AUG (Authorized User Group) Certified
IND Recognised Sponsor
Nasscom Certified
SNA Certified
Nasscom Certified
The global employment glossary
Plain-language definitions of the EOR, PEO, payroll, and compliance terms that come up when you hire and pay people across borders. Pick a term to read the full explainer.
What Is a Foreign Employer?
A company that employs workers in a country where it is not incorporated or does not have a local legal entity.
Read definitionWhat Is a Professional Employer Organization (PEO)?
A PEO co-employs your workforce where you already have a legal entity, taking over payroll, benefits, and HR admin.
Read definitionWhat Is an Employer of Record (EOR)?
An EOR legally employs workers on your behalf in countries where you have no entity, so you can hire without incorporating.
Read definitionWhat Is an Independent Contractor?
A self-employed individual providing services under a commercial agreement rather than an employment contract.
Read definitionWhat Is Direct Employment?
A hiring model where a company employs workers through its own legal entity and assumes full responsibility for the employment relationship.
Read definitionWhat Is Global Payroll?
The process of paying employees across multiple countries while complying with each country's tax, payroll, and employment regulations.
Read definitionWhat Is Worker Misclassification?
When a company classifies a worker under the wrong legal employment status — most commonly treating an employee as an independent contractor.
Read definitionWhat Is Workforce Mobility?
A company's ability to move employees across countries or locations while remaining compliant with local immigration, tax, payroll, and employment regulations.
Read definitionWhat Is an Employer of Record vs PEO?
An EOR becomes the full legal employer to hire without an entity, while a PEO co-employs your workforce where you already have one.
Read definitionWhat Is an Employer Entity?
The legally recognized organization responsible for employing workers, meeting payroll obligations, and complying with local labor laws.
Read definitionWhat Is a Subsidiary?
A legal entity owned or controlled by a parent company, incorporated separately under the laws of the country where it operates.
Read definitionWhat Is a Legal Entity?
A company or organization formally registered in a country, giving it the legal right to employ workers and operate there.
Read definitionWhat Is a Contingent Workforce?
Workers a company engages on a non-permanent basis — contractors, freelancers, temporary staff, and EOR-employed professionals.
Read definitionWhat Is Staff Augmentation?
A staffing model where a company temporarily adds external professionals, employed by an agency, to fill skill gaps or scale for a project.
Read definitionWhat Is a Branch Office?
An extension of a parent company operating in another country without forming a separate legal entity.
Read definitionWhat Is a Joint Committee?
A sector-level body in Belgium where employers and unions negotiate binding wage and working-condition agreements for an entire industry.
Read definitionWhat Is Belgian Employment Law?
The statutory and sector-level rules governing employment contracts, dismissal, wages, and working conditions in Belgium.
Read definitionWhat Is Belgian Holiday Pay?
Two statutory entitlements: single holiday pay, continued salary during leave, and double holiday pay, a supplement of roughly 92% of gross monthly salary paid once a year.
Read definitionWhat Is Belgian Payroll Tax?
The combination of professional withholding tax and mandatory social security contributions that employers deduct from gross salary and remit to Belgian authorities.
Read definitionWhat Is Dimona?
The mandatory electronic declaration Belgian employers must submit to the NSSO before an employee starts working and again when the employment ends.
Read definitionWhat Is the National Social Security Office (NSSO)?
The Belgian government body (ONSS/RSZ) that collects social security contributions from employers and employees and administers Belgium's social insurance system.
Read definitionWhat Are Standard Contractual Clauses (SCCs)?
Pre-approved European Commission contract templates that let companies lawfully transfer personal data from the EU to countries outside the EEA under GDPR.
Read definitionWhat Is a Data Processing Agreement (DPA)?
A mandatory GDPR contract between a data controller and a data processor that governs how personal data is processed, secured, and kept compliant.
Read definitionWhat Is a Sub-processor?
A third party engaged by a data processor to handle personal data on its behalf, bound under GDPR to the same data protection obligations as the primary processor.
Read definitionWhat Is Cross-Border Payroll?
