1. Data sources
Every salary band and savings claim on NearTalent draws from four sources, in order of weight:
- Proprietary candidate pool — 25,000+ pre-screened LatAm candidates in our system, each with historical compensation captured at intake (base, currency, employment type, country, seniority, role family). Refreshed on every candidate interaction.
- Historical placements — 1,000+ successful placements since 2016 with signed compensation packages. This is the highest-quality source: real offers accepted by real people in real market conditions.
- Public benchmarks (cross-check only) — Levels.fyi, Glassdoor, Payscale and country-specific job boards. We use these to sanity-check our proprietary numbers, never as a primary source. When they disagree materially, the proprietary data wins because it is real and current.
- Client-shared US comp bands — Anonymized US total-employer-cost ranges shared by clients during briefs. Used to construct the US baseline for savings comparisons.
What is not a source: LinkedIn salary insights (opt-in, biased toward higher earners), single-vendor recruiter surveys (small samples, methodology varies), or scraped job postings (list price, not accepted price).
2. How we calculate the "40-60% savings" claim
The headline "40-60% cost savings vs equivalent US comp" is an apples-to-apples comparison between two full total-employer-cost figures. We do not compare LatAm base salary to US base salary — that would inflate the savings artificially.
The US side of the comparison
US comp is total employer cost for a fully-employed W-2 hire in a typical US metro (San Francisco, New York, Austin, Seattle, Boston). It stacks:
- Base salary (from client-shared bands or published Levels.fyi medians for the role/seniority)
- Employer payroll tax (~7.65% FICA + ~0.6% FUTA + state unemployment)
- Benefits load (~20-30% of base: health, dental, vision, 401k match, PTO, disability, life)
- Overhead (recruiter cost amortized, equipment, workspace where applicable)
Bonuses, equity and sign-on are excluded on both sides. See section 5.
The LatAm side of the comparison
LatAm comp is total employer cost under the specific hiring model chosen:
- Contractor 1099 model: monthly USD invoice + payment processor fees (Wise, Deel Contractor) + our recruiting fee amortized
- EOR model: monthly USD gross to talent + local employer load (18-38% depending on country) + EOR provider fee (8-15%) + our recruiting fee amortized
- AOR model: monthly USD invoice to talent + AOR compliance fee (2-5%) + our recruiting fee amortized
Both totals cover the same 12-month period. Savings is 1 - (LatAm total / US total).
The 40-60% range explained
The low end (40%) is a senior engineer in Mexico City under EOR, compared to a senior at the same seniority in a Tier-1 US metro. The high end (60%) is a senior engineer in Peru or Colombia under contractor 1099, compared to the same US baseline. The range is honest — not every hire hits 60%, and we quote 40% as the conservative case.
3. How we handle currency
USD is the base currency for every published number. That is the currency in which talent is paid and clients invoice — quoting in local currency would misrepresent the buyer's cash outflow.
- Exchange rates are refreshed quarterly (January, April, July, October) using XE.com mid-market rates on the first business day of the quarter.
- We do not adjust for daily fluctuations. A quarterly cadence smooths noise without hiding structural shifts (e.g., the ARS collapse of 2023-2024 was reflected within one quarter).
- Country pages that show local-currency equivalents (MXN, ARS, COP, CLP, PEN) explicitly disclose the exchange rate and date at the point of use.
4. What is included in a published salary range
| Component | Included | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Base monthly salary (gross to talent, USD) | Yes | Primary figure quoted |
| Employer payroll tax (local country) | Yes, in EOR total | Country-specific: MX ~29%, AR ~26%, CO ~22%, CL ~18%, PE ~20% |
| Statutory benefits (aguinaldo, primes, vacation) | Yes, in EOR total | Included in employer load % |
| EOR provider fee | Yes, in EOR total | ~8-15% depending on provider |
| Bonuses (variable, performance) | No | Vary too widely; disclosed per case |
| Equity / stock options | No | Common in tech but hard to compare cross-country |
| Sign-on / relocation | No | One-time, not part of run-rate cost |
| Client-side overhead (mgmt time, tooling) | No | Constant on both sides of the comparison |
| NearTalent recruiting fee | Disclosed separately | One-time or amortized in TCO views |
5. Update cadence
The salary dataset refreshes on a fixed quarterly cadence:
- Q1 update: First week of January — includes annual comp-cycle adjustments observed in December closes
- Q2 update: First week of April
- Q3 update: First week of July
- Q4 update: First week of October
Each release is versioned (e.g., 2026.Q3) and published to the public JSON endpoint with a lastUpdated timestamp. Prior versions are archived and available on request.
6. Limitations and disclaimers
- Sample bias. Our candidate pool skews toward LatAm professionals who want USD-denominated remote work with US or Canadian companies. It underrepresents talent that only serves LatAm-local markets, which would show lower comp.
- Seniority calibration is judgment. "Senior" at a US Series B startup and "Senior" at a LatAm consultancy are not identical roles. Our leveling maps skills, scope and years of relevant experience, not job title.
- Regional variance within countries. A Buenos Aires developer costs more than a Rosario developer at the same level. Our ranges assume main hubs. Secondary cities typically run 10-20% below.
- Not investment or tax advice. Numbers are for hiring-planning purposes only. Actual hire cost depends on candidate, hiring model, and legal review by your accountant or general counsel.
- Non-binding. Published ranges are indicative. For binding quotes on a specific role, contact us.
7. How to cite this methodology
Publishers, analysts and journalists are welcome to cite our data under the CC-BY 4.0 license. Please attribute as:
"NearTalent LatAm Salary Dataset 2026, published by NearTalent (SelectionBook Group). Retrieved from neartalentlatam.com/api/salaries.json."
8. Questions or corrections
Found a number that seems off, or want the methodology behind a specific claim? Write to agustin@outsidersdigital.com. We correct in the next quarterly release and, if warranted, publish an interim note.
Last updated: 2026-08-14. Next scheduled update: 2026-10-06 (Q4 release). See also: hiring methodology (STAR-Agentic protocol) · Salary Guide 2026 · Public API stub.