Social security in Bulgaria: what the employer pays into each fund in 2026

For an ordinary employee on a Labour Code contract, Bulgarian social security and health insurance add up to 32.70% of insurable pay in 2026, of which 18.92% is the employer’s cost and 13.78% comes out of the employee’s gross. The employee’s share is deducted from gross pay; the employer’s share is an extra cost on top of it. Both are calculated on the same base and paid together each month.

Those numbers rest on two conditions. The employee was born after 31 December 1959, which matters for the pension split described below, and the work-accident rate is 0.4%, the rate we use for software and office roles. That last rate is set by activity code in the annual social security budget law and runs from 0.4% to 1.1%, so a warehouse or manufacturing role can cost a little more.

The rates did not change for private-sector employees in 2026. The draft budget of December 2025 proposed lifting the pension rate by 2 points; that idea did not survive into the version passed in July 2026. What did change mid-year was the cap on the earnings that contributions are charged on, which we come to in section four.

The total is built from six separate funds under the Social Insurance Code (Кодекс за социално осигуряване, КСО), each with its own employer and employee rate. Seeing them separately helps when a payslip or an invoice lists them line by line.

• Pensions (state social security): 8.22% employer, 6.58% employee, 14.80% in total.
• General sickness and maternity: 3.50% overall, of which the employer covers 2.10%. This pays sick pay from the third day, maternity and other short-term benefits.
• Unemployment: 1% overall, 0.60% of it from the employer.
• Work accident and occupational disease (ТЗПБ): paid solely by the employer at a sector-based rate between 0.40% and 1.10%.
• Universal pension fund (supplementary mandatory pension, ДЗПО в УПФ): 2.80% employer, 2.20% employee.
• Health insurance: 4.80% employer, 3.20% employee, 8% in total, which funds the National Health Insurance Fund (НЗОК).

The sickness and unemployment funds follow a fixed 60:40 split between employer and employee. Health insurance follows the same proportion. Only the work-accident fund is paid by the employer alone, which is why the employer share always ends up a few tenths of a point higher than a straight 60:40 would suggest.

Income tax is not one of the funds. It is a flat 10%, charged on gross pay after the employee’s 13.78% has been deducted, and it is withheld from the employee’s pay rather than added to the employer’s cost.

Every employee born after 1959 pays into two pension pots at once: the state pension fund run through the National Social Security Institute, and a personal account in a universal pension fund (UPF), the second pillar. The UPF contribution is 5% of insurable pay, split 2.8% employer and 2.2% employee. It builds up in the employee’s own name, rather than paying today’s pensioners.

For the employer, the UPF does not change the total cost. It is simply one more line in the monthly calculation, withheld and paid over on the same date as everything else, and it is already inside the 18.92% and 13.78% totals.

Employees born before 1 January 1960 are the exception. They have no UPF account, and their state pension rate is higher instead: 19.8% in total, with 11.02 points charged to the employer and 8.78 withheld from pay. Add the other funds and the employer pays 18.52% plus the work-accident rate, and the employee 13.78%, which comes to the same totals as for younger colleagues. The split changes; the bill does not.

Neither pension pot is a scheme the employer selects or runs. The state pension is paid by the National Social Security Institute when the person retires, and the UPF account is held for the employee personally, so a change of job does not interrupt it. From the employer’s side, both are just percentages of insurable pay.

If you hire someone in their sixties, the only practical point is to give payroll the correct date of birth so the right fund lines are used from the first month.

Above a certain monthly figure, pay stops attracting contributions. That figure is the maximum insurable income (максимален осигурителен доход): €2,111.64 for January to July 2026, then €2,300.00 once the late-adopted 2026 social security budget took effect on 1 August. All six funds stop at it, health included.

So for anyone earning more than €2,300 a month, the employer’s contributions stop at 18.92% of €2,300, which is €435.16 a month, and the employee’s at €316.94. A senior engineer on €5,000 a month costs the employer the same in contributions as a colleague on €2,300. That is the main reason Bulgarian on-costs look low next to the headline rate of 18.92%.

Bonuses follow the same rule. If salary alone already passes the cap in a given month, a bonus paid that month is taxed at 10% and nothing more. That makes the timing of a year-end bonus a small but real cost question for employees whose pay sits just under the cap.

The mid-year change is worth understanding if you budget in annual figures. On a salary above the cap, the August increase from €2,111.64 to €2,300 added €188.36 a month to the insurable base. For the employer that meant about €35.64 more a month in contributions; for the employee, net pay fell by €23.36 a month on the worked example below, because their own contributions rose and the tax base shrank slightly.

