When you hire across more than one Latin American country on Get on Board, “the market rate” stops being a single number. Pay for the same role can differ by a wide margin between, say, Chile and Argentina, and the modality you offer decides whether that gap matters at all. This guide gives you a repeatable way to set ranges country by country without guessing.
Start with the modality, not the country
Your first decision is which market you are competing in, and that is set by work modality, not by where the candidate happens to live:
- On-site and hybrid roles are anchored to a specific city and its cost of living. Use country-specific benchmarks — what employers in that country pay for the role.
- Fully remote roles compete in a broader, often USD-denominated market. Use the regional benchmark, because a candidate in Lima can compare your offer against employers in any country.
Get this step right first. Applying a country-specific benchmark to a fully remote role usually underpays it; applying a regional benchmark to an on-site role usually overpays it.
Layer the other variables on top of geography
Geography sets the baseline. Three variables then adjust it for the same country:
- Industry. A fintech and a traditional retailer in the same country budget differently for the same engineer. See how tech salaries vary by industry.
- Company size. Larger employers in a market tend to pay more base than small ones. See how company size affects tech salaries.
- English requirement. Requiring English narrows the pool and pushes the range up, often toward US/EU remote competition. See how requiring English affects salaries.
Apply these in order: country → industry → size → language. Each one moves the number, and stacking them in the same order every time keeps your budgets comparable.
Handle currency and gross vs. net consistently
- A practical convention has settled in the region: fully remote roles are increasingly benchmarked and offered in USD gross monthly, which keeps offers comparable across borders. Get on Board ranges are entered in USD for exactly this reason.
- For hybrid or on-site roles, local currency indexed to USD is common, but remember that take-home pay depends on each country’s deductions. Be explicit about whether a number is gross or net, because the same gross figure lands very differently after taxes in different countries.
Turn it into one budget
- Group your open roles by modality first.
- For on-site/hybrid, pull a benchmark per country; for fully remote, pull one regional benchmark.
- Adjust each by industry, size, and English requirement.
- State every number in USD gross monthly so finance can compare lines directly, then convert to local currency at the offer stage if needed.
How Insights Pro fits in
Insights Pro+ segments each profile by country, by modality within each country, and by industry, with retention and acquisition recommendations per country. That gives you the country-by-country numbers this framework needs in one place, refreshed quarterly, instead of stitching together separate sources per market.
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