Are you thinking about hiring a Florida-based team from out-of-state or overseas? Learn how a Florida Employer of Record (EOR) service can help you save time and money on engaging your Florida team. 

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What Is a Florida EOR?

If you don’t own an entity in Florida or, indeed, in the US, can you still hire employees in this state? The answer is yes, if you partner with an Employer of Record (EOR) service provider to help you do it. A Florida EOR can legally hire employers on your behalf by using its own registered entity.

Florida EOR

This entity enters into contracts directly with the workers you want to employ and thereby becomes their full legal employer in Florida. Its services don’t end there, however. The EOR also takes on all HR duties for your Floridian staff including admin, mandatory benefits, leave management, and, of course, payroll. Many EORs also offer additional services like talent sourcing and administration of additional benefits. These days, most EORs work with experts in HR, taxes, and Florida law to ensure that they employ your workers compliantly.

Why Hire Employees in Florida?

Florida’s fast-growing market is currently very attractive for out-of-state and foreign businesses. The state is home to over 23 million people and boasts a gross state product (GSP) of $1.647 trillion, making it the fourth-largest state economy in the US. After peaking during the pandemic, Florida’s unemployment rate is down to 3.3%, less than the national 4.3% rate, and the total labor force is over 11 million people. This makes the labor market somewhat tight and means that employers must compete to attract top talent to their organizations. While the corporate income tax (CIT) rate in Florida is 6%, there is no CIT on limited partnerships or subchapter corporations.

The state also offers numerous incentives for businesses that include capital investment tax credits, research and development tax credits, sales tax exemptions, training programs, and more. These are only some of the reasons why more and more businesses are turning to Florida and why many use EOR services to help them hire in the state.

What Is the Difference Between a Florida EOR and a Florida PEO?

A lot of people have heard about PEOs or professional employment organizations and wonder how they differ from EORs. After all, PEOs have been around for decades and exist in all states, including Florida, and now all around the world as well. However, the legal structure of these two types of service providers is very different.

If you already have an entity in Florida or plan to incorporate one, you could work with a PEO to help you manage your local staff. Many organizations want to expand quickly into the state but don’t yet have the HR team capacity or specific experience to manage Floridian workers well. By engaging a Florida PEO, they can outsource the HR functions they need to provide for these workers to the service provider instead. The PEO will handle their payroll, benefits, leaves, and admin for the client’s workers. It will also withhold their state and federal taxes and remit these to the Florida Department of Revenue and the IRS though you’ll need to obtain a reemployment tax (RT) number as a client. However, the PEO won’t hire employees for you. Instead, it joins you as a co-employer and takes on only some of the related responsibilities. Florida PEOs need to hold annually renewed licenses under Florida Statutes Chapter 468 and must register with the Florida Department of Business and Professional Regulation (DBPR).

An EOR partner is more useful for an international organization looking to hire Floridians without having to incorporate in the US. They might want to first test the waters before formally entering this market or to avoid the difficult and time-consuming process of registering an entity. EORs also don’t face the same regulations that PEOs do and are treated the same as regular employers in the state. This can make employing workers much easier and quicker in Florida.

Ready to get started with a Florida EOR?

Let us handle the complexities of hiring, compliance, and payroll in Florida while you focus on growing your team.

  • Hire employees in Florida with a Florida EOR
  • No local entity is needed
  • Pricing starts at USD 199 per employee
  • Remote People can also help you find the best talent in Florida

👉 Get Your Customized Florida EOR Proposal Today!

Best 5 Employers of Record in Florida

Choosing the best EOR to help you with your Florida hiring is a challenge. To help you reduce the number of providers, you may need to sort through, we’ve compiled a list of our top five providers in this state.

1

Horizons

Horizon new homepage

Core Features

  • Supports expansion in over 180 countries
  • Administers optional benefits for clients
  • Offers talent sourcing services
  • Provides professional advice from HR and legal experts

Pricing Models

$499/employee/month in Florida and other US states

Pros and Cons

Horizons has a comprehensive platform that works as a complete HRIS (human resources information system) and lets clients use a single system to manage their employees. It employs recruiters to actively recruit talent for clients as well as provides them with applicant tracking systems and other recruitment tools. It also manages both mandatory benefits in Florida, like inclusion in the Florida Retirement System but also provides additional options for health insurance and other optional benefits. Horizons doesn’t yet provide independent global payroll services, however, or a mobile app to help employees access their accounts on its platform.