At the other end there is a floor. The base is the real gross salary, but it cannot fall below the minimum insurable income fixed for that line of work and job; where no such minimum exists, the €620.20 national minimum wage for 2026 is the floor. At developer salaries the floor never bites, but it matters for part-time or junior roles.

Two institutions share the work. The National Revenue Agency (NRA, НАП) collects all contributions, health insurance included, together with the income tax the employer withholds. The deadline is the 25th: money for September work, for example, is due on 25 October, and so are the monthly declarations that tell the NRA what each employee earned and what is owed.

The National Social Security Institute (NSSI, НОИ) sits on the other side and pays benefits out. Its guidance for employers is published at noi.bg. The benefits an employee is most likely to meet during a normal job are these:

• Sick pay: days one and two of an illness are on the employer, at 70%; the NSSI takes over on the third day at 80% of the person’s insurable earnings, provided they have 6 months of insurance behind them.
• Maternity: up to 410 days for each child, starting with 45 compulsory days before the due date, at 90% of what the mother earned on average over two years, all of it from the NSSI and none from the employer.
• Fathers: a fortnight plus one day once mother and baby leave hospital, then 2 months reserved for the father that can be used at any point until the child’s eighth birthday, again funded by the NSSI.
• Leave to raise a child up to age 2, for which the NSSI pays a flat monthly sum.

Health insurance works slightly differently. The 8% contribution goes to the National Health Insurance Fund, which pays for medical care within the public system. Like the other funds, it is collected by the NRA with the monthly payment rather than paid to the fund directly by the employer.

Every one of these benefits depends on the contributions having been reported and paid correctly. When an employer files late or reports the wrong pay, it is the employee who later finds a gap in their insurance record, which is why the monthly filing is worth getting right first time.

Picture a Sofia developer hired for the full 2026 calendar year at €40,000 gross, which is €3,333.33 a month. Every one of those monthly salaries is over the cap, so only the capped amounts count: seven months at €2,111.64 and five at €2,300, or €26,281.48 in all.

The employer pays 18.92% of that base: €4,972.46, made up of €2,160.34 to pensions, €1,261.51 to health, €735.88 to the UPF, €551.91 to sickness and maternity, €157.69 to unemployment and €105.13 to the work-accident fund. Total employer cost comes to about €44,972.46, an on-cost of roughly 12.4%. Without the cap the employer’s contributions would have been €7,568.00.

Seen month by month, the employer’s total outlay for this developer was about €3,732.86 in each of the first seven months and €3,768.49 in each of the last five. The difference is the cap rising, nothing else: the salary did not move. If you forecast in monthly figures, use the higher number for the rest of 2026.

On the employee’s side, 13.78% of the same base is €3,621.59, and the 10% income tax on the rest is €3,637.84, leaving net pay of about €32,740.57 for the year. Payroll rounding can move these figures by a few euros. Our full breakdown of employer cost in Bulgaria takes the same example month by month and adds the provider fee.

Under Employer of Record Bulgaria, your new employee’s contract is signed with us, so registering, calculating and paying every fund becomes our job. Our payroll team enters the contract in the NRA’s employment register inside the 3-day window and before the employee’s start date, applies the correct split for the employee’s date of birth and the cap for each month, files the monthly declarations and makes the payments.

Your monthly invoice then shows three things: gross salary, employer contributions, and our own charge (from €599 per employee per month) as a separate line. The pricing page sets out what that covers, and the EOR timeline for Bulgaria marks the date the first contribution payment is due. Anyone weighing up providers can test them on these payroll details using the questions we suggest asking any Bulgarian EOR.

Q01What percentage of pay goes to social security on the employer side in Bulgaria?+

A.For a typical office or software employee born after 1959, the employer pays 18.92% of insurable pay, including health insurance and a 0.4% work-accident rate. The employee pays a further 13.78%, deducted from gross pay.

Q02Do Bulgarian contributions keep rising with salary?+

A.No. They stop at a monthly cap, €2,111.64 until the end of July 2026 and €2,300 since 1 August 2026, so the employer’s bill tops out at €435.16 a month per person and the employee’s at €316.94.

Q03What is the universal pension fund in Bulgaria?+

A.It is the second-pillar, supplementary mandatory pension. Employees born after 1959 pay 5% of insurable pay into a personal account; the employer covers 2.8 points of that and the employee 2.2.

Q04Who collects contributions and who pays benefits?+

A.The National Revenue Agency receives both the contributions and the income tax withheld from pay; its cut-off for paying over a month’s payroll amounts falls on the following month’s 25th. The National Social Security Institute pays sickness, maternity, paternity and pension benefits.

Q05Do employees born before 1960 cost more?+

A.No. They have no universal pension fund contribution, but a higher state pension rate, split 11.02% employer and 8.78% employee. The totals end up the same as for younger employees.