Can a US company hire a contractor in Mexico?

Yes, and it is common. The risk is not in the hiring, it is in running the engagement like employment: fixed hours you set, your equipment, your direct supervision, and a flat monthly payment that looks like a salary.

What is aguinaldo and do I owe it?

It is a mandatory yearly bonus of at least 15 days of salary, paid before December 20 under article 87 of the Federal Labor Law. It is owed to employees. If a contractor is reclassified, it becomes owed retroactively along with everything else.

How many hours does Mexico overlap with US business hours?

Effectively the whole workday. Mexico City is one to two hours behind Eastern time depending on the season, so a normal local day covers your morning and most of your afternoon.

What does a hire in Mexico cost?

The same ranges we quote everywhere: $1,500 to $2,000 a month for administrative and support work, $1,800 to $2,500 for specialists, and above that for engineering and automation roles.

How to Hire Remote Workers in Mexico

Mexico is the closest large talent market to the United States, one to two hours behind Eastern time, with a deep pool in Mexico City, Guadalajara and Monterrey.

Its labor law is also among the clearest in the region about what counts as a job, and the test does not care what your paperwork says. That is the part worth understanding before you make an offer.

Hire in Mexico See what roles cost

Working hours

Mexico City runs one to two hours behind United States Eastern time depending on the season, so a 9am start there lands inside your morning. Northern states sit closer to Mountain and Pacific time.

What Mexican law counts as employment

Article 20 of the Federal Labor Law defines an employment relationship as the provision of subordinated personal work in exchange for a salary, and it applies "whatever the act that created it".

That last phrase is the whole point. The document you signed is one fact among many, and it is not the deciding one.

Article 21 then presumes a contract exists between the person doing the work and the person receiving it, which puts the burden on the company rather than the worker.

What an employer carries in Mexico

Aguinaldo
Article 87 gives every worker a yearly bonus of at least 15 days of salary, paid before December 20. Someone who has not completed a year gets the proportional share.
Vacation
Article 76 gives 12 working days in the first year, rising by two days a year to 20 days at year five, then two more days per five years of service. This is the 2023 reform, which doubled the old six-day starting point.
Social security
Employees are enrolled with the Mexican Social Security Institute, and the employer carries contributions on top of salary. A contractor engagement does not create that obligation, which is precisely why the classification question matters.

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 has and has not changed

Mexico has not softened toward contractor arrangements the way Argentina has. The presumption in articles 20 and 21 stands as written.

The 2023 vacation reform is the change most companies have still not priced in, because it doubled first-year leave and applies from the first year of service rather than the fifth.

Hiring there in practice

The talent pool is broad, not just technical
Mexico produces strong candidates across engineering, finance, marketing and support, so it is rarely the constraint on a search.
Proximity helps when travel matters
If you ever need the person in a United States office for onboarding or a company week, Mexico is the cheapest and simplest country on this list to fly from.
Pay is set by role, not by country
Our ranges do not move because a candidate lives in Guadalajara rather than Bogota. Seniority and scope move them.

How we engage someone in Mexico

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 Mexico

Can a US company hire a contractor in Mexico?: Yes, and it is common. The risk is not in the hiring, it is in running the engagement like employment: fixed hours you set, your equipment, your direct supervision, and a flat monthly payment that looks like a salary.
What is aguinaldo and do I owe it?: It is a mandatory yearly bonus of at least 15 days of salary, paid before December 20 under article 87 of the Federal Labor Law. It is owed to employees. If a contractor is reclassified, it becomes owed retroactively along with everything else.
How many hours does Mexico overlap with US business hours?: Effectively the whole workday. Mexico City is one to two hours behind Eastern time depending on the season, so a normal local day covers your morning and most of your afternoon.
What does a hire in Mexico cost?: The same ranges we quote everywhere: $1,500 to $2,000 a month for administrative and support work, $1,800 to $2,500 for specialists, and above that for engineering and automation roles.

Next steps

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