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How to hire remote employees in
It doesn’t matter where your HQ is, we can tell you one thing: Belize has different labor laws than your home country (well, unless your home country is Belize, of course). If you don’t do things right, you’ll be putting your company at the risk of fines—and risk losing the talent you brought onboard.
If you want to successfully hire in
Belize
, you have two options:
Laws about hiring contractors are significantly more simple in
Belize
. 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
Belize
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
Belize
.
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
Belize
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
Belize
, 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 Belize 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 Belize
PTO is calculated by the:
There are 13 public holidays.
The duration of sick leave entitlement provided to workers is dependent on how long they have been employed by their employer:
Female employees are entitled to 14 weeks of paid maternity leave. Up to 7 weeks of leave can be taken before the birth of the child. A minimum of two weeks prenatal and 7 weeks postnatal leave is mandatory.
Employees receive 80% of their average weekly earnings. The minimum benefit 44.00 BZD a week and the maximum benefit is 384.00 BZD a week.
Paternity leave is not required by law.
Paternity leave is not required by law.
None.
None.
None.
Unless an employer can provide sufficient cause for dismissal without notice (due to misconduct, disobedience, lack of skill, neglect of duties, or absence without permission), written notice is required.
The notice period in Belize is:
The notice period is determined by length of employment:
Employed for 5-10 years – 1 week’s wage for each year of completed service.
Over 10 years of employment – 2 week’s wage for each year completed.
Probation period is 2 weeks.
A standard workweek is 45 hours.
Overtime is any work exceeding:
All overtime work should be paid at 150% of the normal rate.
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