US-Only Hiring Is Outdated. Here’s Why.

TL;DR

If your team is already 100% remote, hiring only in the US simply doesn’t make sense anymore.

You’re already working through Slack, Notion, Zoom, and async workflows. The geography advantage is gone. What you actually need is availability, speed, quality, and cost efficiency, not a ZIP code.

US-only hiring gives you the highest salaries in the world, while LATAM gives you the same remote setup, the same time zone, and the same engineering standards at a fraction of the cost and with dramatically faster hiring.

If you’re remote, your talent pool is already global. Act like it.

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Introduction

Some startups insist on hiring US-only talent.

It sounds rigid, but there are reasons behind it, even if those reasons are becoming less relevant every year.

Here’s what’s really happening behind “US-only,” and why more teams are now opening the door to LATAM nearshoring as a smarter, faster alternative.

1. Legal + Payroll Simplicity

For many companies, international hiring sounds like a headache:

• multiple payroll systems

• EOR contracts

• cross-border compliance

Hiring in the US means:

one set of laws, one payroll platform, one HR process.

But here’s the shift: modern EOR partners (like Deel) have made global hiring as simple as adding a US contractor.

The complexity is no longer a blocker, it’s just a perception.

2. Data Security & Regulatory Constraints

Industries like healthcare, government, fintech, and enterprise SaaS worry about:

• data residency rules

• access controls

• compliance audits

To them, US-only feels “safer.”

Except today, LATAM engineers working through compliant setups have:

• VPN + zero-trust environments

• SOC 2, ISO-aligned processes

• strict device and identity controls

In other words: security isn’t tied to geography anymore, it’s tied to process.

3. Time Zone Alignment

Some companies think “remote outside the US = timezone problems.”

Meanwhile… LATAM literally sits in EST/CST.

Not close. Not “reasonable overlap.” The exact same hours.

Daily standups, pair programming, quick iterations, all smoother than hiring in Eastern Europe or Asia.

4. Collaboration & Culture Concerns

Some leaders still believe:

“Teams work better when everyone lives in the same country.”

It’s old-school thinking in a world where the best teams are:

• distributed

• async-friendly

• tool-driven

• global by default

Startups optimizing for talent rather than zip code move faster, and it shows.

5. “We Don’t Want Contractors” Confusion

When companies say “US-only,” many actually mean:

• no outsourcing shops

• no anonymous contractors

• no visa/immigration issues

They assume non-US talent = a low-quality outsourcing model.

But LATAM nearshoring today means:

• long-term full-time engineers

• fully integrated in the core team

• managed with your tools, your culture, your roadmap

• vetted senior talent, not freelancers

• 
  

This is exactly the Tenmás model, and it replaces confusion with clarity.

6. HR Policy Inertia

Bigger companies have policies created 5–10 years ago when remote wasn’t mainstream.

Those policies often default to:

• US-only

• specific states

• rigid comp bands

Internal HR processes simply haven’t caught up to global-first hiring.

7. Budgeting Simplicity

US salaries are tied to state-based compensation bands.

Introducing international bands feels like unnecessary complexity.

But startups that adopt a flexible global comp model save between 40%–60% while keeping senior quality high.

For early-stage and growth-stage companies, that’s not a “nice to have.” It’s survival.

So When Do Companies Become Flexible?

The moment a startup needs to:

• hire faster

• reduce burn

• increase engineering velocity

• avoid long US recruiting cycles

• extend runway

…US-only becomes negotiable.

Sometimes overnight.

And that’s exactly where top LATAM teams shine.

Why Early-Stage & Growth-Stage Startups Choose LATAM

Tech leaders who understand leverage choose LATAM because it gives them:

• senior engineers at sustainable cost

• faster hiring (48–72 hours turnaround)

• real-time collaboration in EST/CST

• cultural fit with US engineering standards

• stable, long-term remote contributors

These companies build hybrid AI + engineering teams that ship faster, spend smarter, and iterate more aggressively.

Your competitors are doing it.

Your investors are expecting it.

Your burn rate demands it.

The takeaway

“US-only” made sense years ago.

Today, it’s an outdated constraint that slows teams down.

Startups that stay flexible — and tap into LATAM — build stronger, faster, more resilient engineering teams.

And if you want a partner that handles vetting, compliance, onboarding, and ongoing support… you already know who we are.

Tenmás: LATAM, your engineering hub.