Contingent Workers Abroad: Issues And Obstacles For Incentivizing International Workforces

While a global contingent workforce may be an extension of a company's internal workforce for all practical purposes, legally, it is a separate and distinct group of nonemployees. That can create a number of obstacles for employers, particularly when the contingent workers are located outside the United States. One of those obstacles concerns how to address equity compensation.

Cross-border equity grants—meaning equity grants that are issued to those outside of the United States —are often complicated because the kinds of equity that exist in the United States may not exist under another country's tax and securities laws. Local laws may require:

• a prospectus;
• registration of an equity plan;