How to hire remote employees in

USA

The United States is home to some of the world’s most innovative companies and best remote talent. But, making a remote hire in the U.S. doesn’t always seem so easy—by the end of this page, it will. We’ll teach you how to hire remote talent in the United States, including the legal obligations, risks, and the easiest path to hiring someone.
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Country snapshot

CURRENCY
United States Dollar (USD)
EMPLOYER TAXES
15.15% - 19.85%
PAYROLL FREQUENCY
Bi-Monthly
OFFICIAL LANGUAGE
English

What to know before you hire in 

USA

Hiring in the United States? Good news. There are two options: You can hire your talent as employees, or you can hire them as contractors. Because of the United States’ labor law structure, there are benefits and disadvantages to each approach.

If you want to successfully hire in 

USA

, you have two options:

Hire talent as contractors

Laws about hiring contractors are significantly more simple in 

USA

. 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.

Hire talent as employees

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 

USA

 is expensive—it can often be $500 per month per employee—and sometimes prone to lengthy onboarding times.

Why hire independent contractors in 

USA

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 

USA

.

It’s the fastest way to hire globally

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’s a lot cheaper

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.

It’s more flexible for you & your team

Hiring contractors in 

USA

 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.

Can be less risky than hiring employees

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.

Some people want to be employees

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.

You might not have as much control over your talent

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.

How can I pay people in 

USA

?

If you’re hiring contractors in 

USA

, 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.

Hiring and paying your team in 

USA

Hire and pay with Panther

Pay everyone with a single click
Get great currency conversion rates
Pay $0 in platform fees
Run payroll in seconds
Let Panther automatically create & store invoices
Let Panther automatically write locally-compliant contracts
Let Panther automatically file local tax documents

Hire and pay without Panther

Pay all your contractors individually
Do all currency conversions yourself
Shoulder the burden of platform fees
Spend hours each month making payments
Manually track & store invoices
Manually write & sign contracts
Manually file relevant tax documents

If you want to hire employees in 

USA

If you’ve read up until this point, you’ll know that it’s easier, cheaper, and more flexible to hire contractors in the United States 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 the United States.

Taxes in 

USA

Employer tax

Unemployment (State)

Unemployment- New Employer (State)

FICA Social Security (Federal)

FICA Medicare (Federal)

FUTA Unemployment (Federal)

Individual tax

Leave

Paid Time Off (PTO)

California does not have any state laws that govern paid time off.  However, it is common for employers to decide whether to offer paid or unpaid vacation leave.  

This must comply with employment law and must be stipulated in the collective bargaining agreements.

Public Holidays

There are 11 public holidays.

Sick Days

An employer to follow the Family and Medical Leave Act (FMLA) which provides certain employees with up to 12 weeks of unpaid, job-protected leave per year for certain family and medical reasons (maternity leave, serious illnesses, or if the employee needs to care for a spouse or child).

Employees are eligible for FMLA if they have worked for their employer for at least one year, completed a minimum of 1,250 hours over the past year, and worked at a location where the company employs 50 or more employees within 75 miles.

Maternity Leave

Female employees are entitled to 12working weeks of leave in any one year for a child’s birth and to care for the newborn child within one year of birth.

For employers with 5 or more employees, the Pregnancy Disability Leave entitles employees who have disabilities related to pregnancy or the child’s birth up to four months of unpaid maternity leave.

Paternity Leave

In California, there are three laws regarding Paternity Leave:

  • Family and Medical Leave Act (FMLA)
  • California Family Rights Act (CFRA)
  • The New Parent Leave Act (applies to employers with 20 – 49 employees)

All three entitle new fathers to 12 weeks of unpaid leave.

Parental Leave

In California, 26 working weeks of leave during a single one-year period to care for a covered servicemember with a serious injury or illness if the eligible employee is the service member’s spouse, son, daughter, parent, or next of kin (military caregiver leave).

Other Leave

Voting Leave - Employees who are registered to vote receive 2 hours off from work to vote in any municipal, county, state, or federal primary or general election. Employees must provide reasonable notice to their employers to take time off to vote. Unpaid or paid leave is dependent on contract terms.

