Your first employee costs more than their salary.
Build the first-year budget and the operational checklist side by side. Separate payroll you pay every month from the work and provider fees needed before your first hire can start.
Set up the hire
This page reuses Ivvora's Colombia Hiring Budget calculation; it doesn't invent a second set of contribution rates.
Full-time 2026 reference minimum: $ 1.750.905. Annualized for twelve stable months.
The ARL rate is scenario-specific. Unknown class means the employer total is incomplete.
Standard transport support is not modeled for this salary structure or wage level.
Budget what providers actually quote.
Every amount below starts at zero because Ivvora has no verified universal fee. Enter your local quotes; zero means not budgeted, not free or waived.
Employer-funded where required; request a role-specific provider quote. Do not treat COP 0 as waived.
Agency commission or your own external recruitment spend. Not a statutory flat fee.
Computer, tools, protective equipment or access setup for this role.
Only add external adviser/provider fees when genuinely required for your setup. SG-SST obligations themselves are not optional.
Software, initial configuration or provider onboarding, only if quoted.
Employer-selected legal or administrative advice. The figure is not a government filing fee.
What must happen before the hire goes live?
A practical sequencing tool, not a certification of legal compliance. Your progress stays in this page and is not submitted to Ivvora.
Items marked completed
Establish the employing entity and registration position
Confirm which Colombian legal person employs the worker and whether its employer registrations are already active. Company incorporation is not included in the first-hire total.
Verify the sourceRegister with an ARL and assess occupational risk
Employer risk coverage needs the appropriate class and affiliation. Resolve the risk class before trusting the payroll total.
Verify the sourceArrange EPS health-system affiliation
Verify employee and employer registration, covered contribution basis and required details.
Verify the sourceArrange pension and cesantías fund affiliations
Collect correct worker selections and fund details, and handle applicable pension and severance-fund registration.
Verify the sourceAffiliate with the compensation fund (caja)
Confirm employer and employee affiliation and the applicable contribution treatment.
Verify the sourceArrange the occupational medical examination
Resolution 1843 of 2025 governs occupational evaluations, including employer responsibility for relevant costs and worker privacy.
Verify the sourcePut role-appropriate SG-SST controls in place
Match minimum occupational safety standards to the company, worker count and risk level. Do not treat registration alone as SG-SST compliance.
Verify the sourceWhat's actually different about your first hire?
The first employee can create employer-wide setup work. A later employee usually relies on existing registrations, but still needs worker-level records and applicable assessments.
Cost of employment
Salary, eligible support, employer contributions and statutory benefits, following the selected payroll scenario.
Compare ongoing payroll costs ↗Cost of becoming operational
Initial provider setup, examination, equipment, payroll implementation and safety-management support. There is no single government-defined “first-hire fee.”
Edit your setup assumptions ↑Business-structure questions
Incorporation, foreign-entity establishment, employer of record arrangements, relocation, immigration approvals and contract-specific benefits are separate decisions.
Review contractor classification ↗Primary sources, assumptions and boundaries.
Use these references to confirm employer obligations before hiring. Ivvora does not present quoted vendor prices as mandatory government fees.