Country & compliance
Labour law depends on where a person works: the country, and often the state, province or emirate. Country & compliance tells BusinessHRM where your company and each work location operate, then shows that place's rules: minimum wage, working hours, overtime, leave, social security and pension contributions, gratuity, notice, statutory IDs and public holidays. Every figure shows its source, the date it applies from, and whether it has been checked.
Not legal advice. The figures are a starting point taken from public sources. Laws change every budget or financial year. Anything marked Verify has not yet been checked against the official source. Confirm figures with your adviser before you rely on them.
You need the Manage Country & Compliance permission (admins have it by default), and the feature must be in your company's plan.
Countries and regions included
| Country | Regions |
|---|---|
| Pakistan | Punjab, Sindh, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Balochistan, Islamabad Capital Territory |
| United States | Federal, plus California, New York, Texas, Florida, Washington, Illinois, Massachusetts, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Georgia |
| United Kingdom | England, Wales, Scotland, Northern Ireland |
| Australia | NSW, Victoria, Queensland, Western Australia, South Australia, Tasmania, ACT, Northern Territory |
| United Arab Emirates | The seven emirates, plus the DIFC and ADGM free zones (which have their own employment laws) |
| Saudi Arabia | Riyadh, Makkah, Madinah, Eastern Province, Al-Qassim, Asir |
A region inherits every rule of its country that it does not set itself. For example, Punjab uses Pakistan's federal tax table and Punjab's own minimum wage.
Which rules apply to a person
BusinessHRM picks the place in this order:
- The employee's own Work country / region (override), if set on their profile.
- Their work location (Settings > Offices & addresses), if it has a country/region.
- The company country & region chosen on this page.
The People & locations tab shows the result for every employee and why.
Set it up
- Open Overview and choose your Company country & region. Click Save.
- Under Work locations, pick the state, province or emirate for each office and click Save on that row. The same picker is on the add/edit form in Settings > Offices & addresses.
- Open People & locations. Set an override only for someone who works under another region's law, for example a remote employee in another state. The employee add/edit form has the same field.
- Open Rules to review the figures (see below).
- Open Holiday calendar and import the public holidays for the year.
Rules
The Rules tab lists every rule for the selected place, grouped by topic (Minimum wage, Working hours, Overtime, Leave, Contributions, Income tax, Gratuity, Notice, Statutory IDs, and so on).
| Column | Meaning |
|---|---|
| Name | The rule and its key (for example min_wage.monthly). |
| Value | The figure that applies on the Valid on date. Notes explain the figure. |
| Effective | The date the value applies from, and until (or "open-ended"). |
| Source | The law, notification or official page the figure comes from. Click to open it. |
| Badges | Checked (with the date), Verify (not yet checked), Company override, or From PK (inherited from the country). |
Change Valid on to see the rules for another date, for example a past month you are re-running payroll for. A new law is added as a new dated row; old values stay, so past payroll uses the rule that was valid then.
Override a rule for your company
- Click Override on the rule.
- Enter your value. Rules with several parts (leave, contributions) show the value as JSON: keep the same keys.
- Choose From (and optionally To). Add a note and a link to your source.
- Click Save.
Your value wins from that date. Reset to default removes your overrides of that rule; the published value is never changed.
Holiday calendar
- Choose the place and the year.
- Review the list. Days already in your Holidays are marked Already in your holidays. Moon sighting marks Islamic holidays whose date can move by a day.
- Tick or untick Include dates that depend on the moon sighting.
- Click Import into my holidays.
Imported days go into the normal Holidays page (as public or festival holidays) where you can edit them. Dates you already have are skipped, so importing again is safe. A region's calendar includes its country's holidays (for example California = federal + state days).
For the UK, England & Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland bank holidays come from the official GOV.UK feed. It refreshes weekly; click Sync now if a date was just announced. The last sync time is shown.
Minimum wage warnings
- Salary screen (Payroll > Employee salary > add or edit): a warning shows when the monthly salary is below the minimum wage of the employee's place, with the shortfall and the source. It updates as you type.
- Run payroll > Before you run: a check lists employees paid below their place's minimum wage.
Where only an hourly minimum exists (USA, UK, Australia), BusinessHRM converts it to a month with the standard weekly hours (hourly × weekly hours × 52 ÷ 12). The check is skipped when your payroll currency differs from the place's currency. Warnings never block saving or running payroll.
REST API and AI assistant
The same data is available in the REST API under Country & Compliance (/api/v1/compliance/...): jurisdictions, resolved rules with your overrides, rule history, holiday calendars and import, company and work-location jurisdiction, employee work jurisdiction, and the minimum wage check. Writes need the same permissions as this page. See Developers for details.
Good to know
- Figures marked Verify need checking. Pakistan's Punjab Labour Code 2026 leave rules are entered with a placeholder start date until the Gazette enforcement date is confirmed.
- The UAE has no general minimum wage, and Saudi Arabia has none for the private sector, so no minimum wage warning appears there.
- Statutory ID definitions (CNIC, SSN, NI number, TFN, Emirates ID, iqama and others) are listed under Rules > Statutory IDs.