Glossary
Terms, written so a page can stand alone
30 English entries on hiring, pay, and labour law across our markets. Statutory numbers live on the country hiring guides. Chinese translations come later.
Hiring
In-country employment
A way to hire someone under the labour law, payroll, and social charges of the country where they work, without incorporating a local company first.
Executive search
A retained search for a named senior role — typically a country manager, plant director, or functional head — with a mapped market and a shortlist, not a job-ad campaign.
Recruitment process outsourcing
Embedded hiring for a volume build — a factory ramp, a shared-service centre, or a 20–200 headcount programme — run by recruiters in the country of the roles.
Contractor management
Classifying, contracting, and paying people who are genuinely independent — and converting them when the inspector would call the arrangement employment.
Shortlist
The named candidates we put in front of you after mapping the market and testing what people told us — typically the first output of a retained search.
Pay
Payroll
The monthly cycle that pays the employee, withholds what the country requires, and files employer social charges, tax, and any statutory extra month.
13th-month salary
A statutory or customary extra month of pay on top of the twelve monthly gross payments, common across Southeast Asia, Latin America, and parts of Europe.
THR (Indonesia)
Tunjangan Hari Raya: Indonesia's statutory religious-holiday allowance, generally one month's wages after a year of service, paid at least seven days before the employee's holiday.
Tet bonus
The Lunar New Year payment in Vietnam. It is customary and commercially expected, not a single statutory 13th-month formula in the Labour Code.
Aguinaldo
Mexico's statutory year-end payment: at least 15 days' salary, due by 20 December, under Article 87 of the Federal Labour Law.
PTU (Mexico)
Participación de los Trabajadores en las Utilidades: Mexico's statutory employee profit sharing, paid in addition to monthly gross and Aguinaldo.
FGTS (Brazil)
Fundo de Garantia do Tempo de Serviço: an 8% monthly employer deposit on Brazilian CLT pay, including on the 13th salary, held in the employee's name.
Monthly gross
Base pay for one month in local currency, before bonus, allowances, and employer social contributions. This is the basis of the ArkTalents 2026 salary tables.
Statutory employer cost
The mandatory amounts the employer pays on top of gross wages: social insurance, funds, levies, and extra-month rules — not a market salary.
Contribution base
The wage slice on which social charges are calculated — often capped, and not always equal to uncapped gross pay.
Labour law
Probation
A limited opening period of the employment contract, with its own pay floor and notice rules, after which ordinary termination rules apply.
Notice period
The time that must run, or be paid in lieu, between a resignation or dismissal decision and the last day of employment.
Indefinite contract
An employment contract with no fixed end date — the default form of employment in most of our markets, as opposed to a lawful fixed-term or contractor invoice.
Minimum wage
The statutory wage floor in a country or city. It is a compliance number, not a market salary for the roles in our salary guide.
Social insurance
Mandatory employer and employee contributions for pension, medical, unemployment, and work-injury cover, calculated on a contribution base in the country of work.
Housing fund (China)
China's city housing-fund scheme (住房公积金): a separate mandatory saving, paid by employer and employee, on top of social insurance.
Convenio (Spain)
A Spanish collective agreement that sits on top of the Workers' Statute and often sets a higher wage floor, extras, and working-time rules than the national minimum.
CPF (Singapore)
Central Provident Fund: mandatory contributions for Singapore citizens and permanent residents. The ordinary-wage ceiling is S$8,000 a month from 1 January 2026.
MPF (Hong Kong)
Mandatory Provident Fund: Hong Kong's 5% + 5% retirement saving on relevant income, with a monthly cap, for most employees.
Severance
The statutory or contractual payment due when employment ends without a fault dismissal — often a formula of months per year of service, not a negotiation opener.
People
Global mobility
Moving a person into a country to work: the work pass, the local-plus package, and the moment a local hire should replace the expatriate seat.
Local-plus package
A local employment contract with extra items on top — housing, schooling, a mobility allowance — rather than a full expatriate balance-sheet package.
Local hire
Someone employed in the country of work as a local, on a local contract and local pay — not as an expatriate on a home-country package.
Expatriate
A person sent to work in a country that is not their home employment market, usually on a work pass and a package that is not a pure local hire.
Work permit
The government authorisation a foreign national needs to be employed in that country. A business visa is not a work permit.