South Africa vs Latin America for remote talent
If your week only ever touches one side of the Atlantic, this is a straightforward decision. If it touches both — and for most growing companies it eventually does — one ordinary South African working day reaches a London morning and a New York morning, and that is the whole comparison.
The short answerIf any part of your business touches the UK or Europe, South Africa is the answer that holds up, because one ordinary working day reaches a London morning and a New York morning with nobody on a night shift. Tell us where your customers actually are on the call and we will say plainly whether that is us.
Side by side
The comparison, with the working shown.
Every figure in the table is sourced at the bottom of the page, so you can open any of them and check it yourself.
| Factor | South Africa | Latin America |
|---|---|---|
| A London working day | Seven hours together, six once British clocks change — an ordinary nine to five at both ends. — stronger on this row. | Five hours from Buenos Aires and three from Bogotá, an hour less again through British summer. |
| Covering the UK and the US in one day | One ordinary working day reaches a London morning and a New York morning. No night shift, no split team. — stronger on this row. | A day that stretches to London has already given up most of its afternoon with the US. |
| English proficiency | #13 in the world, scoring 602 on the EF English Proficiency Index 2025. — stronger on this row. | Argentina #26 with 575, Colombia #76 with 480, Mexico #103 with 440, against a global average of 488. |
| Clocks changing | They don't, and haven't since 1944. The gap to your office is the same in January and July. | Mostly the same — Argentina, Brazil, Colombia, Mexico, Peru and Uruguay have all stopped. Chile still changes twice a year. |
| What the hourly rate covers | From $10 an hour, carrying the assessment, cover when somebody is ill and a replacement if the fit is wrong. — stronger on this row. | Worth asking wherever you hire: who arranges cover, and who carries the cost when a match doesn't work out. |
Seen enough? Fifteen minutes on a call is usually all it takes to work out whether we are the right answer for your week.
In full
The longer version.
Hiring somewhere in the Americas is the reflex for a US company that needs support, and it often goes unexamined. The question worth asking first is simpler than the map: where are your customers, and when do they need somebody awake?
One working day, two markets. South Africa is UTC+2. Against a London working day, an ordinary nine to five at both ends overlaps by seven hours. Against New York, a one-o’clock start covers your whole morning. That is the part worth sitting with: the same person, on the same ordinary day, reaches both — no split team, no night shift, no handover note written at midnight. If your business already spans the Atlantic, or expects to, that is the argument. The full five-market version of the chart, with the offsets shown so you can check it, is on why South Africa.
On English. The EF English Proficiency Index 2025 puts South Africa 13th in the world with 602, against a global average of 488. It is a statement about a population rather than about a person, so we would still rather you heard the professional yourself before anything is agreed — which is a step in every match we make.
Clocks that stay where you left them. South Africa’s last daylight saving rule expired in 1944, so the gap between your office and theirs never moves. It sounds like a small thing until you have lived through the twice-yearly version: a schedule that quietly breaks in March, a standing call that lands an hour off for half the team, and a fortnight of everyone re-agreeing what “first thing” means.
Where that leaves you. If your week already spans the Atlantic, this is the comparison worth having. Pricing shows the three levels support is arranged at, how we work sets out what happens between an enquiry and somebody starting, and a free fifteen-minute call will tell you in one sitting whether the hours line up with yours.
Sources
Every figure above, and where it came from.
If one of these stops resolving, the figure comes out of the page rather than quietly staying in it — that rule is written down on our editorial policy.
- EF English Proficiency Index 2025 — South Africaef.com
- EF English Proficiency Index 2025 — Argentinaef.com
- EF English Proficiency Index 2025 — Colombiaef.com
- EF English Proficiency Index 2025 — Mexicoef.com
- IANA Time Zone Database — Africa (Zone Africa/Johannesburg)data.iana.org
- IANA Time Zone Database — South America (Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Peru, Uruguay rules)data.iana.org
- IANA Time Zone Database — North America (Mexico rules)data.iana.org
Questions
Follow-ups.
My customers are all in the United States. Does South Africa still work?
Usually, yes — a one-o'clock start in Cape Town covers a New York morning, and plenty of US businesses run exactly that way. Where it gets harder is the West Coast, because covering a Los Angeles day from South Africa means working through the night, and we don't staff night shifts. Tell us where your customers are and we will give you a straight answer on the call.
What about Spanish-language support?
We don't place Spanish-language customer support, so if that is the job, we are not the right fit and would say so early rather than late.
Why compare a country with a whole region?
Because that is how the decision actually gets made — people shortlist "somewhere nearshore" and then pick a country. Where a row needs a specific place to mean anything we name one, which is why Bogotá, Buenos Aires and Mexico City appear rather than a regional average that would flatten a very wide spread.
How do I know the hours will hold once we start?
They are agreed in writing before anyone begins, and they don't drift, because South Africa's clocks don't move. The hours you settle on in January are the hours you still have in July, which is not true of every arrangement.
Where this goes next
Related pages.
The evidence
Other comparisons
If you have decided
Get started
Tell us what the week looks like.
A short call if you would rather talk it through, or a short form if you would rather write it down.