Jury Duty Leave - Full-time employees are entitled to job-protected, unpaid leave for jury duty, as a witness in a case, responding to a subpoena, or acting as a plaintiff or defendant in the courts. Employees must provide a copy of the jury summons to the employer as evidence of requirement.

Marriage Leave

No Info.

Bereavement Leave

In the US, there is no law granting workers the right to paid time off to attend a loved one's funeral or process the trauma of losing a family member.

Bereavement leave is up to the discretion of employers.

Termination

Termination Process

An employment contract or a collective bargaining agreement, U.S. law does not impose a formal notice period to terminate an individual employment relationship, and employment is stipulated “at will.”

This means that either the employer or the employee may end the employment relationship without giving either notice or reason, provided it is not illegal, notable discrimination on the grounds of a category protected by law, etc., and as per the Federal Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification Act (WARN).

The employment contracts of executives and other highly skilled individuals often incorporate a “just cause termination” clause which mandates that the employer may only terminate the employee for “cause” and lists the permissible grounds. In such cases, the parties negotiate the foundations for a “just cause” termination.

Notice Period

In California, payout of unused vacation time is not required by law.  However, employers will generally pay an employee for unused vacation days, provided the employee gives some advanced notice of resignation. While there is no official notice period, general practice is 2 weeks.

Severance Pay

An employment contract or collective bargaining agreement, employers are not required to pay severance. Many employers choose to offer severance pay based on the employee’s length of employment.

Probation Period

Probation period is 90 days.

Employee requirements in 

USA

Working Hours

The standard work week in California is 40 hours per week or 8 hours per day.

Overtime

California adheres to the Fair Labour Standards Act (FLSA), and work in excess of 40 hours per week is considered overtime and paid at the rate of 150% of the regular pay.

If employees are scheduled to work on weekends or rest days, no additional payment is required.

However, should an employer request an employee to work in exceptional circumstances on these days, then overtime is paid at the rate of 150% of the regular pay.

How to hire remote employees in

USA

The United States is home to some of the world’s most innovative companies and best remote talent. But, making a remote hire in the U.S. doesn’t always seem so easy—by the end of this page, it will. We’ll teach you how to hire remote talent in the United States, including the legal obligations, risks, and the easiest path to hiring someone.
Sign Up

Country snapshot

CURRENCY
United States Dollar (USD)
EMPLOYER TAXES
15.15% - 19.85%
PAYROLL FREQUENCY
Bi-Monthly
OFFICIAL LANGUAGE
English

What to know before you hire in 

USA

Hiring in the United States? Good news. There are two options: You can hire your talent as employees, or you can hire them as contractors. Because of the United States’ labor law structure, there are benefits and disadvantages to each approach.

If you want to successfully hire in 

USA

, you have two options:

Hire talent as contractors

Laws about hiring contractors are significantly more simple in 

USA

. 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 Panther for.

Hire talent as employees

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 

USA

 is expensive—it can often be $500 per month per employee—and sometimes prone to lengthy onboarding times.

Why hire independent contractors in 

USA

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 

USA

.

It’s the fastest way to hire globally

Hiring employees takes months, at the minimum. When you hire with Panther’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’s a lot cheaper

It costs just $0 to sign up for Panther, then $49 per month to hire your contractors with Panther. 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.

It’s more flexible for you & your team

Hiring contractors in 

USA

 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.

Can be less risky than hiring employees

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.

Some people want to be employees

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.

You might not have as much control over your talent

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.

How can I pay people in 

USA

?

If you’re hiring contractors in 

USA

, you can pay them with Panther 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.

Hiring and paying your team in 

USA

Hire and pay with Panther

Pay everyone with a single click
Get great currency conversion rates
Pay $0 in platform fees
Run payroll in seconds
Let Panther automatically create & store invoices
Let Panther automatically write locally-compliant contracts
Let Panther automatically file local tax documents

Hire and pay without Panther

Pay all your contractors individually
Do all currency conversions yourself
Shoulder the burden of platform fees
Spend hours each month making payments
Manually track & store invoices
Manually write & sign contracts
Manually file relevant tax documents

Let Panther save you from hiring headaches.

