- Decision No. 141, dated March 6, 2026, compensates for the increase in employer contributions brought about by the new minimum wage of 50,000 lek.
- The compensation is 16.71% of the difference between the gross salary for September 2025 and 50,000 lekë, for each month from January through September 2026.
- Private employers who, as of September 2025, had employees with a gross salary of 40,000 to 49,999 lek.
- State entities and those with contribution obligations at the time of application are not eligible.
- Applications must be submitted on e-Albania by October 31, 2026. After this date, requests will not be accepted.
- For five employees at 44,000 lek in September 2025, the compensation is 5,010 lek per month.
In this article, we will explain how the 2026 contribution compensation works. As of January 2026, the minimum wage was raised to 50,000 gross leks. Any employer who had employees earning below this amount was required to increase it. With the wage increase, the social and health contributions that employers pay each month automatically rose as well. This additional cost was not planned and was not accompanied by any relief from the state. Until now.
The Albanian Government has now approved Decision No. 141, dated March 6, 2026, which exactly compensates for that increase in contributions. The compensation is paid monthly, covers the period from January to September 2026, and is administered through the e-Albania portal.
This article explains what the decision covers, who is eligible, how the compensation amount is calculated, and what needs to be verified before you apply.
What This Decision Covers (And What It Doesn’t)
The minimum wage increase impacts employers in two ways. The first is the higher gross salary, which remains entirely your responsibility. The second involves the employer's social security and health insurance contributions, which increased automatically as they are calculated as a percentage of the salary.
Decision No. 141/2026 compensates only the second effect. At a rate of 16.71%, the compensation is calculated on the difference between the employee's gross pay as declared in September 2025 and the new minimum threshold of 50,000 lek. You pay the increased salary. The state covers the new contributions on that increase until September 2026.
Read also: Increase of the Minimum Wage in Albania to 50,000 Lek (January 2026)
Who Is Eligible to Apply?
Basic Criteria
Your business is entitled to compensation if it meets all the following conditions simultaneously.
There must have been employees with a gross salary of 40,000 to 49,999 lekë in September 2025, because they are the basis on which compensation is calculated. It must be a private entity, with no ties to state ownership or public‐entity status. It must not be registered as self-employed, nor as having employees, nor as having no employees. And it must not have any unpaid obligations to the tax administration for social and health contributions at the time of application.
Limitation by Number of Employees
Businesses with only one employee registered on the payroll are outside of this scheme. Decision No. 141/2026 specifies it explicitly: the subject must not have “one employee in total registered on the payroll.” If you have two or more registered employees, this limitation does not affect you.
Limitation by Sector
There is no sectoral limitation. The compensation applies to all types of economic activity, according to the Albanian nomenclature of economic activities.
What Is the Amount and How Is It Calculated
The Calculation Formula
Monthly compensation for each employee = 16.7% × (50,000 lekë − gross salary for September 2025)
The 16.7% rate reflects the employer's contributions: 15% social insurance and 1.7% health insurance. The lower the employee's salary was in September 2025, the larger the difference and the higher the compensation.
Example with Real Numbers
Five employees with a gross salary of 44,000 lek in September 2025.
Difference from the new minimum wage: 50,000 − 44,000 = 6,000 lekë per employee. Monthly compensation per employee: 16.7% × 6,000 = 1,002 lekë. Total monthly compensation for five employees: 5,010 lekë. Total compensation for the period January through September 2026 (9 months): 45,090 lekë.
The table below shows how the compensation changes according to the employee's initial salary.
| September 2025 Gross Salary | Difference | Monthly Compensation per Employee |
|---|---|---|
| 40,000 lek | 10,000 leks | 1,670 lek |
| 43,000 lek | 7,000 lek | 1,169 lek |
| 46,000 lek | 4,000 lek | 668 ALL |
| 49,000 lek | One thousand lek | 167 ALL |
If You Have Reduced Staff During 2026
If during the period from January through September 2026 the total number of your employees falls below the number of those with salaries between 40,000 and 49,999 lek that you had in September 2025, the compensation is calculated based on the average amount per employee multiplied by the current total number of employees. The reduction decreases the compensation, but does not eliminate it.
When and How to Apply
Deadline and Method of Application
Applications are submitted through the e-Albania portal from April 1, 2026 to October 31, 2026. The compensation covers the entire period from January through September 2026, which means you can also apply for past months within the same timeframe.
