Remote Hiring in Latin America: 5 Reasons U.S. Companies Are Choosing Nearshore Teams
Remote hiring in Latin America gives U.S. companies access to a combination that is difficult to replicate in a single domestic market: lower employment costs, substantial overlap with U.S. working hours, and a growing pool of experienced professionals.
Our experience working with U.S. companies shows us that nearshore hiring is becoming a strategic talent decision, not simply a cost-saving tactic. Companies that once used international hiring for occasional offshore roles are increasingly turning to Latin America to build teams across technology, sales, customer support, marketing, operations, finance, and other functions.
The reason is simple: nearshore hiring can reduce the cost of expanding a team without creating the communication and time-zone friction that often comes with hiring thousands of miles away.
But cost alone does not make a nearshore team successful.
The companies that get the best results evaluate the role, talent market, time-zone requirements, employment model, and expected business outcomes together.
In this guide, we'll explain the five reasons U.S. companies are choosing remote hiring in Latin America and show you how to evaluate whether nearshore hiring makes sense for your team.
The Short Answer: Why Hire Remote Workers From Latin America?
U.S. companies hire remote workers from Latin America for five main reasons:
- Lower fully loaded employment costs
- Significant overlap with U.S. working hours
- A growing pool of experienced professional and technical talent
- Flexible international hiring and employment models
- Strong alignment with the way U.S. teams already work
No single advantage explains the growth of nearshore hiring.
The real advantage comes from combining them.
A company can reduce employment costs while maintaining same-day communication, accessing experienced talent, and expanding internationally without immediately establishing its own entity in another country.
That's what makes Latin America different from simply looking for the lowest-cost labor market.
1. The Cost Math Still Favors Nearshore Hiring
Cost is often the first reason a U.S. company considers Latin America.
But experienced hiring teams know that salary is only one part of the equation.
When you compare a U.S. employee with an international hire, you should compare the fully loaded cost of each option.
That means accounting for:
- Base salary
- Employer payroll taxes
- Benefits
- Recruiting costs
- Employment administration
- Equipment
- HR overhead
- EOR or other employment fees, where applicable
For example, the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics reports a median annual wage of $133,080 for software developers in May 2024, before employers add benefits, payroll taxes, and other employment costs.
That creates a useful starting point for comparing the economics of international hiring.
Use the fully loaded cost, not salary alone
A simple comparison looks like this:
Nearshore Savings = (U.S. Fully Loaded Cost − LATAM Fully Loaded Cost) ÷ U.S. Fully Loaded Cost
The important part is to run that calculation role by role.
A senior software engineer will have a different cost profile from a marketing assistant. A specialized technical position will have a different talent market from customer support.
At Somewhere, we use this role-specific approach because a single “average savings” number rarely tells a hiring manager what they actually need to know.
The question isn't “How much cheaper is Latin America?”
The better question is:
“What will this specific role cost us to hire and employ in the U.S. compared with the right international talent market?”
That distinction helps companies avoid both overestimating their savings and underestimating the value of international hiring.
Deloitte's 2024 Global Outsourcing Survey also reflects this broader shift. Its research found that organizations increasingly consider skilled talent and agility alongside cost reduction when making sourcing decisions.
That's an important change.
Companies aren't simply looking for cheaper labor.
They're looking for a better combination of cost, capability, and flexibility.
2. What Time-Zone Advantages Does Latin America Offer U.S. Companies?
One of Latin America's biggest advantages is geographic proximity to the United States.
For many U.S. companies, that means international employees can work during the same business day as their U.S. colleagues.
The exact overlap depends on the country and the time of year. Colombia and Peru operate at UTC-5 year-round, while U.S. Eastern Time changes between UTC-5 and UTC-4 because of daylight saving time. Mexico City generally operates one or two hours behind U.S. Eastern Time, depending on the U.S. season, while Argentina and much of Brazil operate roughly one to two hours ahead of U.S. Eastern Time.
The practical takeaway matters more than the technical time-zone labels:
Many Latin American talent markets allow substantial same-day overlap with U.S. teams.
Consider a U.S. company that starts its workday at 9 a.m.
A team member in Colombia can be working alongside the U.S. team during the same morning. A professional in Argentina can still participate in most of the U.S. team's working day.
That creates opportunities for:
- Live team meetings
- Same-day customer support
- Faster approvals
- Real-time collaboration
- Same-day code reviews
- Quicker escalation of problems
- More responsive sales and operations teams
This matters because remote work doesn't eliminate the cost of distance.
It changes the type of distance you have to manage.
A team separated by thousands of miles but working the same hours can often collaborate more easily than a team separated by fewer miles but working opposite schedules.
