EOR vs co-employment PEO vs managed payroll bureau in the Caribbean: who is the employer and what it costs

Three models, three different legal employers

Employer of record (EOR). A provider's local entity hires your worker, signs the employment contract, registers with the tax and social security authority, runs payroll and files. You direct the work day to day. You need no entity of your own in the country. Global platforms such as Deel, Remote, Multiplier, Papaya Global, Rippling and Pebl sell EOR; so do direct regional operators.

Professional employer organization (PEO). In the US sense, a PEO co-employs staff alongside a company that already has its own local entity. The PEO takes on payroll, benefits and some HR liabilities; the client remains an employer too. In the Caribbean the term is used loosely. Several regional firms marketed as PEOs are in fact the sole legal employer, which makes them an EOR in substance. Read the contract, not the label.

Managed payroll bureau. You incorporate locally, register as an employer with TAJ, NIBTT, BRA, GRA or TSS, open a local bank account, and hire staff directly. The bureau calculates pay, statutory deductions and filings and may release payments from your account. You are the only employer and you carry all employment liability.

The model determines who appears on the statutory registration, who the worker would bring a claim against, and who must hold a valid work permit sponsorship for expatriate staff. Price follows from that, not the other way round.

Side-by-side comparison

Use this table to rule a model in or out before collecting quotes. Prices are the market ranges commonly quoted in 2026.

Worked example: 10 engineers in Port of Spain

Ten staff in Trinidad and Tobago, each on TTD 15,000 a month. Benchmark FX: USD 1 = TTD 6.78 (November 2026). Employer NIS in 2026 is 10.8% of insurable earnings, capped at TTD 13,600 a month. Health Surcharge is employee-only and does not add to employer cost.

The USD 18,000 entity line is a placeholder for incorporation amortized over the first year, registered office, local accountant, audit and bank fees. Replace it with your own quotes; it is the number that decides whether model C wins. At ten staff the bureau route is cheaper than global EOR by about USD 50,000 a year, but only USD 8,000 cheaper than a regional EOR, and it takes on full termination liability. Under the Retrenchment and Severance Benefits Act, two weeks' basic pay per year for years one to four and three weeks from year five apply whichever model you choose; the difference is whose name is on the claim.

Also note that the total NIS rate is scheduled to rise from 16.2% to 19.2% in January 2027. Ask each provider how and when the new rate will be applied.

Who each model suits

• EOR suits a company testing a market with one to fifteen people, needing to hire in weeks, or hiring across several islands where a separate entity in each would be absurd. Regional operators suit concentrated teams; global platforms suit companies hiring in many countries who value one contract.
• Co-employment PEO suits a company that has already incorporated, for example to hold a lease, a licence or a government contract, but has no local HR or payroll team. Read the indemnity clause closely, because liability is shared and the split is negotiated.
• Payroll bureau with your own entity suits a long-term operation of fifteen or more people in one country, a regulated business that must be the direct employer, or an energy contractor in Guyana that must show local employment under the Local Content Act through its own registration.

Many companies use more than one model: an EOR in Barbados for two staff and an entity plus bureau in Trinidad and Tobago for forty. That is normal and often the cheapest overall answer.

Questions to put in writing

1. To an EOR or PEO: Is your entity the sole employer, or are we a co-employer? Quote the clause.
2. To an EOR or PEO: Who is named on the NIBTT, TAJ or BRA employer registration for our staff?
3. To an EOR or PEO: What is your FX margin over the reference rate, and on what date is the rate fixed?
4. To an EOR or PEO: What deposit is required and on what is it calculated?
5. To a payroll bureau: Which filings do you submit on our behalf, and who bears penalties if a filing is late because of your error?
6. To a payroll bureau: What is the per-island setup fee, and does it include historical data load and a parallel run?
7. To all: How will the January 2027 Trinidad NIS rate change be applied, and when will we see it on a payslip?

Then run the answers through the EOR fee audit.

Decision checklist

• We know whether we need, or already have, a local entity.
• We know how many people we expect in each country at month 12 and month 36.
• We have the entity running cost from a local accountant, not a guess.
• We have run the break-even analyzer with our own numbers.
• We understand who carries severance liability in each model and have estimated it with the severance calculator.
• We have read the contractor misclassification playbook, because paying people as contractors is not a fourth model if they work like employees.