Verdict

Horizons is a highly affordable EOR that offers all the services you’ll need for hiring in Florida with a single, experienced provider.

2

Remote

Remote.com connects professionals to flexible, remote work opportunities across the globe.

Core Features

  • Offers global payroll and contractor management services in over 70 and 180 countries, respectively
  • Helps clients source their own workers using an AI-powered talent pool search tool
  • Administers optional benefits
  • Features time-tracking and other useful tools in its platform

Pricing Models

starting at $599/month/employee 

Pros and Cons

Remote can handle the administration of extra benefits if you want to offer your Floridian employees additional benefits like health insurance and private pension schemes. It also provides new tools to help clients perform their own recruitment. However, it doesn’t have any recruiters to source talent for them. Remote’s platform can also be difficult to learn and has limited training materials to help.

Verdict

Remote can be a good partner for clients who want to use the latest tools and technology to source their own workers and maintain them through a very service-minded organization.

3

Deel

Deel homepage

Core Features

  • Provides EOR and contractor management services in over 150 countries and global payroll solutions in more than 100
  • Includes a mobile app that enables employees to access their profiles online
  • Offers built-in time and attendance features for convenient payroll calculations

Pricing Models

starting at $599/employee/month

Pros and Cons

Deel works in over 150 countries and all 50 states, providing expert HR, tax, and legal advice in all jurisdictions. It also includes an extensive platform with time-tracking, benefits administration, and easy payroll tools with lots of payment features for clients. On the downside, Deel’s platform doesn’t have any recruitment features, and it doesn’t provide active recruitment services either. While it manages the mandatory benefits you must provide in Florida, it doesn’t help you offer additional benefits to reward your staff.

Verdict

Deel provides expert support for clients and is a good choice for companies that are able to source their own workers and provide optional benefits through other providers.

4

Papaya Global

Papaya Global homepage

Core Features

  • Provides payroll, contractor management, and EOR services in over 160 countries
  • Administers mandatory benefits
  • Gives immigration support to mobile employees

Pricing Models

starting at $599/employee/month

Pros and Cons

Papaya Global takes care of mandatory and optional benefits, letting clients offer health insurance, equity, and retirement savings plans to their employees. It also enables employees to clock in and out of work through a mobile app that also lets them access their payslips and manage their leave entitlements. This provider doesn’t have recruiting services, however, and its platform is missing some key HR features like performance management.

Verdict

Papaya Global is a good choice for businesses that want to give their employees lots of benefits and self-service access to their own profiles.

5

Globalization Partners

Globalization Partners homepage

Core Features

  • Offers EOR services in 180+ countries
  • Provides mandatory and additional benefits
  • Offers add-on packages for AI advice or consulting from experts
  • Includes a mobile app and time-tracking feature

Pricing Models

G-P’s prices are not publicly available.

Pros and Cons

G-P offers to administer extra equity, health insurance, and pension benefits to help you attract and retain employees. Add-on packages are available to help clients with little experience leverage expert consultation from HR and legal professionals to help them run their teams compliantly. Unfortunately, G-P doesn’t offer any recruitment services or tools. It also doesn’t provide its pricing publicly which can make it hard to compare to the competition.

Verdict

Globalization Partners can be a good partner for organizations that can source their own staff but need a lot of expert help managing their HR concerns.

How Does a Florida EOR Work?

If you want to hire employees through a Florida EOR, you’ll need to either source them yourself, work with a recruitment agency, or choose an EOR that can source talent for you. Some clients look into EOR services because they’ve already found skilled Floridians they want to hire. Others first decide that entering this market is a good business decision and then shift their focus to sourcing talent. Either way you begin, working with an EOR subsequently follows the same general path.