October 31, 2026, is the sole and final deadline. After this date, requests will not be accepted.
Who Administers It and When It Is Paid
The compensation is administered by the Regional Directorate of the National Agency for Employment and Skills (RENA), according to the address where your business conducts its main commercial activity. The payment is made every month, within the first 10 days of the following month, directly into the entity’s bank account.
How Verification Works
The e-Albania system interacts automatically with the data from the General Directorate of Taxes. Payrolls, declarations, and contribution history are accessible by the system during the verification process, without manual intervention.
What You Should Verify Before Applying
Tax Obligation Status
If your business has unpaid obligations for social security and health insurance contributions, the system automatically blocks the requests. There is no workaround for this condition. If there are open obligations, they must be settled before submitting the application.
September 2025 Payroll
This is the document on which the entire compensation is based: the number of employees with salaries between 40,000 and 49,999 lek and their specific salaries. The decision refers to “the most recent update made during 2025.” If the September 2025 payroll was corrected after the initial filing, verify which version appears as valid in the tax system.
Coherence of Declared Data
The system automatically cross-references payroll data with tax records. Any discrepancy between what you have declared and what the system reflects may delay or block the compensation.
Read also: Expected Tax Legal Changes for 2026
Is it for you? Four questions that settle it before you open the app.
From our daily work, we see the same thing in businesses that lose this credit. They don't fail the calculation; they fail a small requirement that they discover on the day they submit the application, when there's no time left to fix it. The following four questions get past that preliminary check. The conditions are met simultaneously, so if even one of them isn't met, the application is blocked.
Question 1. Would you have, on the September 2025 payroll, at least one employee with a gross salary ranging from 40,000 to 49,999 lek?
If not, the scheme does not apply to you and you may stop here. The entire calculation is based on the maximum number of employees in this pay bracket, as shown on the September 2025 payroll, according to the most recent update made within 2025. Without that pay bracket there is no basis for calculation, even if you later increased salaries. For the same reason, any business that began operations after September 2025 remains excluded.
Question 2. How many employees do you have in total on the payroll today?
If you have only one employee, you are outside the scheme. This condition is stated in the decision and admits no exception. If you have two or more, proceed to the third question.
Question 3. In which insurance status is your entity registered?
The self-employed status is excluded in all three of its forms: sole self-employed; self-employed with employees and unpaid family workers; and self-employed without employees or unpaid family workers. Thus, even the self-employed person who has employees remains excluded, and this is the confusion we see most often. State-owned enterprises and public entities are also excluded. The sector of activity does not matter, because the scheme applies to all economic sectors.
Question 4. Do you have any outstanding principal obligations for social security and health contributions?
This requirement is measured at the time of application, not at the end of the year, and the decision refers specifically to the principal. If the answer is no, apply today and don't leave it until October.
If the answer is yes, you have two options and their costs are not the same. The first option is to pay off the principal before you submit the request. The cost is a payment you're required to make anyway, carried out a few weeks earlier than you had planned, plus the time spent coordinating with the administration. The benefit is the full nine months' compensation, received within the year. The second option is to wait. The cost is the complete loss of compensation, because on October 31 the window closes and the scheme does not reopen, while the obligation you wanted to postpone remains, only now without the compensation that would have mitigated it.
Our recommendation is clear and unequivocal: fix the contribution principal within this week and apply immediately afterward. Every day of delay only reduces the chance of closing within the deadline, because reconciling an obligation doesn't depend solely on you.
Two calculated cases that occur more often
The above example uses five employees with the same pay because it shows the formula clearly. In practice, payroll is rarely like that. The two cases below are those in which the error occurs most often.
Case 1. Payroll with varying wages
A business with eight employees in September 2025. Two with a gross salary of 42,000 lek, three with 45,000 lek, one with 48,000 lek, and two with 60,000 lek. The two employees earning 60,000 lekë are not included in the calculation at all, because they were above the threshold and their pay was not affected by the minimum wage increase.
| Gross salary, September 2025 | Employee | Monthly compensation for employees | Total monthly compensation |
|---|---|---|---|
| 42,000 lek | 2 | 1,336 lek | 2,672 lek |
| 45,000 lek | 3 | 835 lek | 2,505 lek |
| 48,000 lek | 1 | 334 lek | 334 lek |
| 60,000 lek | 2 | Outside the range | zero lek |
The total monthly compensation is 5,511 lek. For the nine-month period, the total amounts to 49,599 lek.
