Hiring Abroad

I run a delivery company called Woodstock Drop. It consists of partnering with and providing delivery for many businesses, as well as catering to customers directly. The dispatch line is a big part of our business.

South Africans are, for the most part, smart, well-mannered, and generally the kind of people I want picking up the phone. I think it wise to hire some for my company.

Taxes

According to my research, there are several ways to hire internationally:

1. Work with a local partner (EOR)

An employer of record places your employee on their payroll. They take care of withholdings, benefits, etc. Main downside: can be costly.

Some EORs include:

• ShieldGeo (Velocity Global): https://velocityglobal.com/
• Remote: https://remote.com/

2. Pay from your payroll

Can be legal in some cases, but usually isn't.

3. Outsource a foreign payroll provider

This kind of sucks because you still need a local legal entity.

4. Pay them as contractors

Not that bad, but not wise for handling sensitive financial data. Could also be considered a misclassification.

Minimum Wage

The minimum wage in South Africa is 20 Rand, which is about $1.33 USD. We'll be paying quite a bit more than that.

Time Offset

The USA (New York) has a UTC offset of -5:00 or -4:00 (daylight savings). South Africa has a UTC offset of +2:00.

This means South Africa is either six or seven hours ahead of New York.

Example shift breakdown (US to SA):

• 8 AM to 4 PM US = 3 PM to 11 PM SA (morning)
• 4 PM to 12 AM US = 11 PM to 7 AM SA (evening)
• 12 AM to 8 AM US = 7 AM to 3 PM SA (graveyard)

Digital Load Shedding

The South African government will restrict cellular bandwidth at its discretion without warning. This could be a liability if workers are not stationary and doing their work via a stable internet connection.