As of March 2024, the estimated population of the Czech Republic is 10.4 million.
The currency in the Czech Republic is the Czech Koruna (CZK). The currency symbol is Kč.
Permanent employment is defined to last for an indefinite period (open-end employment relationship). An employment relationship lasts for an indefinite period unless a fixed term of its duration has been expressly agreed upon.
An employment relationship is established by an employment contract between an employer and an employee. Such contracts must be made in writing. A written employment agreement must contain the following information: The employee's full name, employer's designation and seat if the employer is a legal entity, or the employer's full name and address if the employer is a natural person Information on job title and place of performance of work Information on the duration of annual leave or the method of determining it Information on notice periods Weekly working hours and schedule Information on salary and the remuneration method, the maturity of wage or salary, paydays and the place and method of payment Information on collective agreements regulating the employee's working conditions and the designation of the contracting parties to these agreements
Temporary employment refers to employees of an employment agency, temporarily assigned to an employer who hired the agency. Such employees must have a Blue Card, or a work permit, and may not be disabled. A temporary employment agreement must be concluded in writing. The temporary assignment must terminate on expiry of the period agreed in the agreement. The employment agency must not temporarily assign the same employee for performance of work to the same user for a period longer than 12 consecutive calendar months unless it is requested by the agency employee.
The maximum probationary period cannot be longer than 4 months for regular employees and 8 months for managers. In the case of fixed-term employment contracts, the probationary period must not be longer than half of the agreed period of the employment relationship. Probationary period is extended by the employee's working days in which they did not work the entire shift during the probationary period due to an obstacle to work, taking leave or unexcused absence from work. Employers are not required to include the probationary period in employment agreements; however, it must be agreed to in writing, at the latest, on the day the work commences. During the probationary period, both the employer and the employee can terminate the employment relationship for any reason or without stating any reason. However, during the probationary period, the employer may not terminate the employment relationship within the first 14 calendar days of an employee's temporary incapacity for work or quarantine.
The standard workweek is 40 hours. The length of a shift may not exceed 12 hours. After continuous work for 6 hours at the utmost, employees are entitled to a work break for a meal and rest lasting at least 30 minutes; an adolescent employee must be given such a break after a maximum of 4.5 hours of continuous work. Employees are allowed to arrange their working hours in shifts under a written agreement with their employer. Employers are required to draw up a written weekly work schedule and inform employees of the schedule or its alteration at the latest 2 weeks before the beginning of the period over which the working hours are distributed.
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An employee who has performed work for the same employer for at least 60 days in one calendar year is entitled to leave for that calendar year, or a proportional amount of leave if employment did not last continuously for the entire calendar year. The standard length of annual leave is 4 weeks. For government employees, annual leave is 5 weeks. Persons employed in education and academic employees of universities are entitled to 8 weeks of annual leave. Employees engaged in particularly arduous or hazardous work are entitled to supplementary leave. The leave accumulates gradually during the year and any unused annual leave must be taken by the end of the following calendar year. If the leave cannot be used up by the end of the following calendar year because the employee has been declared temporarily unable to work or because of the use of maternity or parental leave, the employer is obliged to determine the period of taking this leave after the end of these obstacles at work. When leave is interrupted due to military service, maternity leave, or paternity leave, annual leave is suspended and can be resumed after the interruption stops.
Sick employees are entitled to paid sick leave under the sickness insurance, with graduated support depending on the length of time away. The premium for sickness insurance is 2.7%, and the minimum sickness insurance premium is set at CZK 243 in 2025. Employers pay 2.1% and employees pay 0.6%. During the first 14 calendar days of illness, the employer is required to provide wage compensation equal to 60% of the employee's average wage. After the 15th day, employees are entitled to sickness benefits paid from the social security system. Wage compensation is due for working days in the event of temporary incapacity for work. The social security sickness benefit per calendar day amounts to 60% of the reduced daily basis of assessment for the first 30 days of temporary incapacity for work or ordered quarantine, 66% of the reduced daily basis of assessment from the 31st day to the 60th day of temporary incapacity for work or ordered quarantine and 72% of the reduced daily basis of assessment from the 61st day of temporary incapacity for work or ordered quarantine.