Case 2. When the number of employees has decreased during the year.
A business with seven employees in September 2025, all with a gross salary of 46,000 lekë. The difference is 4,000 lekë, which is 668 lekë per employee per month and 4,676 lekë per month for all seven. Without any reduction, the nine months would yield 42,084 lekë.
In four of those nine months, the total number of employees falls to five, i.e., below the seven-person threshold as of September 2025. For those four months, compensation is calculated based on the average amount per employee, 668 lekë, multiplied by the current total number, five, i.e., 3,340 lekë per month.
| Months | Monthly compensation | Total |
|---|---|---|
| 5 months without a reduction | 4,676 lek | 23,380 lek |
| 4 months with five employees | 3,340 lek | 13,360 lek |
| Total period | 36,740 lek |
So the reduction cost 5,344 lekë, not the entire compensation. Be careful about two things in this case. The comparison is made month by month, not once for the whole period, so a single month with reduced staff doesn't skew the other eight. And the comparison is made with the number of employees in the 40,000 to 49,999 lek salary bracket for September 2025, not with that month's total number.
The file you need to have on hand before opening the application.
This is not the list of documents the portal requires, because the verification is carried out electronically between systems. This is the list of information you need on hand to know what you're looking for and to catch the error before the system does.
- September 2025 payroll, the version valid in the tax system. It's in e-Filing, in that month's returns. Without it, your entire calculation falls apart and the amount requested doesn't match what the system shows.
- List of employees with a gross salary of 40,000 to 49,999 lek and each employee's salary. It's taken from that same payroll list. Without it, you can't calculate the difference on a per-employee basis.
- Total number of employees month by month, January through September 2026. It's found in the monthly pay stubs. Without it, you won't catch the months when the reduction rule applies, and the amount you expect will be higher than what you receive.
- Status of principal contribution obligations. It's verified against your tax account. Without this check, you only learn about the obstacle on the day you apply, when the time to fix it is already limited.
- Registration status of the entity with the insurance authority. If you're listed as self-employed in any of the three forms, applying makes no sense. You can find the rates and statuses on our website. Social security and health insurance.
- The entity's bank account is accurate and active. Payment is initiated through the bank you work with. If the bank details are outdated, the settlement is approved but the payment gets stuck.
- Access to the entity's account on the e-Albania portal. If the person who holds the access isn't available, this usually becomes apparent in the final days, when there's no time left.
The remaining calendar and three details that were often lost.
September is the last month covered by the scheme. As of September 30, the period from January through September 2026 is closed and your amount no longer changes, so the only thing left is to apply within the deadline. Requests submitted within a month are paid within the first ten days of the following month; thus, an October request is paid in the first ten days of November.
Three details of text of the decision They lose more often than the others. First, the basis is the maximum number of employees in the bracket during September 2025, according to the latest 2025 update, so it's not the number on the day you apply and it's not necessarily the first payroll deposit. Second, the liabilities requirement refers to the principal's obligations to the tax authorities for social and health contributions at the time of application, which is narrower than it is commonly understood. Third, the application is made for the period for which you are seeking compensation, so a timely application covers past months as well, and a business that applies in October has not lost January.
If you'd like us to handle this review of your September 2025 payroll, calculate the amount for each employee, and track the application through to payment, write to us for a free consultation. We include these as part of monthly subscription. The deadline is pressing, but it's just an afternoon's worth of work.
Read also: Contribution compensation, source page with the terms and formula
Frequently asked questions
Can applications be submitted for months prior to April 1, 2026?
Yes. Although applications open on April 1, 2026, the compensation covers the period starting from January. Within the October 31, 2026 deadline, you may submit requests for the months of January, February, and March as well.
Is the financial compensation taxable?
Decision No. 141/2026 does not address this aspect. For the correct fiscal treatment of the compensation received, we recommend consulting with your accountant or our team.
Does a business qualify if it started operations after September 2025?
The decision is based entirely on the September 2025 payroll as a reference. Entities without a declaration history for that month lack a calculation basis and cannot benefit from this scheme.
What happens if an employee had separately declared allowances above the base salary?
The calculation basis is the total gross salary as it appears on the September 2025 payroll. If allowances were included as part of the gross salary, they are included in the calculation. If they were treated separately, this detail requires individual verification.
