How do you hire an employee in Morocco in 2026?

The employer must already:

• Be registered in the Commercial Register by the commercial court registry (greffe du tribunal de commerce) (Law 15-95) and hold its IF, its ICE and its business tax (taxe professionnelle) identifier assigned by the DGI
• Be affiliated with the CNSS as an employer (Dahir 1-72-184) and have DAMANCOM access: this one-off procedure, free of charge and carried out when the company is formed (the declaration of employees becoming mandatory from the first hire), is detailed in our guide to registering the company with the CNSS
• Take out workplace accident insurance with an insurer (Law 18-12)
• Provide for a payroll register (livre de paie), the mandatory notices and, from 10 employees, internal regulations (règlement intérieur) submitted to the labour inspectorate

With Charikaty, the first two prerequisites are handled at formation: the company is registered online and the CNSS affiliation application is filed as part of the formation, so that the affiliation number is available for the first contract.

The written contract, strongly recommended in the case of a CDI (contrat à durée indéterminée, open-ended contract), is drawn up in two copies, one of which is given to the employee, who also receives a work card (carte de travail); for a CDD (contrat à durée déterminée, fixed-term contract), a written contract is essential in practice, as it must state the reason for using it and its end date. The remuneration provided for is at least equal to the SMIG, i.e. 17.92 MAD per hour in 2026.

The CDI is the standard form, a CDD is only possible in the cases provided for by Law 65-99 (a new business may conclude a CDD of one year, renewable once) and the probationary period may not exceed 3 months for managerial staff, 1.5 months for an employee and 15 days for a manual worker, renewable once (Article 14). The cases in which each contract may be used, the mandatory particulars and the clauses are detailed in our guide to CDI and CDD employment contracts and the probationary period.

The employer registers the employee with the CNSS upon hiring (registration application form, copy of the national ID card [CIN], photo), unless the employee already has a registration number obtained with a previous employer, then declares the employee on the salary declaration form (bordereau de déclaration des salaires, BDS) for the month concerned.

In 2026, contributions amount to 21.09% paid by the employer and 6.74% withheld from the salary, with a monthly ceiling of 6,000 MAD for social benefits: the breakdown by branch is given in the guide to the cost of an employee in Morocco. The salary declaration and the payment of contributions are then made every month on DAMANCOM, as explained in the employer's CNSS obligations, and recently formed companies can reduce these charges with the Tahfiz program, presented in our guide to ANAPEC hiring aid.

For the first payroll, the employer issues a payslip, withholds the employee contributions and calculates the Income Tax (Impôt sur le Revenu, IR) on the net taxable salary (after employee contributions and the deduction for professional expenses), according to the progressive scale of the CGI 2026 (Article 73). The employer:

• Pays the IR withheld to the DGI in the month following payment (SIMPL online filing)
• Files the annual declaration of wages and salaries before 1 March (CGI, Article 79)

The scale, the reduction for family dependants and a worked example from gross to net salary are given in how to calculate the cost of an employee and the IR; the Tahfiz and Idmaj IR exemptions (Article 57 of the CGI) are detailed in the ANAPEC guide to first hires.

The employer keeps:

• The payroll register and monthly payslips (particulars provided for by the Labour Code)
• The paid leave register and the follow-up of pre-employment and periodic medical examinations (in-house medical service mandatory from 50 employees)
• The DAMANCOM declarations, proof of payment of contributions and the contracts, retained for 10 years as supporting documents (CGI, Article 211)
• The declaration of workplace accidents to the insurer within 48 hours

The Labour Code (Law 65-99) sets statutory working hours of 44 hours per week in non-agricultural activities, overtime paid at a premium, a weekly rest of at least 24 hours and paid annual leave of 1.5 working days per month (18 days per year) after six months of service. These rules are detailed in the Labour Code rules for employers.

Resignation, dismissal (valid reason and procedure), the notice period (Decree 2-04-469) and statutory severance pay (from 96 to 240 hours of salary per year of seniority, Article 53) are subject to strict rules. They are explained in our guide to the Labour Code in Morocco, together with the time limits for challenging a dismissal and the damages awarded for unfair dismissal.

The employment contract of a foreign employee must be approved (visé) by the ministry in charge of Labour (foreign worker employment contract, contrat de travail d'étranger), after a certificate from ANAPEC confirming that there is no national candidate for the position, except for exemptions provided for by the texts or by bilateral agreements. The foreign employee is affiliated with the CNSS under the same conditions as a Moroccan employee.

Here are the steps for hiring legally. With Charikaty, you do everything online. Charikaty is a private Moroccan legal-tech platform specializing in 100% online company formation: we set up your company remotely, file the CNSS affiliation application as part of the formation and, with our accounting service, put you in touch with our payroll and accounting partners for drafting contracts, registering employees, DAMANCOM declarations and IR withholding. MRE who set up their company from abroad can thus hire in Morocco without having to travel. More than 250 companies have already been set up with Charikaty.