Blog / Cost & pricing
What to Pay a Remote Executive Assistant in 2026
Salary ranges by role, region and experience, plus an honest comparison of managed support, placement and direct hire — with the arithmetic shown.
If you are hiring a remote executive assistant, the first question is not “how much should I pay?” It is “which model am I using?” — because the cost depends almost entirely on whether you are hiring directly, using a managed service, or going through a placement agency. Each has a different cost structure, a different risk profile, and a different set of things that become your problem.
Direct hire
If you hire an EA yourself — your own job posting, your own interviews, your own onboarding — you are looking at a wide range depending on geography and experience.
A US-based executive assistant with three to five years of experience typically earns $55,000 to $75,000 a year. In New York, San Francisco or Los Angeles that climbs past $80,000 for senior EAs with specialised experience. Add roughly 20–25% for employer taxes, benefits and equipment and the loaded cost of a $65,000 hire is closer to $80,000.
A remote EA based in the Philippines, Latin America or Eastern Europe with equivalent experience and fluent English typically earns $15,000 to $24,000 a year. The difference is not calibre. It is geography and cost of living.
The trade-off with direct hire is that you own everything: recruiting, vetting, onboarding, training, management, payroll, compliance, and replacement when it does not work out. For some businesses that is fine. For most founders under $5M, the management overhead quietly eats the time the hire was supposed to save.
Managed support
A managed service handles the entire lifecycle. Recruitment, vetting, training, management, quality assurance, backup cover when they are ill, and replacement if the match fails.
Managed support typically runs $1,500 to $4,000 per month depending on whether you need fractional or dedicated full-time. That figure includes the assistant’s compensation, the management layer, HR, payroll and compliance.
You pay more per month than a direct hire. What you buy is the removal of a management job from your desk, and continuity — a sick day is not your problem.
Placement
A placement service sources, vets and shortlists candidates. You interview, choose and hire directly, paying a one-time fee — typically 20% or more of first-year compensation — and then manage the person yourself.
This is the middle ground: you want the person on your own team, and you have the capacity to manage them, but you do not have forty hours to spend screening candidates properly.
Which one, honestly
If you are a solo founder doing $500K to $5M and you need someone handling your calendar, inbox and operations daily, start with managed support. The time you save on management alone justifies the premium, and the trial month means you find out cheaply whether it works.
If you are building a team and hiring for several roles, start with placement. Get the right people on your bench, then add managed oversight later if you need it.
If you already have an operations manager who can run people well, direct hire is the cheapest option over three years and you should do that. We will tell you the same thing on a call.
The numbers, side by side
| Direct hire (US) | Direct hire (remote) | Placement | Managed | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Year one cost | $66,000–$94,000 loaded | $15,000–$24,000 + your time | $15,000–$24,000 + one-time fee | $18,000–$48,000 |
| Who recruits | You | You | Us | Us |
| Who manages | You | You | You | Us |
| Cover for absence | None | None | None | Included |
| Time to operational | 6–10 weeks | 6–10 weeks | 2–3 weeks | 48 hours |
Loaded US figures assume salary plus roughly 20–25% in employer taxes, benefits and equipment. Your own numbers will differ; treat these as ranges, not quotes.