Employee leasing is what the industry called co-employment before it called itself the professional employer organisation industry. In most current usage the two mean the same arrangement: a provider becomes an employer of your staff for administrative purposes, runs their payroll, files their employment taxes and puts them on its benefits. The name survives in state statutes, in older contracts and in the search habits of people who bought one twenty years ago.
Why the name changed
The leasing language implied the provider supplied the people, which is a staffing arrangement and a different business entirely. In co-employment you recruited, hired and direct your own staff; the provider takes on the administrative half of being their employer. The rebrand was partly to stop that confusion and partly because leasing sounded like something done to workers rather than for them. Several states still use the older term in their registration statutes, so a provider that describes itself both ways is usually being accurate rather than evasive.
Where the terms genuinely differ
Staff leasing in the strict sense, where the provider recruits and supplies workers who remain its employees, is a staffing service and is not what a PEO does. If a provider offers to find people as well as employ them administratively, you are looking at two products and should price them separately. The test is simple: ask who recruits, who directs the work day to day, and whose employees they are for the purpose of the contract you are being shown.
What it costs, and why nobody prints it
No provider of this arrangement in the record on this site publishes a rate. Pricing is quoted per client because it depends on your wage base, headcount, benefits take-up and workers' compensation risk, all of which the provider learns only after asking. What some providers do publish, and what this site records, is their certification status and their scale, which are the comparisons you can make before a call.
Questions people ask about employee leasing
Is employee leasing the same as a PEO?
In almost all current usage, yes: it is the older name for the same co-employment arrangement, and several state statutes still use it. It is not the same as staff leasing in the strict sense, where the provider recruits and supplies the workers.
Do leased employees work for me or the provider?
Both, in different senses, which is the point of co-employment. You recruit them, direct their work and decide what they do; the provider is their employer for payroll, tax filing and benefits purposes under the contract.
How much does employee leasing cost?
No provider in this record publishes a price. It is quoted per client, usually as a percentage of payroll or a per-employee monthly charge, and depends on wages, headcount, benefits and workers' compensation risk.