Payroll and Benefits Guide Slovenia

Employer

Employer Payroll Contributions

Employee

Employee Payroll Contributions

Employee Income Tax

General

The minimum wage is 1,203.36 EUR per month.

Payroll Cycle

In Slovenia, the payroll frequency is monthly with the payment of salaries usually made on the last working day of each month.

13th Salary

In Slovenia, 13th-month payments are not mandatory. However, many employees receive a 13th-month salary payment in December as a Christmas bonus. Some employers also offer a ‘Jubilee’ bonus granted to an employee on their anniversary of work. Bonuses are often performance-based.

General

The standard working week consists of 40 hours over a five-day working week, including a 30-minute lunch break. To be considered a full-time employee in Slovenia, an employee must work at least 36 hours a week except for employees who work in a particularly dangerous environment who may work fewer than 36 hours.

Overtime

All work more than the standard working hours a week is to be paid as overtime and is regulated by the employment contract/collective agreement. When an employee is requested to work overtime or work on holidays, there are maximums in relation to the number of hours allowed. These maximums are 8 hours per week, 20 hours per month, or 170 hours per year. Maximums may differ for minors, pregnant women, and minors.

All overtime hours in excess of 40 hours a week are paid at an overtime compensation rate; this rate is to be stipulated in the employment contract/collective agreement.

An employer must provide written notice of any upcoming overtime.

Working Week

Monday–Friday

Paid Time Off

Employees are entitled to paid annual leave of at least four weeks in every calendar year regardless of whether they work full-time or part-time. An employee is entitled to this payment after six months of continuous employment, prorated accordingly.

The employer must let the employee take the annual leave entitlement by the end of the current calendar year. The employee must use at least two weeks of annual leave before the end of the current calendar year; the remaining part can be used in agreement with the employer up until 30 June of the following year.

Employees with children under the age of 15 are entitled to one additional day per year for each child that has not yet reached that age.

Public Holidays

Public holidays that fall on the weekend are usually lost.

Sick Days

Slovenia requires employers to compensate an employee for sick leave for up to 30 days of absence; the amount is stipulated within the employment contract/collective agreement. If an employee is absent due to a work-related illness or accident, the employer should compensate them at 100% of their regular salary. 80% salary is usually paid out for a regular sick leave.

Sick leave in excess of 30 days is to be compensated by Social Security until they are deemed fit to return to work or their employment is terminated.
An employee must provide a medical certificate as soon as possible following sickness.

Maternity Leave

Mothers in Slovenia receive 105 days of paid maternity leave which begins 28 days before the estimated date of birth. An employee must take a minimum of 15 days maternity leave. To be eligible for paid maternity leave, an employee must have made a year’s worth of insurance payments to the Parent Protection Insurance over the three years preceding the pregnancy.

Social Security will compensate the employee based on the amount contributed to the Parent Protection insurance; the benefit will be between 55% of a minimum base salary and twice the average monthly salary in Slovenia.

Paternity Leave

The father/partner is entitled to 75 days of paid paternity leave. The first 15 days must be taken within three months of the child’s birth. The remaining leave can be taken at any time before the child is 8 years old and can be taken on multiple occasions.

Paternity paid is compensated based on the average earnings over the previous year and it may not be lower than 55% of the value of minimum wage for ZUTPG indexation and may not be higher than double the value of the average monthly wage for ZUTPG indexation in Slovenia, (ZUTPG – Act regulating adjustments of transfers to individuals and households in the Republic of Slovenia).

Parental Leave

Slovenia grants each parent 130 days of parental leave to care for a child. This entitlement can increase in the case of multiple/complicated births.
A father may transfer their entire leave to the mother to care for their child, but the mother can only transfer the father up to 100 days of her leave to him.

Other Leave

In Slovenia, employees are entitled to up to seven days of paid personal leave. This leave is to be used for weddings, births, and bereavement.

Termination Process

The termination process varies according to the employment agreement or collective agreement in place and is based on the type of contract and reason for termination. There are two types of dismissals: regular and extraordinary. Regular dismissal is redundancy due to incompetence or misconduct, whereas extraordinary dismissal is when an employee commits a crime, declines a transfer, and any other such serious breach.

All dismissals must be presented to the employer in writing, and the employee must be given the opportunity to present a defense. In extraordinary dismissals, the termination must be presented in writing and in person.

Notice Period

In Slovenia, the notice period is dependent on the employee’s seniority as follows:

• Up to one year – 15 days’ notice
• One to two years – 30 days’ notice
• More than two years – 30 days plus two days for every year served above two

If the employee has not passed their probation period, the notice period is reduced to 7 days and an at-fault dismissal where the notice period is 15 days.
No notice period is required in the case of an extraordinary dismissal. However, the employer must still provide termination of the notice within 30 days of the incident that led to the termination.

Severance Pay

Employees are entitled to severance pay depending on the employee’s seniority:

• Employees between one and ten years of service receive 1/5 of the employee’s average salary from the previous three months for every year of service
• More than ten years of service 1/4 of the average salary from the past three months for every year of service
• Over 20 years of service, the severance is 1/3

Probation Period

In Slovenia, probation periods are outlined in the employee’s employment contract. The probation period can be no more than six months.

VISA

Work and residence permits are regulated under the Employment, Self-employment, and Work of Foreigners Act, enacted in 2015. The permits are obligatory for all non-EU nationals who wish to be employed in Slovenia. Unless they can be considered for the following exception:

• Refugees
• Immediate family members of Slovenian citizens
• Non-EU nationals with a permit for permanent residence
• Non-EU nationals who have obtained the status of a long-term resident in another member state of the EU after residing in the Republic of Slovenia for one year
• Non-EU nationals of Slovenian origin up to the third successive generation

To obtain a long-term work permit, an individual should apply for a single residence permit for work and residence in Slovenia (The Single Permit).
Single permits are issued by the administrative unit (“Upravna enota”) with the consent of the Employment Service of Slovenia (“ESS”) on the basis of the Employment, Self-employment, and Work of Foreigners Act and corresponding regulation.

After applying for The Single Permit, the administrative unit will automatically begin the process of obtaining consent from the Employment Service of Slovenia. An application for The Single Permit may be submitted by a foreigner or by the employer.

General

Standard VAT rate of 22.00%.