Hiring a CLT employee step by step, from job offer to first payslip

Start by confirming that the role is employment, because in Brazil the facts decide that, not the contract title. Under art. 3 of the CLT, you have an employee when an individual works for you regularly, in person, for pay and under your direction, and courts test four elements: pessoalidade (the person must do the work personally), não eventualidade (the work is regular), onerosidade (it is paid) and subordinação (it is directed).

If all four are present, the person should be on a CLT contract. Hiring them as a pessoa jurídica (PJ), invoicing through their own company, does not change the analysis, and CLT art. 9 makes acts aimed at defeating the code null.

The Supremo Tribunal Federal is reviewing contractor and PJ hiring under Tema 1389, and had not ruled on the substance by 25 September 2026. Until there is a ruling, treat a full-time, managed role as employment. Our post on PJ or CLT misclassification risk goes through the tests in detail.

Set a monthly salary that clears the national minimum, any state floor and the sector floor in the applicable collective agreement. The national minimum from 1 January 2026 is R$ 1.621,00 a month, which works out at R$ 54,04 daily and R$ 7,37 hourly (Decreto 12.797/2025).

Some states set their own regional floors above the national figure. São Paulo has one, and its 2026 level should be checked with the state before you rely on a number. In most professional roles the more relevant floor is the piso salarial in the convenção coletiva de trabalho (CCT), which is negotiated for a sector and territory and usually sits above both public minimums.

Brazilian salaries are quoted monthly, and candidates will compare offers on that basis. Remember that the annual gross is not twelve times the monthly figure: with a 13º salário on top and a third added to holiday pay, a full year pays 13 and a third salaries. At R$ 15.000,00 a month, annual gross comes to R$ 200.000,00, and the employee receives R$ 11.067,36 net in an ordinary month once INSS and IRRF are deducted, assuming no dependants. See the 2026 salário mínimo for the floors in more depth.

Before fixing the figure, find out when the CCT’s annual raise falls. If the data-base is a few weeks after the start date, the new hire may receive a collectively agreed increase almost immediately, and an offer pitched just above the old floor can end up at or below the new one. Collective agreements also commonly add meal vouchers, profit-sharing or a health plan, and within the topics CLT art. 611-A lists, what they agree prevails over the law, so read the agreement before you quote a package.

Choose an indefinite contract unless the work is genuinely temporary, and write down the hours and place of work. Indefinite contracts are the norm in Brazil, and most begin with a contrato de experiência, a trial period capped at 90 days by CLT art. 445.

The standard limits are 44 hours in a week and 8 in a day (Constitution art. 7º, XIII; CLT art. 58). Art. 59 allows no more than 2 hours of overtime in a day. A constitutional amendment, PEC 221/2019, would cut the week to 40 hours without a pay reduction; the Câmara approved it in May 2026 and the Senate’s CCJ followed in September, and it remained a proposal on 25 September 2026. Keep it on your watch list when you set hours for a long-term role.

If the person will work from home, the contract must say so. CLT arts. 75-A to 75-F contain the teletrabalho rules, and who supplies equipment and meets expenses has to be settled in writing. A hybrid role should state which days are office-based. The contract should also record the job title, salary, start date and the trial period, which later appear on the digital carteira de trabalho. Agree these points before the offer letter goes out, so the contract and the offer say the same thing.

Public holidays affect rotas and overtime, so check the calendar for the city of work. São Paulo city’s 2026 calendar lists 13 holidays, including the city’s anniversary on 25 January, Corpus Christi and the state’s Data Magna on 9 July. Carnaval appears only as a ponto facultativo, which private employers need not observe unless their CCT or a local law requires it.

For a foreign national, clear the right to work before you fix a start date, because the employment contract depends on it. The route is an autorização de residência (residence authorisation) for work with an employment relationship, set out in Resolução Normativa CNIg nº 2/2017 and decided by the labour immigration unit of the Ministério da Justiça e Segurança Pública.

Other routes exist but do not fit a CLT hire. Brazil’s digital nomad residence (Resolução CNIg MJSP nº 45/2021) is meant for remote workers with no Brazilian employment link, so it is the wrong basis for someone joining a Brazilian payroll. Foreigners who graduated in Brazil have their own residence route under Resolução CNIg/MJSP nº 50/2024.

Tax residence follows arrival. Someone landing with a temporary visa plus an employment contract becomes a Brazilian tax resident on the day they arrive, with worldwide income taxed on the standard progressive scale. Non-resident status, and how it ends, is worth confirming with a tax adviser before the move date.

