I always paid my guys in dollars (still do for the one person left to me!). And I paid them a better wage (as much as 30% more) than they could get here. But my industry (IT) is a bit of a special case. It is much more international to the employees here because so much of the work, whether it's a local company or a foreign company operating outside of Argentina, comes from outside the country.
I have a friend who has a local assistant (not for the same industry I'm in) who he pays probably about 15% or so higher than current wages and also pays her in dollars. She takes care of his house (not where he lives - he owns a huge house in town that is used sort of as a clubhouse for all of his expat friends, dinners every week, etc) and portions of his business like answering emails (in English) and other things that free him up to concentrate on his true work. He probably went through three or four assistants until he found one that was worth paying for and keeping.
I saw your other post about part time wages. You'll have a problem most likely only paying a few hours a week, as far as finding someone dependable and paying them "over and above" (as far as using that to help them be committed to you, let's say), simply because they won't be earning enough money from you. That's a bit more difficult of a situation.
It also depends on what kind of work you're looking for as to the type of person who will fill the position.
At the end of the day, you have to cut your losses with someone here quickly. With a longer-term job that's more difficult, because a lot of people will work through that three month period that the law allows for you to let someone go without causing problems and after that they may start missing work, showing up late, not doing their job, etc. However, with a part-time employee they won't have that three month grace period and you will be able to see quicker what kind of worker they make, If the person doesn't do the job you like, find another as quick as you can.
As far as pay goes, pay them more than others are getting for the same work, but not TOO much more. If you are paying in pesos, offer them a rate at a dollar amount and tell them you will pay them according to the blue rate in lieu of dollars. That's one of the reasons I liked paying in dollars (aside from the pain of getting dollars into the country) because it's the best hedge against inflation, here. Paying according to a fixed dollar rate in pesos is nearly as good, particularly for a part time job.
However, no matter what you do, you will probably run into problems. Particularly with laborers that are in an unskilled job (not sure what kind of job you are talking about). Educated workers are much more likely to accept the difference between your standard of living and the pay that you give to them than are less-educated poorer folk.
Either way, you have to deal with the lack of work ethic, which includes not only showing up to work, but also doing things half-assed and them declaring victory that the job was accomplished, when you can see that not even half of it was what you were looking for.
Welcome to employment in Argentina
