The short answer
Mexico City, San José, Bogotá, Lima, Santiago, Buenos Aires, Montevideo and São Paulo are all within two hours of New York time all year. Against San Francisco, these cities are one to five hours ahead. A team on US Eastern time shares at least six hours of a 9 to 5 working day with any of them.
Time difference by city
US summer time runs from the second Sunday of March to the first Sunday of November. In each cell, the first value is during US summer time and the second during US winter time.
| City | UTC offset | Compared with New York | Compared with San Francisco |
|---|---|---|---|
| Mexico City | UTC−6 | 2 h behind / 1 h behind | 1 h ahead / 2 h ahead |
| San José (Costa Rica) | UTC−6 | 2 h behind / 1 h behind | 1 h ahead / 2 h ahead |
| Bogotá | UTC−5 | 1 h behind / same time | 2 h ahead / 3 h ahead |
| Lima | UTC−5 | 1 h behind / same time | 2 h ahead / 3 h ahead |
| Santiago | UTC−4, UTC−3 in the southern summer | same time or 1 h ahead / 2 h ahead | 3 to 4 h ahead / 5 h ahead |
| Buenos Aires | UTC−3 | 1 h ahead / 2 h ahead | 4 h ahead / 5 h ahead |
| Montevideo | UTC−3 | 1 h ahead / 2 h ahead | 4 h ahead / 5 h ahead |
| São Paulo | UTC−3 | 1 h ahead / 2 h ahead | 4 h ahead / 5 h ahead |
Mexico ended daylight saving time in 2022, so Mexico City stays on UTC−6 all year (some cities on the US border still change their clocks). Brazil, Uruguay, Argentina, Colombia, Peru and Costa Rica do not change their clocks. Chile does, for its own summer, from early September to early April.
What the overlap means for a remote team
With a gap of two hours or less, a US Eastern team and an engineer in any of these cities share most of the working day. That changes how the work runs:
- A daily stand-up in the US morning falls inside working hours everywhere on the list.
- Code reviews and questions get answers the same day.
- Problems in production are found and fixed while both sides are online.
- Teams on US Pacific time share less of the day with the cities that are four or five hours ahead, so meetings fit best in the Pacific morning.
Eastern Europe and European teams
Boecia Talent also recruits in Eastern Europe for teams that work on European hours. Eastern European Time is one hour ahead of Central European Time all year, because both change their clocks on the same dates.
Sources
Offsets come from the IANA time zone database, which phones and computers use to set their clocks. Daylight saving dates can change by law, so check a converter such as timeanddate.com for a specific date.
Questions companies ask
Which Latin American cities share New York time?
Bogotá and Lima are on the same time as New York during US winter time and one hour behind during US summer time. Santiago is on the same time as New York for most of the US summer, from about April to September.
Is Latin America ahead of or behind the US?
It depends on the city. Mexico City and San José are one or two hours behind New York; Buenos Aires, Montevideo and São Paulo are one or two hours ahead. All of them are ahead of San Francisco.
Do I need to watch daylight saving time?
Yes, for the US and Chile, which change their clocks on different dates. The other countries in the table stay on the same time all year.
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