Register the employee through eSocial before the first working day, using the S-2200 admission event. The CLT (art. 29) allows 5 business days after hiring for the CTPS record to show the admission, salary and special conditions, and the S-2200 is how that happens in practice.

The employer needs the employee’s CPF, the signed contract terms, bank details for salary, dependants for income tax and the employee’s choice on vale-transporte. Transport vouchers are compulsory only if the employee asks; the employee’s share is capped at 6% of basic salary and the employer covers commuting costs beyond that (Lei 7.418/1985).

Leaving a worker unregistered is costly. Each worker left off the books can cost the employer a R$ 3.000,00 fine, cut to R$ 800,00 for the smallest businesses (CLT art. 47), repeat offences double it, and a labour claim may follow. If you have no Brazilian company, Employer of Record Brazil can act as the legal employer and file the admission for you as employer of record; the EOR-side process is set out in CLT onboarding through an EOR.

Run the first payroll so that wages clear before the sixth business day following the month worked, as CLT art. 459 requires, with social security and income tax withheld. Employee INSS in 2026 runs from 7.5% to 14% by band and is charged only on pay up to R$ 8.475,55, which caps the monthly deduction at R$ 988,09.

Income tax at source follows the 2026 monthly table, from exempt up to R$ 2.428,80 to 27.5% above R$ 4.664,68. Lei 15.270/2025 then reduces the tax to zero where taxable monthly income is up to R$ 5.000,00, tapering the reduction to nothing at R$ 7.350,00. Lower earners with children may also be owed salário-família, R$ 67,54 for each child aged 14 or under, for pay up to R$ 1.980,38, an amount the employer advances and then recovers from its INSS bill.

On the employer side, FGTS of 8% goes into the fund via the FGTS Digital platform, with the 20th as the deadline, and employer INSS of 20%, RAT and terceiros are paid on a DARF generated in DCTFWeb by the same date. In our São Paulo worked example those charges come to 35.8% of each payment, holiday third and 13º included, bringing a R$ 15.000,00 monthly salary to R$ 271.600,00 a year before benefits.

A worked month shows how the lines fit together. On R$ 15.000,00 gross with no dependants, employee INSS is R$ 988,09, IRRF is R$ 2.944,55 after deducting that INSS, and net pay is R$ 11.067,36. Employer charges for that month total R$ 5.370,00. Vale-transporte, meal vouchers and health cover are excluded from those figures and would change them.

Plan the first year around four fixed points: the end of the trial period, the 13º salário, the first férias and the CCT raise date. Put each one in the calendar on the start date.

• Review performance well before day 90, when the contrato de experiência ends and the contract continues as indefinite.
• Budget for the 13º salário, a full extra month’s pay for a full year worked, with employer charges on it.
• Expect the first 30 calendar days of férias after 12 months, paid with the one-third bonus.
• Check the CCT’s data-base, when salaries and floors are commonly raised.

Also note the rules that take effect in 2027. From 1 January 2027, paternity leave rises from 5 to 10 days under Lei 15.371/2026, and fathers cannot be dismissed between the start of that leave and one month after it. If you are hiring through an employer of record rather than your own company, the EOR explainer shows which of these tasks we take on.

Finally, price the exit when you make the hire. A dismissal without cause costs aviso prévio of 30 days, plus three more for every full year worked, to a maximum of 90 (Lei 12.506/2011), and a penalty worth 40% of the FGTS deposited over the whole contract. The settlement must be paid inside 10 days, and lawsuits stay possible for 2 years afterwards, covering up to 5 years of rights. None of this should stop a good hire, but it belongs in the business case from the first day.

Q01Without a company in Brazil, who can sign the CLT contract?+

A.The employer must be able to register the hire in eSocial and run Brazilian payroll. Without your own company, an employer of record can act as the legal employer.

Q02How long is the trial period on a CLT contract?+

A.Up to 90 days, as a contrato de experiência under CLT art. 445. After that the contract continues as indefinite.

Q03How low can a CLT salary go in 2026?+

A.R$ 1.621,00 a month nationally. State floors and the piso salarial in the collective agreement are often higher, so check both.

Q04When must the hire be registered?+

A.Before the first working day through eSocial event S-2200; the CLT gives 5 business days to record the admission in the digital CTPS.

Q05Can I hire someone as a PJ instead?+

A.Only if the work is genuinely independent. A role with personal, regular, paid and directed work is employment under CLT art. 3 whatever the contract says.