At Somewhere, we therefore don't recommend choosing a country based on cost alone.
We start with the role and its collaboration requirements, then identify the markets that fit.
3. Latin America Has a Growing Pool of Experienced Talent
Lower employment costs and convenient time zones only matter if companies can find people who can actually do the work.
The talent pool is deeper than many U.S. companies initially expect.
Revelo's 2024 Latin American Remote Tech Talent Report analyzed more than 185,000 candidates across 12 Latin American countries who joined its network between January 2022 and June 2024. The report found substantial representation across full-stack, front-end, back-end, data, mobile, QA, DevOps, and product roles.
The same dataset also shows significant experience among developers in its network. Nearly half had at least three years of development experience, while 56% of full-stack and back-end developers had three or more years of experience.
That matters because U.S. companies aren't necessarily looking for entry-level international labor.
Many companies need people who can step into an existing team and contribute quickly.
English proficiency still requires role-specific evaluation
English proficiency is another important consideration for U.S. companies hiring in Latin America.
But don't make the mistake of treating an entire region as having one English-proficiency level.
English ability varies by:
- Country
- Profession
- Education
- Individual experience
- Previous exposure to U.S. companies
- Role requirements
At Somewhere, we take a more practical approach.
We evaluate communication as part of the candidate, not as a country-level assumption.
For a customer-facing role, we may place more weight on spoken communication.
For a software engineer, written communication and the ability to explain technical decisions may matter more.
For an operations professional, the ability to communicate blockers, document processes, and work independently may be critical.
The point is simple: Don't ask whether Latin American talent can communicate effectively with U.S. teams. Evaluate whether the candidate can communicate effectively for the specific role.
First-Hand Example: How a SaaS Company Used International Talent to Reduce Hiring Costs
We see this dynamic in our work with U.S. companies every day.
One SaaS company came to Somewhere looking to expand its team across sales and customer support while keeping its hiring costs under control.
Instead of treating international hiring as simply a way to find lower-cost workers, we helped the company identify the roles it needed, source qualified international professionals, and build a team around those specific business functions.
The result was a team that supported the company's sales and customer operations while delivering more than $160,000 in reported savings compared with equivalent U.S.-based hiring costs.
The lesson goes beyond the savings.
International hiring works best when you start with the role, not the country.
A company shouldn't ask, “Which country has the cheapest talent?”
It should ask:
- What work needs to get done?
- What skills does the role require?
- How much U.S. time-zone overlap is necessary?
- What level of communication does the position demand?
- What employment structure makes sense?
- Which talent markets can meet those requirements?
That's the approach we use at Somewhere when helping U.S. companies build international teams.
The goal isn't simply to lower payroll. It's to build a team that delivers the required work at a more efficient total cost.
Read the full Somewhere case study
4. How Should U.S. Companies Hire Employees in Latin America?
Finding the right candidate solves only one part of international hiring.
You also need to determine how you will legally employ that person.
This is where U.S. companies can get into trouble when they treat international hiring as simply another form of recruiting.
There are several potential structures, and the right choice depends on the worker's country, the facts of the working relationship, and the laws that apply.
Direct employment
A U.S. company can employ someone through its own legal entity in the worker's country.
This can make sense when a company plans to build a substantial, long-term presence in that market.
But maintaining a local entity also means managing the employment infrastructure that comes with it.
That can include:
- Payroll
- Local employment contracts
- Statutory benefits
- Tax administration
- Labor-law compliance
- HR administration
Independent contracting
Contracting can provide a relatively simple way to engage international talent.
But the label alone does not determine the legal relationship.
If a worker operates like an employee working set hours, receiving ongoing direction, performing an integral role, or working under other conditions that indicate employment, the company needs to consider whether contractor status is appropriate under the applicable laws.
“We'll just make them a contractor” is not an international hiring strategy.
Companies should evaluate the actual relationship before choosing this structure.
Employer of Record
An Employer of Record, or EOR, can employ a worker locally on behalf of a client company that does not have its own entity in that country.
Depending on the jurisdiction and provider, the EOR may manage areas such as:
- Local payroll
- Employment documentation
- Statutory benefits
- Tax administration
- Certain employment compliance requirements
The client company generally continues to manage the employee's day-to-day work.
An EOR can therefore give a U.S. company a way to hire internationally without immediately establishing its own local entity.
But don't assume an EOR eliminates every compliance obligation.
Before signing with a provider, ask:
- Who is the legal employer?
- Which country-specific responsibilities does the provider handle?
- Which responsibilities remain with our company?
- How are payroll and statutory benefits handled?
