Can a US company hire someone in Colombia without a local entity?

Yes. You can engage a contractor in Colombia without registering a company there. Whether the local authority would still classify that person as an employee depends on how the work actually runs, not on the fact that you have no entity.

What does it cost to hire someone in Colombia?

The same as anywhere else we place: $1,500 to $2,000 a month for administrative and support roles, $1,800 to $2,500 for specialist roles, and more for engineering and automation work. We price the role rather than the country.

Do I have to pay prima to a contractor in Colombia?

Not to a genuine contractor. Prima de servicios is an employee benefit under article 306 of the labor code. It becomes your problem retroactively if a contractor is later reclassified as an employee.

What time zone is Colombia in?

Eastern time, year round, with no daylight saving change. It matches New York for part of the year and sits one hour behind for the rest.

How to Hire Remote Workers in Colombia

Colombia is the country we place from most, and the reason is the clock: it sits on United States Eastern time with no daylight saving, so a Bogota workday and a New York workday are the same workday.

The thing to understand before you hire there is that Colombian labor law starts from the assumption that a personal working relationship is a job. That does not stop you engaging a contractor, but it does decide what happens if the relationship looks like employment in practice.

Hire in Colombia See what roles cost

Working hours

Colombia is on Eastern time and does not change clocks, so it matches New York exactly for part of the year and sits one hour behind during United States daylight saving. In practice you get a full working day of overlap either way.

What Colombian law counts as employment

Article 23 of the Substantive Labor Code lists three elements of an employment contract: the person performs the work themselves, they work under continued subordination or dependence, and they are paid for it.

Article 24 then presumes that any personal working relationship is governed by an employment contract. The practical effect is that the label on your agreement is the weakest piece of evidence in the room.

So the question is not what you called the engagement. It is whether you set the hours, supplied the tools, and directed the work day to day.

What an employer carries in Colombia

Prima de servicios
Article 306 of the Substantive Labor Code requires 30 days of salary a year for employees, paid in halves: the first by June 30 and the second in the first 20 days of December.
Sunday and holiday work
The surcharge is on a published schedule: 80 percent from July 2025, 90 percent from July 1, 2026, and 100 percent from July 1, 2027.
Night hours
Night rates now begin at 7:00 p.m. rather than 9:00 p.m. The change was delayed six months by the law itself, so it has applied since December 25, 2025.
Working week
The maximum is 42 hours.

These apply to employees. Whether they apply to your hire is exactly the classification question above, which is covered in full in contractor vs employee in Latin America. This is general information, not legal advice.

What changed in 2025 and 2026

Ley 2466 de 2025 took effect on June 25, 2025 and changed more than 80 articles of the labor code. It is the reason employing someone in Colombia costs more in 2026 than it did in 2024.

None of it touches a genuine contractor. All of it lands on an employee, which is exactly why getting the classification right matters more there now than it used to.

Hiring there in practice

Bilingual is normal, not a premium
Bogota, Medellin and Barranquilla all produce large numbers of English-speaking professionals, and Spanish is native. For customer-facing roles that covers two queues with one hire.
Evening coverage is a local evening
Because the time zones line up, a shift that covers your evening is an evening shift where the person lives. That is far easier to staff and keep than an overnight shift in Asia.
Pay is set by role, not by country
We price the role, not the passport. A virtual assistant is $1,500 to $2,000 a month whether they are in Colombia or Mexico.

How we engage someone in Colombia

You sign one Master Services Agreement with Remote Hero. We engage and pay the professional, and they work directly with your team, month to month. They stay a contractor through us rather than becoming an employee of an employer of record, and that structure is the same in every country we place from. If you would rather employ someone yourself from the start we place on that basis too, and if a contractor placement is working we can sell you the contract out so they join your payroll.

Plan for a two-week ramp once they start, and own that part: training, context, clear expectations and access to your systems. We stay involved afterwards, so if something goes wrong on either side we mediate rather than leaving you to it.

See the full process

Questions about hiring in Colombia

Can a US company hire someone in Colombia without a local entity?: Yes. You can engage a contractor in Colombia without registering a company there. Whether the local authority would still classify that person as an employee depends on how the work actually runs, not on the fact that you have no entity.
What does it cost to hire someone in Colombia?: The same as anywhere else we place: $1,500 to $2,000 a month for administrative and support roles, $1,800 to $2,500 for specialist roles, and more for engineering and automation work. We price the role rather than the country.
Do I have to pay prima to a contractor in Colombia?: Not to a genuine contractor. Prima de servicios is an employee benefit under article 306 of the labor code. It becomes your problem retroactively if a contractor is later reclassified as an employee.
What time zone is Colombia in?: Eastern time, year round, with no daylight saving change. It matches New York for part of the year and sits one hour behind for the rest.

Next steps

What the roles cost, who we place, and the rules behind the page you just read.