  • Select an EOR Service Provider: You’ll need to choose your EOR and engage it, often by entering into a monthly or annual deal. You’ll also give it the names of the people you want to hire.
  • Negotiate Contracts: The EOR will help you finalize the terms of your agreements with these workers and ensure that they’re compliant with Floridian and federal law. It will then formalize these terms into contracts. 
  • Hire Staff: As the client, you don’t enter into contracts with your employees. Instead, they’re contracted by the EOR directly but only provide work for you. 
  • Onboard: Both you and the EOR need to perform onboarding activities. The EOR adds new hires to your payroll, registers them with mandatory benefits programs, and arranges their salary payments. You’ll typically provide them with orientation, job-specific training, access to the programs and data they’ll work with, and introductions to their teammates. 
  • Manage Payroll, Taxes, and Benefits: The EOR manages payroll but needs you, as the worksite employer, to supply it with time and attendance data. You may submit timesheets or use a time-tracking feature if your EOR’s platform includes one. For each pay period, the EOR will calculate every employee’s gross salary while withholding taxes and deducting social contributions. It will remit these payments to the appropriate authorities and pay your employees their net salaries.
  • Maintain Compliance: As the worksite employer, you have an obligation to maintain a working environment and conditions that are in line with your workers’ contracts and federal and state labor laws. However, the EOR is legally responsible for compliance and needs to guide you through Florida’s legal framework. It also reports to the tax and Social Security authorities on your behalf. 
  • Terminate Workers: The EOR must terminate contracts on your behalf. While separation notice and severance pay are not required in Florida, the EOR will handle these provisions for you if they were agreed upon in your workers’ contracts.

Which Labor Laws Apply to Hiring Employees in Florida?

Like all states, Florida has its own tax and employment laws that sometimes differ from federal statutes. The minimum wage in the state is currently $13/hour but is set to increase to $14/hour on 30 September 2025 and $15/hour on 30 September 2026. When employees work more than 40 hours/week, they must be paid time-and-a-half for their overtime hours, and employers can require employees to work overtime with no advance notice or limits on their hours. Unlike in many other states, employers aren’t obligated to provide workers with breaks for rest or meals unless they’re under 18, in which case they must receive a 30-minute break for each four-hour period they work. Parents in Florida are entitled to up to 12 months of unpaid family leave under the federal Family and Medical Leave Act (FMLA). However, state employees are eligible for seven weeks of paid maternity leave and two more weeks of parental leave (for mothers or fathers) on the birth or adoption of a child. Finally, drug testing in Florida is not only legal but required for candidates who’ve received conditional employment offers if the employer has a drug-free workplace program in place.

What Are the Benefits of a Florida Employer of Record Service?

If you work with an EOR to hire employees in Florida, you can take advantage of the following benefits:

  • Quick market entry into the Sunshine State
  • Access to local expertise and compliance support
  • Simplified employee onboarding
  • Expert responsibility for compliance with state laws

What Are the Downsides of a Florida Employer of Record Service?

There are also potential negatives to consider when hiring Floridians through an EOR, including:

  • Fees can add up to significant costs for large-scale teams
  • Challenges transmitting company culture
  • Less direct control over employees
  • Dependence on the EOR for maintaining compliance when laws change

How to Choose a Florida Employer of Record

With dozens or even hundreds of service providers in the industry, selecting a Florida EOR to partner with can be an overwhelming task. However, it becomes significantly easier when you keep the following factors in mind:

Cost

Price is always a hugely important factor and finding a provider that fits your budget. While you can use public prices as a baseline, be sure to ask for full, detailed quotes from your final list of candidates. This will help you understand their fee structures and avoid the surprises of hidden charges and extra fees.

Support

Find out if an EOR provides excellent support to its clients and employees by looking at its online materials and its reviews. On its own site, a provider should tell you when support is offered (24/7?) and through which methods (live chat, phone, email). However, reviews from past and present clients will tell you how highly the quality of this support rates. If it’s reliable, you’ll find out, but if the EOR makes serious errors, it’s even more likely you’ll hear about them.

Services and Features

All EORs will provide the basic services of employing your workers and managing their HR needs. However, if you want additional services like Florida recruitment or optional benefits administration, you’ll need to make sure the EOR you choose provides these services. It’s also useful to look at what features the EOR’s digital platform includes, such as time-tracking and employee engagement features and a mobile app for employees. These features can actually save you lots of time and investment in other HR software.

Compliance

Find out about the HR, tax, and legal experts the EOR employs to gain a good understanding of how well it is able to manage compliance with Floridian and federal laws.

Engage a Florida Employer of Record, with Remote People

If you don’t own an entity in Florida or in the US at all, it’s still possible to employ Floridian workers legally. With the help of an EOR, you can potentially recruit, hire, and manage HR concerns for workers in Florida. To take advantage of the skills and access to the Florida market that this can offer at the industry’s best prices, engage Remote People as your Florida EOR broker.

For more information, get in touch with Remote People’s EOR broker solution.