How to hire in Latin America (2026): hire compliantly without setting up an entity.
You posted a role. You found someone great in Argentina, Mexico, or Brazil. Now you need a way to hire them legally without spending six months setting up a local entity. That is what we do, in 19 LATAM countries, from $349 per employee per month.
Hiring across borders is harder than the job board makes it look.
You can't legally put someone on your US payroll if they live in Buenos Aires. To hire them properly you need a local employer in their country, with a tax ID, social-security registrations, and a payroll system that knows the local rules.
Setting up your own entity in a Latin American country takes 3 to 6 months and costs $20,000 to $50,000 before you even run a single payroll. Most companies hiring one or two people in a country don't want that overhead, and it's rarely worth it until you have a team of ten or more there.
The other option, paying them as a contractor, gets risky fast. If they work full-time on your products, follow your processes, and use your tools, they look like an employee under the labor law of their country. Mexico, Brazil, and several others enforce misclassification actively, and the back-pay plus penalties can dwarf what setting it up properly would have cost.
An Employer of Record becomes the legal employer for you.
Employ Latam is the legal employer of your hire in their country. They get a locally compliant employment contract, monthly payroll in their currency, all statutory taxes filed, and the mandatory benefits their country requires. You manage the work day to day. We manage everything that touches local labor law.
You pay one monthly invoice in USD. We handle the FX, the local contributions, the 13th-month bonuses, the vacation accruals, and the severance reserves. If you ever need to part ways, we calculate and remit the right severance under that country's rules.
No entity required. No three-month wait. Most LATAM countries are ready for first payroll within 1 to 3 business days once your hire's documentation is in.
Eight things you don't have to figure out.
Locally compliant employment contract
Drafted to your hire's country labor code, in their language, ready to sign within a day.
Monthly payroll in their currency
They get paid on payday, in the currency they expect, into their local bank account.
All taxes and statutory contributions
Calculated at current rates, withheld, filed, and remitted to each country tax authority.
13th-month bonuses, vacation, severance
The local rules vary by country. We track them, accrue them, and pay them out on time.
Mandatory benefits
Health, meal vouchers, transit, where the law requires them. Plus optional benefits where you want to compete for talent.
Termination handled by the book
When the time comes, we calculate the severance, prepare the paperwork, and remit final payments.
Visas and work permits
Relocating a foreign hire into a LATAM country? We coordinate the visa application. Coverage varies by country, reach out with the specifics. Paid add-on.
Equity grants that fit local rules
Phantom shares, ISOs, or RSUs structured to comply with the tax rules in each country. No surprise tax bills for your hire, no compliance gaps for you.
Same time zone. Senior talent. Half the burn.
The companies hiring most in LATAM right now are US tech teams who tried hiring across 8-hour time differences and gave up. Same workday, easier communication, faster shipping.
Timezone overlap with the US
A LATAM hire works the same hours as your US team. No 12-hour gap, no async-only relationships, real-time pairing on tickets.
Strong technical talent
Mature engineering, design, and product communities in São Paulo, Buenos Aires, Mexico City, Bogotá, Medellín, Montevideo. Many have shipped at US companies before.
English at a working level
In tech roles especially, candidates routinely operate in English. You won't need a translator on stand-ups.
Cost-effective without being cheap
Fair-market salaries land 30 to 60 percent below US equivalents while still being attractive locally. Talent stays put for years.
The 19 LATAM countries we cover.
South America
10 countriesCentral America & Caribbean
9 countriesThree steps. A few days.
- 01
Tell us who, where
Pick the country and role. We come back with a fully-loaded cost breakdown including all statutory employer contributions. No request-a-quote wall.
Day zero · 5 minutes - 02
We draft the contract
A locally compliant employment contract in your hire's language, drafted to the labor code of their country. You review, they sign.
Day one · countersigned - 03
They start. We run it.
Onboarding, payroll, benefits, tax filings, vacation tracking, 13th-month bonus. All of it. You see one invoice. They get paid in their local currency.
Within a few days · payroll live
Hiring in Latin America, answered.
- Do I need a local entity to hire someone in Latin America?
- No, not if you use an Employer of Record. We are the legal employer in their country, so you do not need to register an entity, get a local tax ID, or open a local bank account. You just agree on the salary and start date with your hire and tell us; we handle the rest.
- Can I just pay them as a contractor instead?
- You can, and many teams start that way. But if the person works full-time on your products, follows your processes, and uses your tools, they look like an employee under the labor law in most LATAM countries. Misclassification carries back-pay liability plus penalties, and several countries enforce it actively. If the engagement looks like employment, run it as employment.
- How much does it cost?
- Our Employer of Record service starts at $349 per employee per month, with the exact rate depending on the country (each one has different statutory contributions and operational complexity). Contractor payments start at $29 per contractor per month. No setup fees, no minimum commitment. You only pay while the employee or contractor is active.
- How fast can someone start?
- For most LATAM countries, onboarding is 1 to 3 business days once your hire's documentation is in. A few countries can take a day longer due to specific registration steps. We tell you the realistic date upfront.
- Which countries do you cover?
- All 19 of them: Argentina, Bolivia, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Costa Rica, Dominican Republic, Ecuador, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, Jamaica, Mexico, Nicaragua, Panama, Paraguay, Peru, Uruguay, and Venezuela. Each one has its own hiring guide above.
- What about benefits, bonuses, vacation?
- All handled. Mandatory benefits (health, meal vouchers, transit) are included where the law requires them. 13th-month bonuses, vacation accruals, and severance reserves are calculated to local rules and shown on your monthly invoice as they accrue, not as surprise lump sums.
The talent is in Latin America. The hiring is on us.
Set up an account in three minutes. No credit card. No sales call. Hire one person, hire fifty. Pay only when they're on payroll.