Country Comparison Tool
Compare remote staffing destinations side-by-side across salary level, timezone and English proficiency.
Data as of 31 October 2026 · Sources: country-guide salary rows (Sanity); BLS OEWS May 2025; EF English Proficiency Index 2025; IANA tz database 2026f.
Choose countries to compare
Side-by-side comparison
| Factor | India | Philippines | Poland |
|---|---|---|---|
| Salary index (US = 1.0) | 0.1× US3 of 3 roles: software developer $10,200, customer support $3,000, bookkeeper $3,500 | 0.1× US3 of 3 roles: software developer $9,945, customer support $6,175, bookkeeper $8,125 | 0.2× US1 of 3 roles: software developer $30,600 (est.) |
| Timezone (standard time) | +10.5h vs ET | +13h vs ET | +6h vs ET |
| English proficiency (EF EPI 2025) | LowRank 74 of 123 · score 484 | HighRank 28 of 123 · score 569 | Very highRank 15 of 123 · score 600 |
| Guide | Hire in India → | Hire in Philippines → | Hire in Poland → |
How to use this tool
This tool lays out up to three destination countries in one table so you can see how they differ on three factors that often shape a first remote hire: salary level relative to the United States, time difference from US Eastern Time, and national English proficiency.
Pick a country in each of the three selectors. The table updates straight away. You can choose the same country twice if you want to keep a column fixed while you swap the others. Every column links to the matching country guide, where the legal and tax position is explained.
Read the salary index as a ratio to US pay for the same few roles, not as a quote. It says nothing about seniority, employer on-costs or what a provider would charge, and it rests on only the roles shown under each figure. English proficiency is a national average from a self-selected online test, so a high rank does not guarantee that a particular candidate is a fit. Time difference is a fixed standard-time offset from US Eastern Time.
Use the table to shortlist two or three countries, then open the guides, check the legal and tax position for each, and ask for written quotes. For a full cost comparison with your own figures, use the Remote Hiring Cost Calculator.
Sources and assumptions
Salary index. For each country, the midpoint of the annual USD range in our country-guide salary rows is divided by the US national median annual wage for the same role, from the BLS Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics survey, May 2025: software developers $135,980, customer service representatives $44,770, bookkeeping, accounting and auditing clerks $50,670. The roles are a mid-level developer, a customer support agent and a bookkeeper, using non-senior rows. The index is the median of the available role ratios, shown to one decimal, and each figure states how many of the three roles it rests on. Lowest cost is only flagged when the chosen countries rest on the same roles. The country-guide rows are cited market estimates dated 2025 or 2026 (rows marked est. are estimates), stored in USD at the exchange rate used by whoever compiled each row; see the Salary Benchmark Explorer for each row's source and date. Rows are local-market base pay and exclude employer on-costs; the US medians are wages only.
English proficiency. Band, rank and score are from the EF English Proficiency Index 2025 (published 19 November 2025, 123 countries and regions). EF publishes a new edition each November. The earlier talent-pool rating has been removed because it had no published basis.
Timezone. Offsets are standard-time differences from US Eastern Standard Time (UTC−5) using IANA tz database zone rules (release 2026f). Daylight saving is not applied, so the true gap changes by an hour for part of the year in many pairs. Use the Timezone Overlap Calculator for dated, daylight-saving-aware offsets.
Use these figures for directional comparison, then request tailored quotes before deciding.