Paul Urwin 
Most founders think about team costs the wrong way. They compare salaries. They should be comparing the full picture ,salary, benefits, payroll taxes, office space, recruiting fees, and the months of productivity lost while a new hire gets up to speed.
When you factor all of that in, the actual cost of building a team is often 1.5 to 2x the number on the offer letter. That gap is where most remote team decisions get made, or where they should be.
This article breaks down what it actually costs to build a team in 2026, how those numbers change when you hire remotely from LATAM, and what you can realistically expect to pay for different roles and seniority levels. There's also a free calculator below so you can build your specific team and see the comparison in real time.
Base salary is only the starting point. For every employee you add in the US, you're also taking on a set of costs that most founders underestimate until they've hired a few times.
Rule of thumb: for US-based hires, budget 1.25–1.4x the base salary to get to true annual cost. A $65,000 Marketing VA costs your business closer to $82,000–$91,000 per year once you add everything up.
The table below shows base salary ranges for common remote team roles in the US (fully loaded) against the flat annual rate for the same role hired through ThereIsTalent. LATAM figures include no hidden fees, no payroll taxes, no benefits overhead, no recruiting commissions.
| Role | US — fully loaded/yr | LATAM — annual rate | Annual savings |
|---|---|---|---|
| Executive VA (Mid) | $90,000 | $28,788 | $61,212 |
| Marketing VA (Mid) | $81,250 | $32,988 | $48,262 |
| Legal VA (Mid) | $92,500 | $32,988 | $59,512 |
| Sales SDR VA (Mid) | $90,000 | $32,988 | $57,012 |
| Healthcare VA (Mid) | $77,500 | $32,988 | $44,512 |
| Bookkeeping VA (Mid) | $72,500 | $32,988 | $39,512 |
| Web Dev VA (Mid) | $106,250 | $32,988 | $73,262 |
| 3-person team (above mix) | ~$257,000 | ~$99,000 | ~$158,000 |
Sources: LinkedIn Salary Insights, Glassdoor, BLS Occupational Employment Statistics (2024). US figures include estimated employer payroll taxes, benefits and recruiting cost. LATAM figures: ThereIsTalent rate card (2025).
The savings don't scale linearly, they compound. Every role you add to a LATAM team is a role where you're avoiding payroll taxes, health premiums, recruiting fees, and onboarding lag simultaneously. For a founder building a 3–5 person operations team, the difference between US and LATAM hiring often lands in the range of $150,000–$250,000 per year, capital that can go back into product, growth, or runway.
Select the roles you're considering, choose seniority and hours, and see your US vs. LATAM cost comparison update in real time. You can add as many roles as you need.
Not every remote team costs the same. Four variables move the number more than anything else:
A junior VA in LATAM typically costs 30–35% less than a mid-level hire, while a senior specialist commands a 25–30% premium. The right choice depends on how much training capacity your team has, a junior hire is cheaper but needs more guidance in the first 90 days.
Part-time LATAM roles (20h/week) are typically priced at around 55% of the full-time rate, not 50%, partly because the VA needs to maintain context on your business even during non-working hours. For roles with variable workloads, starting part-time and scaling up is often the right move.
Administrative roles tend to start at the lower end of the LATAM rate range. Specialized roles like Legal, Tech, or Finance, reflect the higher skill requirements and smaller talent pools. The savings vs. US equivalent remain substantial across all categories, but the absolute LATAM number varies.
The more roles you hire, the more you benefit from the fixed cost structure of LATAM hiring. There are no per-employee benefits premiums that scale with headcount, no HR infrastructure costs that grow with team size. The marginal cost of hire number two is nearly identical to hire number one.
Estimated annual savings for a founder who replaces a 3-person US operations team (Executive VA, Marketing VA, Legal VA) with equivalent LATAM talent, without any reduction in output, availability or time zone coverage.
This is where the math really shifts for founders who've only ever hired locally. When you work with LATAM contractors through ThereIsTalent, you're not paying for:
For a $65,000 US Marketing VA, the non-salary costs above typically add another $17,000–$26,000 per year. That's the gap you're closing before you even factor in the base salary difference.
For most founders building their first remote team, the question isn't whether LATAM hiring makes financial sense the numbers usually settle that quickly. The question is which role to start with.
The best first hire is the role that frees up the most founder time on tasks that don't require founder judgment. For most SMB founders, that's either an Executive or Administrative VA (inbox, calendar, scheduling, research) or the role in the function where they personally have the least expertise and are spending the most time.
A good rule: if you find yourself doing the same task more than three times a week and it doesn't require you specifically,. that's the job description for your first LATAM hire.
Costs vary by role and seniority, but a mid-level LATAM VA typically runs $2,199–$2,999/month ($26,388–$35,988/year) depending on the category. A 3-person team covering Administrative, Marketing and Sales functions would typically cost $80,000–$100,000/year, compared to $200,000–$270,000 for equivalent US hires fully loaded.
Yes. Most US companies hire LATAM talent on an independent contractor basis, which is legal and common for remote work arrangements. Contractors are responsible for their own taxes in their home country. US employers owe no payroll taxes, file no W-2s or 1099s for non-US contractors performing work outside the US, and can deduct contractor payments as ordinary business expenses under IRC Section 162.
Part-time arrangements (typically 20h/week) run at roughly 55% of the full-time monthly rate. They're a good entry point for founders who want to test a role before committing to full-time capacity, or for functions that genuinely don't require 40 hours of dedicated support each week.
With ThereIsTalent, most founders receive a shortlist of pre-vetted candidates within 72 hours of submitting a brief. From selection to fully operational typically takes 7–10 business days per role. Building a 3-person team sequentially can be done in 3–4 weeks; hiring simultaneously compresses that timeline significantly.
Yes. All ThereIsTalent VAs are based in Latin America (Colombia, Argentina, Mexico, Peru, Chile, Brazil), which puts them 0–3 hours from US time zones. Real-time collaboration, live calls and same-day turnaround are standard, not exceptions.
