Short answer: Levels.fyi's 2026 data puts the median senior software engineer in Latin America at $44,593 (Chile) to $63,324 (Mexico) a year in total pay, against $252,000 for a senior engineer in the US. Across all levels, medians run from $33,729 in Colombia to $47,361 in Mexico. These are self-reported figures in USD, and what you pay to hire someone is a different number.
This page shows what Latin American software engineers earn, how the five largest tech markets compare with each other and with the US, and where the data is too thin to trust. Every figure has its source, its measure and, where available, its sample size (n). All figures were checked on October 2, 2026.
The table below uses Levels.fyi's "software engineer" pages for each country. Levels.fyi collects self-reported total compensation: base salary plus bonus plus equity, converted to USD at the page's exchange rate. We show the 25th, 50th, 75th and 90th percentiles so you can see the spread, not just the middle.
Source: Levels.fyi, software engineer, annual total compensation in USD, self-reported, 2026. Brazil has by far the most submissions, so its figures are the most stable. Chile's 62 submissions make it the least reliable of the five.
Seniority moves pay more than country does. Levels.fyi publishes separate entry-level and senior pages for each market (there is no mid-level cut for these countries). Small cells are flagged: under 20 submissions, treat the median as directional only.
Source: Levels.fyi entry-level and senior software engineer pages by country, total compensation in USD, self-reported, 2026.
Two patterns stand out. First, the gap between entry-level and senior is far wider in Latin America than in the US: in Brazil, where both samples are large, the senior median is about four times the entry-level median, while in the US the ratio is under two. Second, senior medians in the region sit between 18% (Chile) and 25% (Mexico) of the US senior median on the same measure.
Levels.fyi's figures are total compensation: base salary, cash bonus and equity, added together for one year. In the US, the median backend engineer on Levels.fyi reports $160,000 in base pay inside a $195,000 total, which is one reason the US Levels.fyi median ($196,000) sits well above the BLS median base wage for software developers ($135,980, May 2025). Those two numbers measure different things, so don't subtract one from the other.
Other sources measure differently again:
Self-reported data has known biases, and Latin America amplifies them:
Several hiring firms publish salary ranges for Latin American engineers who work with US companies. These are vendor claims that we have not verified, and they describe a different, higher-paid slice of the market than Levels.fyi.
Revelo's figures are annual salary ranges for senior engineers (5+ years) in remote roles with US-facing companies. Howdy's are average annual salaries of engineers it works with who serve US companies. Neither firm publishes a sample size on these pages.
A salary figure is what the engineer earns. It is not what a US company pays to have that engineer on its team. Between the two sit recruiting, vetting, onboarding, equipment, local legal and compliance work, retention, and replacement if someone leaves. Those costs exist whether you hire directly or work with a firm; the question is who carries them.
In the US, the Bureau of Labor Statistics measures part of that gap. In its June 2026 Employer Costs for Employee Compensation release, wages were 68.5% of total compensation for private-industry management, professional and related workers. Dividing the median software developer wage of $135,980 by 0.685 gives a fully loaded figure of about $198,511 a year, before recruiting or equipment. We walk through that method, step by step, in our guide to what it costs to hire a software developer (linked below). We have no equivalent official ratio for Latin American employers, so we don't apply one here.
Ryz typically charges $7,000 to $15,000 per engineer per month, mostly for mid-level to senior people. Mid-level engineers (comparable to Amazon L5, SDE II) typically cost $7,000 to $10,000 a month; senior engineers (comparable to Amazon L6, Senior SDE) $10,000 to $15,000. Leads start at $15,000 a month, quoted per team. That is $120,000 to $180,000 a year for a senior engineer, against roughly $198,511 for the median US software developer once benefits are added, and that US figure covers all levels, not just senior.
Our price is not the salary plus a markup you can back out from the tables above. It covers finding, vetting and keeping senior people: only the top 1% of the tens of thousands of engineers we have interviewed make it. Ryz engineers work on your team, reporting to your leads, on US business hours. Before you start, you get a scoped plan, a price and the names of the people who would do the work. Model your own numbers with the talent cost savings calculator, or read how staff augmentation works.
When Ryz is not the right fit: if you want a self-serve freelance marketplace, short hourly gigs, or a trial before talking to anyone, a marketplace is the better choice. If you need engineers in European or Asian time zones, look at global networks.
Each market has its own strengths, local pay and time-zone position. Our country guides cover what to expect in each:
There is no single regional figure from a neutral source. By country, Levels.fyi's 2026 medians for software engineers at all levels are $47,361 in Mexico, $39,180 in Argentina, $36,624 in Chile, $34,685 in Brazil and $33,729 in Colombia, in total compensation. Get on Board's region-wide job posts offered senior back-end engineers $3,153 a month after tax in the first half of 2026.
In Levels.fyi's 2026 data, Mexico has the highest median at all levels ($47,361), entry level ($31,930) and senior level ($63,324). Argentina's senior median ($62,400) is close behind. Vendor surveys of engineers working with US companies rank the countries differently, which shows how much the employer mix shapes these numbers.
Levels.fyi reports a 2026 median of $63,324 a year in total compensation for senior software engineers in Mexico, from 234 submissions, with the middle half between $45,363 and $82,768. Revelo, a hiring firm, reports $66,000 to $90,000 for senior engineers in remote roles with US-facing companies.
Pay is far lower: on Levels.fyi, Latin American senior medians are 18% to 25% of the US senior median. The full cost of hiring is higher than pay alone, though, because recruiting, vetting, retention and replacement all cost money. Compare total cost for the team you need, not salary against salary.
Levels.fyi publishes entry-level and senior pages for these countries but no mid-level page, and we only show figures we could source. For a mid-level signal, Get on Board's 2026 data shows semi-senior back-end engineers offered $2,061 a month after tax, region-wide.
All figures were checked on October 2, 2026. Ryz prices are typical ranges by seniority; your quote is scoped per team.
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