Paying employees who work in a different country from where their employer is legally established, coordinating tax withholding, social security, and reporting in each jurisdiction.
Read definitionWhat Is GDPR?
The EU's core data protection law, setting rules for how organizations collect, process, store, and protect the personal data of individuals in the EU.
Read definitionWhat Is Permanent Establishment?
A tax concept describing a level of ongoing business activity in a country significant enough to create a taxable presence there, even without a formal legal entity.
Read definitionWhat Is the EU Blue Card?
A work and residence permit for highly qualified non-EU/EEA professionals hired by employers within the European Union, subject to a country-specific salary threshold.
Read definitionWhat Is the EU Pay Transparency Directive?
EU legislation requiring employers to disclose pay information to candidates and employees and report gender pay gap data once headcount thresholds are met.
Read definitionWhat Is the Posted Workers Directive?
EU legislation governing employees temporarily sent by their employer to work in another EU member state, requiring host-country protections including equal pay.
Read definitionWhat Is the Whistleblower Directive?
EU legislation requiring companies with 50 or more employees in a member state to maintain a confidential internal reporting channel for breaches of EU law.
Read definitionWhat Is a German GmbH?
A German private limited liability company (Gesellschaft mit beschränkter Haftung), the most common legal entity structure for operating and hiring employees in Germany.
Read definitionWhat Is Arbeitnehmerüberlassung?
Employee leasing: the German practice where a staffing agency employs a worker directly but assigns them to work under the direction of a separate client company.
Read definitionWhat Is AÜG?
The German law (Arbeitnehmerüberlassungsgesetz) that regulates how companies can legally supply and hire temporary workers through staffing agencies.
Read definitionWhat Is Betriebsrat?
The German works council: an elected employee representation body with co-determination rights over working conditions, hiring, and dismissals under the Works Constitution Act.
Read definitionWhat Is German Payroll Tax?
The combined system of wage tax (Lohnsteuer) and mandatory social security contributions (Sozialversicherung) that employers withhold and remit to German authorities.
Read definitionWhat Is Kündigungsschutz?
Germany's statutory dismissal protection, requiring employers to have a socially justified reason before terminating employees once company size and tenure thresholds are met.
Read definitionWhat Is Lohnsteuer?
Germany's wage tax, withheld directly from an employee's salary by the employer and remitted monthly to the tax office as an advance on annual income tax.
Read definitionWhat Is Sozialversicherung?
Germany's mandatory social insurance system covering pension, health, long-term care, unemployment, and workplace accident protection, split roughly equally between employer and employee.
Read definitionWhat Is a CAO?
A collective labour agreement (collectieve arbeidsovereenkomst) negotiated between employers and trade unions in the Netherlands, setting binding employment terms.
Read definitionWhat Is a Dutch BV?
A Dutch private limited liability company (besloten vennootschap), the most common legal entity structure used to operate and hire employees in the Netherlands.
Read definitionWhat Is an IND Recognised Sponsor?
A company officially approved by the Dutch Immigration and Naturalisation Service (IND) to sponsor residence and work permits for foreign employees.
Read definitionWhat Is Belastingdienst?
The Dutch Tax and Customs Administration responsible for collecting income tax, payroll tax, VAT, and social security contributions in the Netherlands.
Read definitionWhat Is Dutch Employment Law?
The body of statutory rules governing employment contracts, dismissal procedures, wages, and working conditions in the Netherlands.
Read definitionWhat Is Dutch Payroll Tax?
Dutch payroll tax (loonheffing): the combined system of wage tax and social security contributions that employers withhold from salary and remit to the Belastingdienst.
Read definitionWhat Is Dutch Social Security?
The combined national insurance and employee insurance system that funds pensions, healthcare, unemployment benefits, and disability support in the Netherlands.
Read definitionWhat Is Holiday Allowance?
A statutory Dutch payment (vakantiegeld) equal to at least 8% of an employee's gross annual salary, typically paid once a year in May or June.
Read definitionWhat Is the 30% Ruling?
A Dutch tax facility allowing employers to pay up to 30% of a qualifying international employee's gross salary as a tax-free allowance.
