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How to hire remote employees in
Jamaica: A gorgeous country with plenty of great remote talent. If you want to hire there, you’ll have to make a choice: Employee, or contractor? Below are the key differences between the two/
If you want to successfully hire in
Jamaica
, you have two options:
Laws about hiring contractors are significantly more simple in
Jamaica
. Onboarding talent takes days, not weeks or months. Both you, the company, and your talent have more flexibility. And in many cases, since you’re remote, the talent you’re hiring is better classified as a contractor, anyway. Of course, it’s not possible in every case, but it’s what we built Thera for.
This is the long route. You can either establish a physical presence with an entity and register as an employer, or you can use an Employer-of-Record (EOR) solution. Odds are, you’ll find using an EOR to be the easier route. Still, using an EOR in
Jamaica
is expensive—it can often be $500 per month per employee—and sometimes prone to lengthy onboarding times.
Hiring contractors is normally the easier, faster, more flexible choice—but don’t just take it from us. Below are the specific benefits and drawbacks to hiring contractors in
Jamaica
.
Hiring employees takes months, at the minimum. When you hire with Thera's locally-generated contracts, it’s a matter of days or weeks. This means you can hire the best talent, fast, without losing them to a hellish procession of paperwork.
It costs just $0 to sign up for Thera, then $25 per month to hire your contractors with Thera. If you hired employees manually (or did contracting on your own), you’d likely be on the hook for thousands of dollars each month. Setting up an entity alone can cost tens of thousands of dollars.
Hiring contractors in
Jamaica
means you’re generally not on the hook for things like health insurance and paid time off. This makes hiring flexible for you, and it gives your talent more options.
Hiring employees is a bigger commitment, and can open you up to increased liabilities and regulations. When you hire contractors overseas, your biggest risk is misclassification—but laws surrounding contractor classification are often significantly more straightforward.
The contractor life isn’t for everyone—some people want the security that being an employee often appears to provide. Though it’s rare, this does happen, and it’s one disadvantage of manage an all-contractor team.
Most countries’ contractor-employer relationship laws stipulate that the employer can’t set fixed working hours, among other things. These laws give contractors more freedom over how and when they do their work than an employee would have. In reality, however, most contractors are willing & able to work on the company’s schedule—it’s a matter of setting expectations beforehand.
If you’re hiring contractors in
Jamaica
, you can pay them with Thera in a single click. You won’t need to worry about complicated wire transfers, fees, or currency conversions. We’ll take care of it all. Just make a click and your contractor will get paid in their currency of choice. This is a valuable bonus for talent in countries where the local currency is particularly weak—most people appreciate the ability to receive their payment in stronger currencies.
If you’ve read up until this point, you’ll know that it’s easier, cheaper, and more flexible to hire contractors in Jamaica than employees. Still, there are valid reasons why you might want to hire employees instead. The content below is for you—we’ll cover employer taxes and obligations in Jamaica.
PTO is calculated by the:
There are 10 public holidays.
The duration of sick leave entitlement provided to workers is dependent on how long they have been employed by their employer:
Employees receive 56 days of paid maternity leave.
For employees to receive benefits they must have 52 weeks of continuous employment and provide notice to the employer.
No Statutory Requirements.
No Statutory Requirements.
None.
None.
None.
Employers should provide a written statement or notify termination in front of a credible witness.
A notice of termination must also be given.
The notice period in Jamaica is:
Employers are required to provide notice determined by the length of employment.
Severance pay is only required for cases of redundancy. Severance for redundancy is 2 weeks’ pay per year for the first 10 years and 3 weeks´ pay per year, from the 10th year onwards.
There is no requirement for a probationary period, however, collective agreements generally stipulate a 3 to 6-month period.
Full-time employment is considered 40 hours weekly. Hours may be spread over 5 days if the worker chooses.
Overtime is defined as work exceeding 40 weekly hours, work on a rest day, or work on a holiday.
Overtime pay is 150% the normal pay for each additional hour worked, or whatever contractual agreement the employee and employer have agreed upon.
Double time is paid on Sunday and Public Holidays.
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