How do you hire an employee in Turkey?

You can hire an employee in Turkey in one of two ways: through your own Turkish legal entity, or through an employer of record (EOR). With an entity, you incorporate a Turkish company (şirket kuruluşu), register it as an employer with the Social Security Institution (SGK), sign a local employment contract, and run monthly Turkish payroll. With an EOR, a third-party company that already has a Turkish entity legally employs the person on your behalf, bills you the salary plus a service fee, and handles the local filings — while the employee works for you day to day.

Both paths are legitimate. An EOR is faster to start. Your own entity gives you control and a lower steady-state cost as the team grows. Otto HR is not an EOR: it is HR and payroll software for companies that employ people through their own Turkish entity — and the system EOR users typically switch into once they incorporate.

The decision usually comes down to four things. Headcount: for one to three employees, an EOR's per-employee monthly fee is usually cheaper than maintaining an entity with its accounting, payroll, and tax filings, but from around five people the math flips. Permanence: for a time-boxed project or a market test, an EOR keeps exit simple. If Turkey is a long-term part of the company, an entity pays for itself.

Cost: an EOR charges per employee for as long as they are employed, while an entity is a mostly fixed overhead that does not grow with headcount. Control: only your own entity signs contracts in your own name, sponsors work permits, leases offices, and keeps employment, IP, and equity paperwork inside your own group. Many companies start with an EOR and move to an entity later — plan the switch rather than treating it as a failure.

Hiring directly through a Turkish entity involves four concrete steps. First, register the company as an employer with SGK: the workplace declaration (işyeri bildirgesi) is due at the latest on the day you first employ someone (Law 5510, art. 11). Second, register the employee before they start: the pre-employment declaration (işe giriş bildirgesi) must reach SGK before the start date — for standard employees, the day before at the latest, filed electronically (Law 5510, art. 8). Build it into the offer timeline: the filing comes before day one, not after.

Third, sign a written employment contract. Turkish law requires written form for fixed-term contracts of one year or more, and obliges the employer to hand the employee a written statement of core terms within two months in any case (Labor Law 4857, art. 8) — in practice, everyone signs a written contract before the start date. Fourth, run monthly payroll: gross-to-net calculation, income-tax and stamp-tax withholding, SGK declarations, and a payslip. The payroll guide below covers the monthly cycle in detail.

Budget the employer's total cost as roughly gross salary × 1.2175. On top of gross, employers pay social security and unemployment contributions of about 21.75% (19.75% SGK after the standard 2-point Treasury discount, plus 2% unemployment insurance, while manufacturing employers keep a 5-point discount through 2026). Contributions apply to earnings up to the SGK ceiling of 297,270 TL per month in 2026. The employee's own deductions — 15% social security and unemployment, progressive income tax from 15% to 40%, and 0.759% stamp tax — come out of gross, not on top of it.

The floor: the 2026 gross minimum wage is 33,030 TL per month (the employee takes home 28,075.50 TL net), and the total employer cost at minimum wage is about 40,214 TL per month — under $1,000 at mid-2026 exchange rates. Severance also accrues in the background: each completed year of service earns the employee one gross month of pay, capped at 73,729.87 TL per year in the second half of 2026.

This hub splits the detail into five guides: Turkish payroll (the monthly cycle, taxes, and SGK), minimum wage and real salary benchmarks, employment law basics (contracts, working hours, termination, and severance), maternity and parental leave, and work permits for hiring foreign nationals in Turkey.