The total cost of a CLT employee goes far beyond salary. See the full math with a R$ 5,000 example and the real risks of disguised employment.
Salary is just the beginning
When a company hires under CLT, the registered salary is only the base of the cost. On top of it come mandatory employer charges — employer INSS, FGTS, the “S system” — and provisions for the 13th salary, vacation and the constitutional one-third, which fall due across the year but must enter the math from month one.
Ignoring those slices is the classic mistake when comparing offers: the employee sees the salary, but the company pays considerably more than that every month.
The full math for a R$ 5,000 CLT hire
Consider a R$ 5,000 salary under the presumed-profit regime (outside Simples). Employer INSS at 20%: R$ 1,000. RAT and third parties (an average 5.8% + 2%): about R$ 390. FGTS at 8%: R$ 400.
Monthly provisions: 13th (1/12) = R$ 416.67; vacation + 1/3 (1/12 + 1/36) = R$ 555.56; and the charges applying on those provisions add roughly R$ 290 more.
Approximate total: R$ 8,050 per month — around 1.6 to 1.7 times the salary, before benefits like meal vouchers, transport vouchers and health insurance, which easily push the total cost toward 1.8x. Companies under Simples Nacional pay lower employer charges, and the ratio falls to somewhere between 1.3x and 1.4x.
And the contractor — what does it cost?
In the PJ model, the company pays the invoice amount — and that is it. A R$ 6,500 monthly contract costs exactly R$ 6,500, with no charges, provisions or severance. That is why PJ offers tend to carry higher nominal amounts and still come out cheaper for the hiring company.
The contractor, in turn, bears their own taxes (Simples Nacional, generally between 6% and 15.5% for services), accounting and pension contributions, and gives up paid vacation, the 13th, FGTS and unemployment insurance. A fair comparison between the two models needs to weigh both sides.
Side-by-side comparison
Monthly cost to the company: a R$ 5,000 CLT hire ≈ R$ 8,000 to R$ 8,500 with benefits; a R$ 6,500 contractor = R$ 6,500.
Worker protections: CLT includes vacation + 1/3, the 13th, FGTS, the severance fine and unemployment insurance; PJ has none of those by default.
Flexibility: a PJ contract can end as agreed between the parties; CLT involves prior notice and severance items.
Legal risk: low under CLT; under PJ, it grows the more the relationship looks like employment.
Disguised employment: the risk that never shows up in the spreadsheet
Hiring a contractor for a role that looks like a job — fixed hours, subordination to a manager, personal and habitual work — characterizes what Brazilians call pejotização. If labor courts recognize the employment relationship, the company retroactively pays vacation, the 13th, FGTS with the fine, severance items and charges for the entire period, with interest.
The savings backfire: R$ 1,500 saved per month can become a six-figure liability after a few years of contract. PJ is a legitimate model for autonomous services — not a payroll substitute.
See the real cost of every hire
In Avos, the employer cost appears itemized in every payroll: salary, charges and provisions, employee by employee. That gives finance the real view of each hire’s cost and helps HR compare scenarios with numbers — not back-of-the-envelope guesses.