Sign up today for $0

If you want to hire employees in 

USA

If you’ve read up until this point, you’ll know that it’s easier, cheaper, and more flexible to hire contractors in the United States 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 the United States.

Taxes in 

USA

Employer tax

Unemployment (State)

Unemployment- New Employer (State)

FICA Social Security (Federal)

FICA Medicare (Federal)

FUTA Unemployment (Federal)

Individual tax

Leave

Paid Time Off (PTO)

California does not have any state laws that govern paid time off.  However, it is common for employers to decide whether to offer paid or unpaid vacation leave.  

This must comply with employment law and must be stipulated in the collective bargaining agreements.

Public Holidays

There are 11 public holidays.

Sick Days

An employer to follow the Family and Medical Leave Act (FMLA) which provides certain employees with up to 12 weeks of unpaid, job-protected leave per year for certain family and medical reasons (maternity leave, serious illnesses, or if the employee needs to care for a spouse or child).

Employees are eligible for FMLA if they have worked for their employer for at least one year, completed a minimum of 1,250 hours over the past year, and worked at a location where the company employs 50 or more employees within 75 miles.

Maternity Leave

Female employees are entitled to 12working weeks of leave in any one year for a child’s birth and to care for the newborn child within one year of birth.

For employers with 5 or more employees, the Pregnancy Disability Leave entitles employees who have disabilities related to pregnancy or the child’s birth up to four months of unpaid maternity leave.

Paternity Leave

In California, there are three laws regarding Paternity Leave:

  • Family and Medical Leave Act (FMLA)
  • California Family Rights Act (CFRA)
  • The New Parent Leave Act (applies to employers with 20 – 49 employees)

All three entitle new fathers to 12 weeks of unpaid leave.

Parental Leave

In California, 26 working weeks of leave during a single one-year period to care for a covered servicemember with a serious injury or illness if the eligible employee is the service member’s spouse, son, daughter, parent, or next of kin (military caregiver leave).

Other Leave

Voting Leave - Employees who are registered to vote receive 2 hours off from work to vote in any municipal, county, state, or federal primary or general election. Employees must provide reasonable notice to their employers to take time off to vote. Unpaid or paid leave is dependent on contract terms.

Jury Duty Leave - Full-time employees are entitled to job-protected, unpaid leave for jury duty, as a witness in a case, responding to a subpoena, or acting as a plaintiff or defendant in the courts. Employees must provide a copy of the jury summons to the employer as evidence of requirement.

Marriage Leave

No Info.

Bereavement Leave

In the US, there is no law granting workers the right to paid time off to attend a loved one's funeral or process the trauma of losing a family member.

Bereavement leave is up to the discretion of employers.

Termination

Termination Process

An employment contract or a collective bargaining agreement, U.S. law does not impose a formal notice period to terminate an individual employment relationship, and employment is stipulated “at will.”

This means that either the employer or the employee may end the employment relationship without giving either notice or reason, provided it is not illegal, notable discrimination on the grounds of a category protected by law, etc., and as per the Federal Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification Act (WARN).

The employment contracts of executives and other highly skilled individuals often incorporate a “just cause termination” clause which mandates that the employer may only terminate the employee for “cause” and lists the permissible grounds. In such cases, the parties negotiate the foundations for a “just cause” termination.

Notice Period

In California, payout of unused vacation time is not required by law.  However, employers will generally pay an employee for unused vacation days, provided the employee gives some advanced notice of resignation. While there is no official notice period, general practice is 2 weeks.

Severance Pay

An employment contract or collective bargaining agreement, employers are not required to pay severance. Many employers choose to offer severance pay based on the employee’s length of employment.

Probation Period

Probation period is 90 days.

Employee requirements in 

USA

Working Hours

The standard work week in California is 40 hours per week or 8 hours per day.

Overtime

California adheres to the Fair Labour Standards Act (FLSA), and work in excess of 40 hours per week is considered overtime and paid at the rate of 150% of the regular pay.

If employees are scheduled to work on weekends or rest days, no additional payment is required.

However, should an employer request an employee to work in exceptional circumstances on these days, then overtime is paid at the rate of 150% of the regular pay.

Want to hire contractors, anywhere? Start with Panther today for $0.

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