- How are intellectual property and confidential information protected?
- What happens when employment ends?
- What does the provider's agreement actually guarantee?
The best international hiring model is not necessarily the cheapest one.
It's the model that accurately reflects the relationship and gives your company a clear understanding of who owns each responsibility.
5. How Should You Evaluate a Nearshore Hiring Option?
Once you've narrowed your options, don't choose a country or hiring provider based on a single selling point.
At Somewhere, we recommend evaluating the entire hiring model.
A Scoring Framework for Evaluating Any Nearshore Option
Cost and time zone overlap are necessary but not sufficient. Score any nearshore hiring option, whether it is a specific candidate, a hiring platform, or a country choice, on five factors, 1 to 5 each:
- Cost delta: 1 = under 20% savings versus a comparable U.S. hire, 5 = 60%+ savings on a fully-loaded basis.
- Time zone overlap: 1 = under 2 hours of shared business hours, 5 = 6-8 hours of shared business hours.
- Talent depth: 1 = a shallow or unverified candidate pool for the specific skill, 5 = a large, pre-vetted pool with verifiable prior employers.
- Compliance model: 1 = contractor-only with no misclassification review, 5 = EOR or direct-hire model with named legal employer and clear compliance ownership.
- Guarantee strength: 1 = no replacement guarantee, 3 = a time-limited replacement guarantee, 5 = an unconditional, ongoing replacement commitment.
Add the five scores. Anything below 15 out of 25 signals a gap worth investigating before you commit budget to the role. A strong nearshore option should be able to substantiate all five categories with specifics: a named cost figure for the exact role, a stated overlap window, evidence of the candidate pool's depth, a named legal employer, and a written, time-bound guarantee, not vague reassurance. Use the framework to evaluate any option on the table, whichever provider or hiring model you are weighing.
Frequently Asked Questions
Why are more companies hiring remote workers from Latin America?
U.S. companies are increasingly hiring remote workers from Latin America because the region combines competitive employment costs, substantial overlap with U.S. working hours, and a growing pool of experienced professionals. For many roles, that combination provides a practical alternative to hiring exclusively in the U.S. or working with talent in distant time zones.
Is hiring in Latin America actually cheaper than hiring in the U.S.?
Often, yes, but companies should compare fully loaded employment costs, not salaries alone. The actual savings depend on the role, seniority, country, employment model, benefits, recruiting costs, and any EOR or platform fees.
What time zones do Latin American countries share with the U.S.?
Many Latin American countries provide substantial overlap with U.S. business hours. Colombia and Peru operate at UTC-5 year-round, while Mexico City generally operates one or two hours behind U.S. Eastern Time depending on the season. Argentina and much of Brazil generally operate about one to two hours ahead of U.S. Eastern Time.
The exact overlap depends on the country, U.S. time zone, daylight-saving rules, and the employee's working schedule.
What is the difference between an EOR, contractor, and direct hire in Latin America?
An Employer of Record employs the worker locally on behalf of the client company and typically manages designated employment administration and compliance responsibilities.
An independent contractor works under a contractor relationship, but the company must ensure the actual relationship supports contractor status under the applicable laws.
A direct hire generally means the company employs the worker through its own local entity or another appropriate employment structure and assumes the responsibilities associated with that setup.
The appropriate model depends on the worker's country and the actual working relationship.
How do I evaluate whether a nearshore hire is a good fit?
Evaluate the opportunity across five areas: fully loaded cost, time-zone overlap, talent depth, employment structure, and candidate quality.
Don't choose a nearshore market simply because it offers the lowest salary.
Start with the role, define what success looks like, and then determine which market can deliver the talent, collaboration model, and economics you need.
Stop Guessing. Start Evaluating Your Nearshore Options.
The companies getting the most value from remote hiring in Latin America aren't simply chasing the lowest salary.
They're asking better questions.
Can we find the skills we need?
Can this person work effectively with our U.S. team?
How much real-time collaboration do we need?
What will the employee actually cost?
Who will employ the person and manage local employment requirements?
Can we repeat the process when we need to hire again?
At Somewhere, our experience helping U.S. companies build international teams has taught us a simple lesson: successful international hiring starts with the work, not the country.
Define the role. Identify the skills. Determine the collaboration requirements. Calculate the fully loaded cost. Choose the appropriate employment structure. Then find the talent market that fits.
That's how you turn nearshore hiring from a cost-saving experiment into a repeatable talent strategy.
And that's where Latin America can give U.S. companies a meaningful advantage: the ability to build capable teams at a more efficient cost without sacrificing the collaboration that makes those teams work.
