Ask HN: Why do US companies mostly hire remote workers in USA? • Hacker News Board

Re: Ask HN: Why do US companies mostly hire remote workers in USA?

#21

Post by gyardley » Tue, May 03, 2016, 3:20 PM UTC

adomanico wrote: post #20

gozur88 wrote: post #17

Payroll is a huge headache. I worked at a California-based company that hired a Canadian, and I think they spent more money sorting out all the legal/financial issues than they paid him.

Simply not true. It is very easy to work as a Canadian in the US. This is exactly why we have the TN visa. Because of NAFTA, the US and Canada share a ton of workers.

The thread is about remote workers, not immigrants. He's talking about a Canadian who continues to work remotely in Canada, not a Canadian who's moved to work in the United States.

Re: Ask HN: Why do US companies mostly hire remote workers in USA?

#22

Post by adomanico » Tue, May 03, 2016, 3:42 PM UTC

gyardley wrote: post #21

adomanico wrote: post #20

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Simply not true. It is very easy to work as a Canadian in the US. This is exactly why we have the TN visa. Because of NAFTA, the US and Canada share a ton of workers.

The thread is about remote workers, not immigrants. He's talking about a Canadian who continues to work remotely in Canada, not a Canadian who's moved to work in the United States.

It makes no difference if he is a US resident or not.

Re: Ask HN: Why do US companies mostly hire remote workers in USA?

#23

Post by gyardley » Tue, May 03, 2016, 5:33 PM UTC

adomanico wrote: post #22

gyardley wrote: post #21

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The thread is about remote workers, not immigrants. He's talking about a Canadian who continues to work remotely in Canada, not a Canadian who's moved to work in the United States.

It makes no difference if he is a US resident or not.

Of course it does. If you pay someone when they reside in the United States, you don't have to deal with the Canada Revenue Agency or any of the provincial and local authorities at all. Instead, you deal with the same federal, state, and local authorities in the United States that you're already dealing with. Navigating bureaucracy is hard, and navigating additional unfamiliar bureaucracies is harder.

Re: Ask HN: Why do US companies mostly hire remote workers in USA?

#24

Post by gozur88 » Tue, May 03, 2016, 8:22 PM UTC

adomanico wrote: post #22

gyardley wrote: post #21

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The thread is about remote workers, not immigrants. He's talking about a Canadian who continues to work remotely in Canada, not a Canadian who's moved to work in the United States.

It makes no difference if he is a US resident or not.

Not only was he not a US resident, he was actually working in Candada, so whatever labor laws and tax rules normally apply in Canada applied to him.

Re: Ask HN: Why do US companies mostly hire remote workers in USA?

#25

Post by SeanCrawford » Thu, May 05, 2016, 12:12 PM UTC

kspaans wrote: post #8

zerr wrote: post #7

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Although, I've seen a lot of US/Canada only postings as well, so Mexico and S. America excluded.

I can somewhat understand S. America, but Mexico is in NAFTA!? (Probably presumed language issues.)

Yes, Mexico is in NAFTA. The agreement needed much public consultation when first proposed, partly because Canadians wanted legal assurances they would be allowed (by the U.S.) to keep their culture, but when Mexico was added it pretty much few under the radar.

I think other nations have been added as a "done deal" without advance public notice.

Re: Ask HN: Why do US companies mostly hire remote workers in USA?

#26

Post by demianbrener » Fri, May 06, 2016, 1:50 PM UTC

Someone1234 wrote: post #4

Timezones, navigating two sets of employment laws, payroll complexity, cost of flying them in (even infrequently), language issues, recruitment (e.g. understanding foreign qualifications, advertising), and so on. Typically if companies want remote workers abroad they avoid most of these by hiring an outsourcing company, letting the outsourcing company deal with the local stuff abroad, and all the US company has to do…

Why wouldn't these US companies hire them as consultants/contractors, which is fast, easy and cheap compared to hiring an outsourcing company that cost a lot of money?

In that way, the company doesn't need to care about local employment laws and payroll complexity. Each contractor signs a W8-BEN Form and takes care of its own local tax situation.