Cities
24 markets, each with its own arithmetic.
The reason to hire fractionally is different in every market, and the difference is rarely the one people expect. It is usually buried in severance law, work permit quotas or a localisation regime rather than in the salary.
Southeast Asia
Bangkok
Severance runs to 400 days of uncapped wages while employer social cost is capped at THB 10,500 a year. A bad executive hire is cheap to carry and ruinous to exit.
THB 120k–350k / moSingaporeSingapore
A foreign-owned SME frequently cannot obtain an Employment Pass for a full-time foreign executive because of COMPASS. Contracted leadership is the only legal route to that expertise.
S$5,000–15,000 / moMalaysiaKuala Lumpur
EPF is uncapped at 12–13%, so Malaysia is the market where employer on-costs scale linearly with executive pay. A consulting fee removes them entirely.
MYR 15k–45k / moIndonesiaJakarta
Severance tops out near 19 months of wages for a long-serving senior hire, and the 0.5× efficiency multiplier is routinely contested at the Industrial Relations Court.
IDR 60m–180m / moVietnamHo Chi Minh City
The under-90-day exemption plus the FCT exclusion for offshore delivery makes Vietnam the easiest market in the region to serve legally with a non-resident executive.
VND 80m–250m / moVietnamHanoi
The dual-city problem: senior presence is needed in two places and two full-time hires cannot be justified.
VND 70m–220m / moPhilippinesManila
Separation pay of one month per year plus a 30-day DOLE process, with illegal-dismissal exposure if the business justification fails, makes a wrong permanent hire expensive to unwind.
PHP 150k–450k / moCambodiaPhnom Penh
The 10% foreign-worker quota mechanically prevents a small foreign-owned entity from hiring a full-time expatriate executive.
USD 2,000–6,000 / moGulf
Dubai
Corporate tax and the audit and transfer-pricing wave behind it created acute demand for a real CFO among owner-managed firms that have never had one — a compliance-triggered, time-boxed need.
AED 15k–40k / moUnited Arab EmiratesAbu Dhabi
The Hub71 and ADGM cohort is post-Series A but pre-institutional: CFO-grade fundraising and governance capability is needed without a permanent package.
AED 15k–40k / moSaudi ArabiaRiyadh
The RHQ build-out created hundreds of thinly staffed entities needing senior capability immediately without a permanent package.
SAR 25k–70k / moSaudi ArabiaJeddah
Family groups at the second and third generation transition need external, temporary professional authority to build governance without displacing the family.
SAR 20k–55k / moQatarDoha
The QFC family-office and asset-management boom created hundreds of newly licensed entities needing capability far exceeding their headcount.
QAR 25k–60k / moKuwaitKuwait City
Senior expatriate roles are tied to sponsorship with high turnover, so a defined-mandate interim is often more stable than a permanent hire.
KWD 2,000–5,500 / moBahrainManama
Rising LMRA fees plus the 8.4% end-of-service contribution mean the marginal cost of an expatriate head is rising on a published schedule.
BHD 2,500–6,500 / moOmanMuscat
Omanisation makes each foreign senior headcount politically and financially costly; an advisory contract sidesteps the quota denominator.
OMR 2,000–5,500 / moEast Asia
Hong Kong
The gap between required capability and affordable headcount is wider here than almost anywhere.
HK$60k–150k / moJapanTokyo
The lifetime-employment norm and Article 16 make a full-time senior hire near-irreversible, so companies buy expertise on a delegation contract.
¥600k–1.8m / moSouth KoreaSeoul
Severance accrual plus the just-cause dismissal standard makes full-time senior hiring a one-way door.
KRW 6m–18m / moTaiwanTaipei
Family-owned exporters need IPO-ready or customer-audit-ready governance episodically, not permanently.
TWD 150k–450k / moChinaShanghai
Multinational subsidiaries downsizing China exposure still need a senior local finance and compliance owner but cannot justify a full-time expatriate package.
CNY 40k–120k / moOceania
Sydney
Payroll tax at 5.45% above an AUD 1.2m payroll plus 12% superannuation makes each additional senior head visibly expensive — and superannuation itself counts as taxable wages, compounding the marginal cost.
A$4,000–15,000 / moAustraliaMelbourne
The AUD 3m–5m threshold phase-out means a growing Melbourne employer’s marginal payroll tax cost on a senior hire is significantly worse than the headline 4.85% suggests.
A$4,000–15,000 / moNew ZealandAuckland
The s.10 resident director requirement creates standing demand for a professional New Zealand-resident officer with no full-time job attached.
NZ$5,000–18,000 / mo