How to hire remote employees in

Cayman Islands

Want to hire someone from the Cayman Islands? A little less sure how you’re supposed to hire them, considering your company’s HQ is located somewhere else? Then, welcome: You’re in the right place. In the next few minutes, you’ll learn how to hire remote talent in the Cayman Islands, quickly, without wading into months and thousands of dollars of legal red tape.

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Employment requirements

Country snapshot

CURRENCY

Cayman Islands Dollar

EMPLOYER TAXES

PAYROLL FREQUENCY

Monthly

OFFICIAL LANGUAGE

English

Why hire independent contractors in Cayman Islands

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 Cayman Islands.

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

HHiring contractors in Cayman Islands 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.

What to know before you hire in Cayman Islands

Hiring abroad is difficult: New labor laws, entities, a lot of words you’d rather not hear again. But we’ve got good news. It doesn’t need to be that way. Below, we’ll break down your two main options for hiring in the Cayman Islands (and the one we prefer).

If you want to successfully hire in Cayman Islands, you have two options:

Hire talent as contractors

Laws about hiring contractors are significantly more simple in Cayman Islands. 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 Cayman Islands is expensive—it can often be $500 per month per employee—and sometimes prone to lengthy onboarding times.

Hire contractors in a couple clicks with Thera

How can I pay people in Cayman Islands

If you’re hiring contractors in Cayman Islands, 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 want to hire employees in Cayman Islands

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

Taxes in Cayman Islands

Employer tax

Pensions

Leave

Paid Time Off (PTO)

Employees receive two weeks of paid annual leave if they have up to four years of service.

This increases to three weeks for up to 10 years of service. After 10 years, this increases to four weeks.

Public Holidays

There are 11 public holidays.

Sick Days

Employees receive 10 days of fully paid sick leave and the employee must provide a medical certificate after three days of absence.

Maternity Leave

Female employees receive 12 weeks of maternity leave after a year of service and it is pro-rated if they have worked less than a year.

The first 20 days are fully paid and then the reminder is at half pay. They can determine how much leave can be taken before and after the due date.

The employer pays the maternity leave. They are also entitled to nine weeks of adoption leave for a child under the age of three years old.

Paternity Leave

There is no statutory paternity leave.

Parental Leave

Apart from maternity leave, there is no other parental leave.

Other Leave

No Info.

Marriage Leave

No Info.

Bereavement Leave

Employees in Cayman Islands are entitled to have 5 days leave.

Termination

Termination Process

Employers can terminate employees when their fixed-term contract finishes or by providing notice.

When there is misconduct, which isn’t serious enough for dismissal, the employee can be given a written warning and if they commit misconduct again within a year, the employer can terminate the employment.

If the employee feels the dismissal is unfair, they can file a complaint with the company director within 90 days of the dismissal and a labor tribunal can determine whether the dismissal was unfair.

Notice Period

The notice period in Cayman Islands is typically a month.

Severance Pay

Employees with a year of service receive severance pay. The pay is one week for every year of service, up to 12 weeks of pay.

Probation Period

Probation period is 6 months and can be extend.

Employee requirements in Cayman Islands

Working Hours

The standard work week in Cayman Islands is 45 hours or 9 hours a day.

Employees receive a 24-hour rest period every week and they receive a 30-minute break after five hours of work per day.

Overtime

In Cayman Islands, employees overtime is typically paid at a percentage above the regular rate.

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