Read definitionWhat Is the Highly Skilled Migrant Programme?
A Dutch immigration route that lets IND recognised sponsors hire skilled non-EU professionals, qualifying mainly on an age-based minimum gross monthly salary threshold.
Read definitionWhat Is the Works Council (Ondernemingsraad)?
A mandatory employee representation body under Dutch law for companies with 50 or more staff, holding legal advice and consent rights over specific workplace decisions.
Read definitionWhat Is Transitievergoeding?
The statutory Dutch transition payment (severance) owed in most employer-initiated terminations, calculated from salary and length of service and subject to an annual cap.
Read definitionWhat Is UWV?
The Dutch Employee Insurance Agency that administers unemployment, sickness, and disability benefits and approves certain economic and long-term incapacity dismissals.
Read definitionWhat Is Waadi?
The Dutch law regulating staffing agencies, secondment firms, and payroll intermediaries, requiring KVK registration to protect supplied workers and limit hirer liability.
Read definitionWhat Is Wet DBA?
The Dutch law requiring clients and self-employed contractors to jointly assess whether a working relationship is genuine self-employment or disguised employment, now fully enforced.
Read definitionWhat Are Employer Contributions?
Additional employer-paid costs on top of an employee's gross salary that fund social security, pensions, and other statutory programs, varying widely by country.
Read definitionWhat Are Statutory Benefits?
The legally required minimum employment benefits, such as paid leave, sick pay, and social insurance, that employers must provide, with minimums varying significantly by country.
Read definitionWhat Is Annual Leave?
The statutory minimum paid time off an employee is entitled to each year, set by national law, with the amount and accrual rules varying significantly by country.
Read definitionWhat Is Gross Salary?
The total pay an employee earns before income tax, social security, and other deductions, and the base used to calculate most payroll withholdings and employer costs.
Read definitionWhat Is Net Salary?
The take-home pay an employee actually receives after income tax, social security, and other deductions are withheld from gross salary, varying widely by country.
Read definitionWhat Is Notice Period?
The legally required advance warning before ending employment, typically set by national law and often scaling with an employee's length of service.
Read definitionWhat Is Payroll Tax?
The income tax and social security amounts an employer withholds from an employee's salary and remits to tax authorities, with rules varying significantly by country.
Read definitionWhat Is Pension Contribution?
A payment into an employee's retirement savings scheme, funded by the employer, employee, or both, with mandatory and voluntary structures varying significantly by country.
Read definitionWhat Is Probation Period?
An initial phase of employment allowing easier assessment and often simpler termination, with maximum length and legal effects set by national law.
Read definitionWhat Is Social Security?
The system of mandatory employer and employee contributions that fund state benefits like pensions, healthcare, and unemployment support, varying widely by country.
Read definitionWhat Is IR35?
UK off-payroll working legislation that determines whether a contractor working through a personal service company should be taxed broadly like an employee.
Read definitionWhat Is National Insurance?
A mandatory UK payroll contribution paid by both employees and employers, funding state benefits and collected through PAYE with separate rates and thresholds.
Read definitionWhat Is PAYE?
The UK Pay As You Earn system through which employers withhold Income Tax and National Insurance from salary and remit them to HMRC each pay period.
Read definitionWhat Is Right to Work?
The legal requirement for UK employers to verify, before employment begins, that every new hire is legally permitted to work in the UK, establishing a statutory excuse.
Read definitionWhat Is Statutory Sick Pay (SSP)?
The UK's minimum legal sickness payment, now a day-one, universal entitlement regardless of earnings following the April 2026 reforms.
Read definitionWhat Is TUPE?
UK legislation that automatically transfers employees, with their existing terms and continuity of service, when a business or service they work for changes hands.
Read definitionNo terms match that search. Try a different word.
Not sure which model fits your hire?
Tell us where you're hiring and what the role looks like — we'll tell you whether you need an EOR, a PEO, or a contractor agreement, and what it'll cost.
Talk to a compliance expert
experts@adtsolution.com
Queens towers, Delflandlaan 1, 1062 EA Amsterdam, The Netherlands