In the Czech Republic, a female employee's maternity leave begins at the sixth week before the expected childbirth (the earliest it can start is at 8 weeks before the expected delivery). An employee is entitled to 28 weeks of maternity leave. If she gave birth to 2 or more children at the same time, she is eligible for 37 weeks of maternity leave. The Czech Health Insurance Fund funds maternity benefits. An employee must participate in insurance for at least 270 calendar days over the last 2 years before they take maternity leave to receive financial assistance from the fund.
Per the amendments to the Sickness Insurance Act in the Czech Republic, paternity leave is a sickness insurance benefit. Insured fathers are entitled to 14 days of paid leave in connection with the care of a newborn child. The benefit is paid by the Czech Sickness Insurance Fund. An employer must also grant unpaid parental leave upon a request from an employee. The entitlement to parental leave applies to the mother of a child upon the termination of her maternity leave and the father of a child from the delivery date until the child turns 3 years old.
The Czech Labor Code states that the minimum notice for dismissal must be at least 2 months. The notice period is reduced to 1 month for the following types of dismissals: Failure to meet job requirements Serious breach of duty Repeated minor breaches Gross violation of employee obligations It is the same for both employers and employees and can be extended or changed only by written agreement. Effective June 1, 2025, the notice period takes effect on the day on which the notice was delivered to the other party. Notice of termination with respect to an employment relationship must be in writing and state the reason for termination. For fixed-term employment, the contract expires at the end of the agreed period. However, the employer is required to provide notice of the termination at least 3 days before the event. If the employee continues working after the agreed period, and the employer is aware of the employee's performance, the employment relationship becomes indefinite.
The Labor Code requires an employer to make redundancy severance payments if the employer either dismisses or terminates employees by agreement due to the following reasons: If the employee becomes redundant due to the decision of the employer to change activities, increase efficiency, or restructure If the employer's undertaking relocates or closes down Depending on the duration of the employment relationship, the amount of severance pay can be up to 3 times the employee's average monthly earnings. Effective June 1, 2025, where an employee's employment ends because they can no longer perform their job due to a work-related injury, an occupational disease or the threat of such a disease, or because they have reached the maximum permissible workplace exposure as determined by a decision of the competent public health protection authority, the employee is entitled to a one-time workplace compensation payment of at least 12 times their average earnings. This payment is no longer treated as severance and is now a one-time compensation, satisfied through the employer's statutory work-injury liability insurance.
The retirement age for insured persons born after 1988 is 67 years. If a person reaches their retirement age after 2018, they must have had insurance for at least 35 years. People who reached their retirement age before 2018 need fewer years of coverage. For persons who do not meet these requirements, a proportional old-age pension is available with a shorter insurance period but a higher age condition. A person's retirement age depends on the year of birth, their sex, and the number of children raised (for a woman). Working old-age pensioners (who receive the full state old-age pension for the entire calendar month) are entitled to a reduction (sleva) of 6.5% of the assessment base on the employee's social insurance contribution. The reduction is applied by the employer for employees and through the annual statement of income and expenses for self-employed pensioners. This is a reduction on the employee-side contribution; the employer-side contribution is not affected. The amount of the pension includes 2 parts: a basic assessment and a percentage assessment. The basic assessment is 10% of the relevant average wage. As of January 1, 2026, this amounts to CZK 4,900 per month.
