The Real Cost of a US Hire in 2026
A salary is the clean number. It is also the misleading one.
When someone says, "This role pays $65,000," they are usually talking about the offer letter. The company still has to absorb payroll taxes, benefits, equipment, recruiting time, onboarding drag, and all the small costs that never make it into the job post.
That does not mean US hires are bad hires. It means you should compare options against the real cost, not the neat number in the compensation field.
What a $65,000 US hire really costs
For a full-time US employee at a $65,000 base salary, a realistic cost stack looks like this:
| Cost component | Estimate |
|---|---|
| Base salary | $65,000 |
| Employer payroll taxes (FICA, FUTA, SUTA) | $5,200 to $7,000 |
| Health insurance (employer share) | $6,000 to $9,000 |
| Retirement match (if offered) | $1,300 to $3,250 |
| Paid time off (about 15 days) | $3,750 |
| Equipment (laptop, monitor, peripherals) | $1,500 to $2,500 |
| Recruiting and onboarding | $3,000 to $8,000 |
| Fully-loaded total | roughly $86,000 to $98,000 |
The common rule of thumb is that a US employee costs about 1.25 to 1.4 times base salary once they are fully loaded. Some roles land below that. Some land above it. But if you are comparing a $65,000 domestic hire to a remote contractor and only using $65,000 as the baseline, the math is already off.
The offshore comparison
For many admin, support, operations, design, bookkeeping, and marketing coordinator roles, a strong offshore hire from the Philippines or South America will cost far less while still doing the actual work well.
Because they are typically engaged as independent contractors, you are not adding US payroll taxes, a US benefits package, office space, or the same equipment load. You still need to pay fairly. You still need to manage well. But the cost structure is different.
| Role | US fully-loaded | Offshore annual | Savings |
|---|---|---|---|
| Virtual Assistant | $65,000 | $14,400 | 78% |
| Customer Support Rep | $52,000 | $13,200 | 75% |
| Bookkeeper | $68,000 | $16,800 | 75% |
| Social Media Manager | $88,000 | $17,400 | 80% |
| Executive Assistant | $110,000 | $21,000 | 81% |
Those are the 2026 planning numbers we use for common remote roles. They assume you are hiring experienced people at serious rates, not bargain-hunting for the lowest possible contractor. You can test your own role mix in the savings calculator.
Quality is not automatic
The lazy version of this argument is "offshore is cheaper, therefore you should do it." That is not how hiring works.
Offshore hiring works best when the role has clear outputs: tickets answered, inboxes managed, books reconciled, designs shipped, leads researched, reports updated, campaigns scheduled. If the work is mostly in-person, deeply local, or dependent on unwritten founder judgment, it is usually a weaker fit.
The quality gap people worry about is often a process gap. If you underpay, skip references, skip a work sample, and hire after one pleasant interview, you are taking a gamble. If you pay market, screen for communication, and test for the actual work, the candidate pool looks very different.
The cash-flow difference is real
Take three roles: an executive assistant, a customer support rep, and a social media manager. Fully loaded in the US, those roles can easily run around $250,000 per year. Offshore equivalents in the numbers above come to about $52,000.
That is roughly $198,000 back in the business. Maybe it funds a product hire. Maybe it extends runway. Maybe it lets the founder stop doing support at midnight without adding another six-figure fixed cost.
The point is not to replace every US hire. The point is to stop treating every role as if it needs a US cost structure.
How to get started
The hard part is not deciding that the savings look good. The hard part is finding the right person without losing weeks to applications, screening calls, and reference checks.
Far Out Scout recruits on contingency. We source, screen, and reference-check candidates from the Philippines and South America, then send you a shortlist of people worth interviewing. You pay only if you make a hire.
Tell us about the role you want to fill.
Have a role in mind?
We can source, screen, and reference-check candidates from the Philippines and South America, then send you a shortlist worth interviewing.