This is a reply to asking why Vercel no longer hires in Spain. It also explains why "remote" positions are often "remote in Country X" (e.g. US, UK the most frequent ones.) When a company employs someone remote in Country Y, they need to follow Country Y regulations...
Guillermo Rauch
 @rauchg
Oct 13
Replying to @javierguzmandev @cramforce
Sadly we had to exit Spain, insanely difficult to employ and grow our company there. We tried!

Oct 13, 2025 · 5:58 PM UTC

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... and following those regulations can be expensive+time-consuming. File rigid procedures, mandatory processes with lots of paperwork, and so on. Most US companies are taken aback by these requirements in European countries. So they either exit or...
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... or they are big enough to hire a local fulltime site lead to deal with all this ... or they only employ via B2B contract, that is not employment (forget about things like equity, but it can still pay well) It's the reality of remote employment! Location matters v much
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Yes, Cost of Employment hits US companies hard Eg when they pay someone €100K in France, the gross salary of that person (from which they pay taxes) is €75K. There's a 30-40% "cost of employer" on top of gross salary, invisible to the employee
Robert @bbqbobs
Oct 13
Replying to @GergelyOrosz
You also need to add in the Cost (salary levels) vs Complexity and Admin burden equation. I call it the PITA equation: if the cost/savings on labour is greater than the pain in admin, then you are PITA positive. Which means you will remain. If not, you leave said country.
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Yes this is a great read if you're interested in what it takes to employ in different countries as full-remote It's s LOT of work for the company hiring, which is why few companies do it outside of US + UK!
Simon Willison
 @simonw
Oct 13
Replying to @GergelyOrosz
GitLab publish their internal handbook for how they employee people in different countries around the world, it's fascinating handbook.gitlab.com/handbook…
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Rippling and Deel kind of solve for this... at a major overhead cost. And employees become employees of a local Rippling or Deel company that can add more confusion and clarity And, again, the cost of doing this surprises US startups I talk to
Edgar Cerecerez @EdgarCerecerez
Oct 13
Replying to @GergelyOrosz
isn't this what Rippling, Deel, et al. are solving for? and as far as I know, even contractors in those Countries can get equity.
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Replying to @GergelyOrosz
isn't this what Rippling, Deel, et al. are solving for? and as far as I know, even contractors in those Countries can get equity.
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it's their promise and it kind of works, but I have yet to meet a startup who likes how this plays out it's a bandaid to the reality of how hard it is to employ in certain countries
Gergely Orosz
 @GergelyOrosz
Oct 13
Replying to @GergelyOrosz
Rippling and Deel kind of solve for this... at a major overhead cost. And employees become employees of a local Rippling or Deel company that can add more confusion and clarity And, again, the cost of doing this surprises US startups I talk to
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Replying to @GergelyOrosz
Can’t they go through consultant route? Employees lose on equity, insurance and other benefits but better pay and tax structure usually offsets it. Employers get talent and gain more than employees working remotely.
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its in the thread :)
Gergely Orosz
 @GergelyOrosz
Oct 13
Replying to @GergelyOrosz
... or they are big enough to hire a local fulltime site lead to deal with all this ... or they only employ via B2B contract, that is not employment (forget about things like equity, but it can still pay well) It's the reality of remote employment! Location matters v much
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Replying to @GergelyOrosz
"When a company employs someone remote in Country Y, they need to follow Country Y regulations..." Can you explain this part?
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I explained it! Anyone employed fulltime in a country needs to follow regulations in that country: from paying taxes to national holidays being off, to working hour regulations etc etc
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more replies
Replying to @GergelyOrosz
GitLab publish their internal handbook for how they employee people in different countries around the world, it's fascinating handbook.gitlab.com/handbook…
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Replying to @GergelyOrosz
Eastern European remote engineers to the rescue.
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Replying to @GergelyOrosz
It's why like 90% of top EU talent works on B2B contracts, either directly to US or through an EU subsidiary. Costs of FT employment are also astronomical. In France, for an employee to take home €100k it costs both the employee and the company at least €280k. For comparison in California it'd be roughly €150k. Now multiply this delta by a hundred. Yes there are people working for Siemens, SAP etc. that take top dollar but these are exceptions.
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Replying to @GergelyOrosz
Spain is really backwards with regards to business, so much so that even as a company of one I'm considering moving my residency next year. They make everything super difficult, fine you with little to no proof, allow next to zero write-offs compared to other countries. I doubt any of the representatives for entrepreneurs here in Spain have actually run businesses before.
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Replying to @GergelyOrosz
All big tech companies have a base in Spain, the regulations are the same as anywhere else in Europe. Skill issue
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Replying to @GergelyOrosz
Fuck your regulations, let the people work for fuck sake
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Replying to @GergelyOrosz
...and despite that, Spain has Europe's top GDP growth, or universal (free) access to healthcare.
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Replying to @GergelyOrosz
They don’t hire in Spain because if there’s a football game on they can’t reliably connect with their remote devs. It’s that simple.
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Replying to @GergelyOrosz
Are you sure it is not because we have serious job protection laws? Without any more context on why they cannot hire in Spain it's what I think.
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Replying to @GergelyOrosz
A lot of people seem not to understand this, and during the COVID all-remote era were irritated they couldn't live out their dreams of moving to a random country that their company has no presence in.
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Replying to @GergelyOrosz
just hire a consultant/contractor, no need to do anything
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Replying to @GergelyOrosz
As Vercel has employees in Germany, I doubt it's the regulations in Spain, which made them close down there.
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Replying to @GergelyOrosz
Beyond country regulations you can get into things like needing to have different suppliers setup in each country. We'd have people expect things to be just like US/UK/ EU, but then suppliers might not have credit terms or they may not support sales to that specific country
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Replying to @GergelyOrosz
No they don’t. You spin up a business entity and transact with a company not as an employee but as an individual contractor.
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Replying to @GergelyOrosz
Weird, because many other companies hire in Spain. It's interesting that they just did not explain what makes it "insanely difficult" though.
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Replying to @GergelyOrosz
PostHog and GitLab also follow similar rules for Brazil. @simonw shared the link of GitLab handbook below. Brazil cost to hire an Employee of Record is at minimum 1.6x, growing more as you add more benefits like health insurance. So for hiring in Brazil, B2B is much more common
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Replying to @GergelyOrosz
Yes. Something people take for granted until they experience it first hand
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Replying to @GergelyOrosz
In my previous company, we had to add GNSS tracking to company laptops because of this. Some people would sign up to be remote in the UK, live in Spain and then... sue us for benefits (?!?!?!?!?).
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Replying to @GergelyOrosz
Thank you for enlighting this. Its horrible. I just saw your post about the employment cost in France. No one wins, its so pathetic and disgusting.
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Replying to @GergelyOrosz
Curious on your thoughts on this @elwatto
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Replying to @GergelyOrosz
Difficult to treat other countries’ workforce like Americans are used to be treated.
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Replying to @GergelyOrosz
I see some suggestions here to hire people as contractors. Nope, thats not as easy as you think. Some EU countries have laws which can flip such a contract under specific circumstances into a full blown employee contract, especially if you work always for one and the same company
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