Home / Countries
Four marketsPick the country before you pick the candidate
Most US managers arrive asking for "someone in LatAm". That is not a decision — it is four different sets of labour law, four currencies, four notice-period cultures and up to three hours of clock difference between them. This page is the short version. Each country page has the detail your finance and legal people will ask for.
The comparison we draw on the whiteboard in every intake call
Figures below are what we are seeing in live searches this year for mid-to-senior individual contributors. They are honest working ranges, not a report we bought. Your exact number moves with the stack, the interview loop and how fast you can decide.
| Mexico | Colombia | Brazil | Argentina | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Main hubs | Mexico City, Guadalajara, Monterrey, Mérida | Bogotá, Medellín, Barranquilla, Cali | São Paulo, Florianópolis, Recife, Belo Horizonte | Buenos Aires, Córdoba, Rosario, Mendoza |
| Time zone | UTC−6 central zone; no DST since 2022 | UTC−5 year round, no DST | UTC−3 in the south-east, no DST since 2019 | UTC−3 year round, no DST |
| Overlap with US Central | Identical Nov–Mar, one hour behind Mar–Nov | One hour ahead in winter, same clock in summer | Three hours ahead in winter, two in summer | Three hours ahead in winter, two in summer |
| Usual employment vehicle | Payroll seat on our Mexican entity | Contrato a término indefinido | CLT registration or PJ service contract | Monotributo contractor, USD invoicing |
| Currency paid in | MXN | COP | BRL (CLT) or BRL/USD (PJ) | USD, converted per local FX rules |
| Typical notice period | 2 weeks in practice; no statutory notice from the employee | 15 days by custom, 30 for leadership | 30 days aviso prévio, contractual | 15–30 days for employees, often 2 weeks for contractors |
| Senior backend engineer, annual | USD 62k–92k | USD 55k–85k | USD 65k–100k | USD 60k–95k |
| Bilingual support specialist, annual | USD 16k–28k | USD 14k–24k | USD 18k–30k | USD 18k–30k |
| Statutory extras to budget | Aguinaldo, PTU, prima vacacional, IMSS, INFONAVIT | Prima, cesantías and interest, ARL, parafiscales | 13º salário, FGTS, INSS, férias + 1/3 | Aguinaldo (SAC) for employees; none for monotributistas |
| English at C1 or better | Common in tech, thinner in finance | Strongest in Medellín and Bogotá tech | Good in senior tech, scarcer at mid level | Deepest C1+ pool of the four |
The detail your legal and finance people will ask for
Each page covers the local documents, the payroll calendar, what candidates in that market expect from an interview process, and where we would and would not run a search.
Mexico — our home market and our entity
RFC, CURP and IMSS registration, CFDI 4.0 payslips, NOM-035 obligations, aguinaldo in December and PTU in May. Same working day as Dallas or Chicago for most of the year.
Open Mexico 02 · ColombiaColombia — the best value on the Eastern clock
Indefinite contracts, EPS and pension affiliation, the prima and cesantías calendar, and a Medellín tech scene that has been hiring in English for a decade.
Open Colombia 03 · BrazilBrazil — the deepest senior bench, and the most paperwork
CLT versus PJ decided before sourcing, carteira de trabalho digital, FGTS deposits, 13º salário, and a 30-day aviso prévio you must plan your start date around.
Open Brazil 04 · ArgentinaArgentina — excellent seniors, unusual money
Monotributo categories, USD invoicing, FX regimes that change more often than the labour law, and the strongest spoken English of the four markets.
Open ArgentinaWhat actually drives the country decision
In roughly nine intakes out of ten, one of these four factors settles it inside the first twenty minutes.
- Meeting load
- If the role sits in three US meetings a day, Mexico or Colombia. Brazil and Argentina people finish their afternoon while the US west coast is still starting.
- Seniority
- Staff-level and above with deep distributed-systems history: Brazil and Argentina have more of them, and they cost more. For solid mid-level throughput, Mexico and Colombia win on speed.
- Employment appetite
- If your legal team refuses contractor arrangements, Mexico and Colombia are clean employment. If you want contractors, Argentina is the most natural fit and Brazil PJ the most common.
- Start date
- Need someone in three weeks? Mexico. Brazil's 30-day aviso prévio plus contract prep realistically puts you six to seven weeks out from the offer.