In the Czech Republic, there are provisions for pensions for survivors (spouses and children) of a deceased individual's family. The amount the surviving spouse receives has 2 parts: the basic assessment and the percentage assessment. A dependent child is entitled to a survivor's pension if their deceased parent received a retirement or a disability pension or died because of a work accident. The basic amount of the widow's and widower's pension is CZK 4,900 (Czech korunas) per month as of January 1, 2026. The minimum total widow's/widower's pension is set at 15% of the average wage (CZK 7,350 in 2026). The minimum amount is guaranteed and adjusted to all pensions, including those granted before January 1, 2026. In case of an employee's death caused by an industrial injury or an occupational disease, the labor law requires the employer to: Pay for the employee's medical treatment Pay for the employee's funeral Pay for the costs of the survivors' maintenance Provide lump-sum indemnification to the survivors Provide compensation for material damage Compensation is provided for reasonable funeral costs, in an amount of one and a half times the average national wage. Total maintenance compensation paid to all survivors may not exceed the amount the employee would have been entitled to receive as compensation for loss of earnings
A disability or invalidity is defined as when a person's ability to work decreases at least 35% because of a long-term unfavorable state of health. There are 3 stages of disability based on the amount by which a person's ability to work decreases: Stage 1 Invalidity: Between 35% and 49% Stage 2 Invalidity: Between 50% and 69% Stage 3 Invalidity: At least 70% The disability pension consists of 2 components: a basic assessment and a percentage assessment. The basic assessment is the same for all recipients and is established under the Pension Insurance Act. As of January 1, 2026, the basic assessment is set at CZK 4,900 per month. The percentage assessment varies depending on the degree of disability and is calculated as a percentage of the average wage: Stage III disability: 20% of the average wage (CZK 9,800) Stage II disability: 15% of the average wage (CZK 7,350) Stage I disability: 13.33% of the average wage (CZK 6,534) The basic assessment itself remains fixed at CZK 4,900 (10% of the average wage). The amounts listed above represent the minimum total pension payable for each disability stage. Employers are obliged to compensate employees for injuries caused by an accident at work, if the injury occurs during the performance of work tasks or in direct connection with it. Compensation is also due for work-related accidents that did not require the employee to be temporarily unable to work, or only to be unable to work for three calendar days.
The tax assessment year in the Czech Republic is the same as the calendar year. Per the tax laws, taxpayers who have their registered office, management place or permanent residence in the country, have to pay a tax that covers income generated from sources both in the territory of the Czech Republic and abroad. Persons staying in the country for more than 183 days in a year are considered residents. Taxpayers who do not have their registered office in the territory of the Czech Republic are only liable to pay tax for the income generated in the country. Tax rates for non-residents are the same as for tax residents. The income tax rates are progressive, 15% or 23% depending on the income.
According to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Czech Republic, 2 types of visas are available for persons who wish to visit and stay in the country: short-term and long-term visas.
Short-term visas are issued for stays with a duration of up to 90 days and categorized as transit (A) or short-stay (C) visas. Short-stay visas of the category C (letter “C” visa) are granted for tourism, health, business, culture, sport, visit (invitation), official (political), study, internship, scientific research, employment, or training.
Long-term visas are granted for stays over 90 days and up to 1 year. They are issued as letter “D” visas and used for collecting a permanent residence permit, collecting a long-term residence permit for employment (employee card and blue card), as well as health, culture, sport, visit (invitation), family, study, internship, scientific research, and entrepreneurship.
An employee card is a permit for long-time residence in the territory of the Czech Republic, issued where the purpose of the foreign national’s stay (longer than three months) is employment. A foreign national who has an employee card is entitled: To reside in the territory of the Czech Republic and, at the same time To work in the job for which the employee card was granted To work in the job for which the Department for Asylum and Migration Policy of the Ministry of the Interior granted consent (in connection with changing employer, changing job, taking up employment with an additional employer or in an additional job). An employee card can be issued to a foreign national for the duration of the employer-employee relationship according to the submitted documents (for example, a contract of employment) for up to two years, with an option of repeated extension of its validity. The foreign national must request the Ministry of the Interior of the Czech Republic to grant consent with a change of a job position if they are assigned by a job agency to perform work for a different employer (user) and perform different work or to work at the different establishment than the one the existing employee card was issued for.
