction and media.

Currency: Macanese Pataca

Principal Languages: Chinese, Portuguese

Government: China’s Special Administrative Region Headed by a Chief Executive

Capital City: Beijing (as Macau is China’s Special Administrative Region)

Employment Contracts

An important principle of employment legislation in Macau is that an employment contract is void if it offers lesser benefits than the minimum standard set by the law. The minimum age at which someone can start working is 18 years old. However, minors ages 16-18, and even 14-16, are allowed to work under certain conditions.

It is not mandatory to have a written employment contract, except when employing minors or working under a fixed term contract. A probation period of 90 days is allowed, which can be increased to 180 days for managerial posts. In case of fixed-term contracts, the probationary period is only 30 days.

Work/Time Regulations

Regular work hours are restricted to 8 hours a day and 48 hours in a week. Daily limit may go up to 12 hours, but the weekly limit still needs to be maintained. Any change in the work schedule can be implemented only with mutual agreement.

Overtime
Overtime work is remunerated in Macau at the rate of 20% additional payment. However, the employer is allowed to force their employees to work up to 16 hours if the plant is facing significant losses, and up to 12 hours if there is an unprecedented spike in the volume of work. Overtime payment in these cases is 50% extra plus compensatory rest. Employees are also entitled to additional pay for night shifts.

Leave

Holidays
The 10 mandatory public holidays in Macau include:

• New Year's Day
• Lunar New Year Day
• Second day of Lunar New Year
• Third day of Lunar New Year
• Cheng Ming Festival
• Labour Day
• The day after the Mid-Autumn Festival (Chong Chao Festival)
• National Day of the People's Republic of China
• Chong Yeong Festival
• Macau Special Administrative Region Establishment Day

Annual Leave
An employee gets 7 days of paid annual leave after completing 12 months of employment under a continuous contract.

An employee's eligibility for paid annual leave increases progressively up to 14 days according to his/her duration of service as given below:

Sick Leave
Employees are eligible for fully paid 6 days of leave due to sickness after completing the probationary period.

Maternity Leave
All permanent female employees are eligible for 56 days of maternity leave. Women employees need to take 49 out of the 56 days’ leave right after the confinement, and the days left may be taken together or separately, before or after confinement, as the employees want. When a female employee needs to take a part of her maternity leave prior to confinement, she needs to notify the line manager about this at least 5 days earlier.

Paternity Leave
Male employees are eligible for 2 days of paternity leave that they need to take within 2 weeks before or after their spouse’s date of confinement.

Other Leaves:

• 2 days of adoption leave after the probationary period is over.
• 6 days of marriage leave after the probationary period is over.
• 3 days of compassionate leave on the demise of a parent, spouse or children.

Benefits

Employers need to contribute 60 patacas while employees (permanent or temporary but working more than 15 days a month), need to pay 30 patacas to the Social Security Fund (FSS) of Macau. In case of casual workers who work less than 15 days in a month, the employer needs to pay 30 patacas while the employee pays 15 patacas to the fund.

Old-age Pension
The Social Security Fund of Macau pays 3,450 patacas to a person who qualifies under the following conditions:

• He/she has reached the age 65 or is 60 years of age and shows signs of premature decline in health.
• He/she has been a resident of Macau for a minimum of 7 years.
• He/she has made a minimum 60 months of contributions.

Early Old-age Pension
After reaching the age of 60, employees in Macau are eligible for an early old-age pension, provided they meet the conditions of residency and have made 60 months of contributions. The amount of early old-age pension is calculated by considering the number of actual contributions, a percentage assigned to the employee’s age, a specified early pension amount and the maximum amount of old-age pension.

Disability Pension
A person is eligible for the disability pension of 3,450 patacas after making contributions for 36 months, being resident in Macau for 7 years, and meeting certain medical conditions.

Sickness Allowance
In cases of hospitalization, an employee is eligible for a sickness allowance of 138 patacas per day for not more than 180 days a year. In non-hospitalization cases, the same is 104 patacas per day. The qualifying conditions for this allowance include 9 or more contributions to the social security fund in the preceding 12 months.

How GPS can Help

With our Global PEO/Employer of Record services, companies can expand into Macau and hire their employees without having to establish a branch office or subsidiary in Macau.

• Your candidate is hired via our Macau PEO. If needed, we can also help you find the right talent in any country with our comprehensive global staffing services.
• Your new employee begins work quickly as we take care of employment contracts, statutory and non-statutory benefits, and running their payroll - all in full compliance with Macau laws.
• Global PEO Services experts manage all day-to-day operational issues such as employee expenses, and severance/termination if required.
• With no contractor risks, pass on the compliance burden to Global PEO Services.

Spin Off/M&A Support

• Ensure continuity of payroll, benefits and HR support when acquiring or spinning off a business with employees overseas.

24/7 Support in 150+ Countries

• Empower your teams with 24/7 support and a single point-of-contact model in which experienced client services directors are in continuous communication with information and advice.
• We are backed by a mix of 300+ multidisciplinary experts from HR, Payroll, Finance, Tax, and Legal domains who are ready to respond to the expected and unexpected needs of your business on the shortest notice.

Easy Visibility into Your Employee Time & Attendance and Benefits Data
With our Global PEO, you get access to Mihi, our proprietary SaaS solution for time and attendance, vacation, leave management and benefits enrollment and management. Mihi enables clients to have easy access to employee data in real time. It is designed specifically for companies with a global workforce, especially when working in multiple countries with low headcount.

Ready for Growth When You Are
When ready, we can seamlessly transition you from the PEO/EOR model to your own legal entity and provide ongoing international HR, finance, legal, compliance and staffing support. Learn more about our end-to-end international expansion services.