Virtual Assistant Salary—Will Hiring a VA Burn a Hole in Your Budget?

As more and more companies are discovering the advantages of remote working, the demand for Virtual Assistants is skyrocketing.

This is no surprise, as there are numerous benefits to hiring a VA over a traditional full-time employee. Virtual Assistants can handle laborious administrative duties remotely, giving you and your staff more room to focus on promoting your brand, attracting new customers, and generating profit.

Virtual Assistants are a much more cost-effective alternative to FTEs, given the fact that you have access to a global talent pool and can hire a skilled professional from a lower cost of living region. 

Just how much does hiring a Virtual Assistant cost, and what’s the average Virtual Assistant salary? There’s no simple answer to this question because VAs’ rates can vary dramatically depending on a multitude of factors. 

To help you get a better idea of how much you’ll have to set aside for a VA, we’ll answer the following questions in this article:

• What factors affect the going rate for Virtual Assistants?
• How much do Virtual Assistants make depending on their niche?
• How much does the average salary for Virtual Assistants vary according to location?
• How do Virtual Assistants get paid?

What Factors Determine Virtual Assistant Rates?

In order to make an accurate estimate regarding a Virtual Asisstant’s salary, you have to look at all the factors that determine how much they’ll charge on average, with the crucial ones being:

1. Relevant job experience
2. Level of education
3. Number and complexity of tasks
4. Industry-specific expertise
5. Geographical location

How Does Previous Work Experience Affect Virtual Assistant Pay Rates?

Pay rates for Virtual Assistants are heavily affected by their overall level of experience. Seasoned veterans with countless projects under their belt usually charge a lot more for their services. Beginners, on the other hand, typically have lower rates. 

To get the right type of professional for your business, you need to determine how much experience the job demands. You can’t hire someone with little experience to handle complex, business-critical tasks for your organization. In the same vein, you shouldn’t pay exorbitant rates for a VA whose only job is to check your inbox and reply to emails!

Does Education Have Any Impact on Virtual Assistant Incomes?

A VA’s education can also be an important factor when it comes to how much they charge for their services. This is especially true in specialized industries that tend to require a degree in a particular field.

For example, a company heavily invested in tech development would likely prefer a VA with a matching educational background. The proper education also gives VAs room to bargain for higher rates, as the right degree can easily verify that a candidate possesses the right knowledge and skills for the job.

How Do Complexity of Tasks and Scope of Work Impact a VA’s Salary?

How much money a VA receives is in direct correlation with the number and complexity of the tasks they perform for a company. 

Taking care of administrative work is typically on the lower end, and this includes tasks such as:

• Replying to emails
• Answering customers’ inquiries
• Bookkeeping
• Managing timetables
• Scheduling appointments
• Notifying invitees of upcoming meetings
• Handling personal errands

If you expect a Virtual Assistant to take over more complex tasks that require industry-specific knowledge, relevant experience, and specific tool proficiencies, you’ll have to be prepared to pay more.

For example, a Legal Virtual Assistant will expect a much higher compensation than a personal assistant, based on their academic background, knowledge of relevant laws and regulations, and the prestige of their profession.

Apart from the type of tasks you’ll outsource to the VAs, the scope of work also impacts their rates. If you contract a VA long-term, you’ll be able to negotiate more favorable rates. The reason for this is “security,” since a VA with a long-term contract won’t have to constantly look for new clients and will have a reliable monthly income for the duration of the contract.

How Much Do Virtual Assistants Make According to the Industry They Work In?

Virtual Assistants provide their services to a variety of organizations, and they often specialize in particular industries. Apart from clerical and administrative tasks, VAs can also handle other business-critical tasks, such as:

• Marketing
• SEO
• Content creation
• Copywriting
• Graphic design
• Lead generation
• Digital development

Based on statistics from ZipRecruiter, here’s how the average annual salaries of Virtual Assistants vary according to the industry they specialize in:

How Much Does the Hourly Rate for Virtual Assistants Vary Based on Their Location?

A VA’s geographic location can have a drastic impact on their preferred salary range. Although pay rates for Virtual Assistants vary wildly from country to country, they also differ internally in the U.S.

The rates tend to fluctuate from state to state according to the current market rate, a state’s GDP, as well as the actual demand for a particular role.

The table below shows you a comparison of Virtual Assistant pay rates across several major cities in the United States as reported by Glassdoor:

The biggest advantage of hiring a Virtual Assistant over hiring a full-time employee in your area is the fact that you’re not restricted by location in the slightest. Having access to a global talent pool means you can find a skilled professional to handle virtually any task, at any price point!

If you dedicate the time to evaluating dozens of VAs, you’ll save a ton of money in the long run because a VA from India or the Philippines will have up to five times lower rates than their counterpart in the U.S.

How Do Virtual Assistants Get Paid?

Virtual Assistants get paid either by the hour or upon completing a given project. Their pay rate can also be task-dependent. 

For example, a Copywriting Virtual Assistant could charge $0.5 per word. They might also charge a flat rate for a set number of promotional emails on a weekly/monthly basis.

What’s great is that you get to decide how much or how little you want your VA to work. This is why they’re particularly well suited for tasks that don’t require a full 8-hour work shift. You pay them only for the work they’ve done—there are no bonuses, taxes, office space, or equipment costs associated with hiring a VA. 

You don’t even pay for sick leave or PTO, so you’d be saving a considerable amount of money even if a VA’s rates matched a full-time employee’s monthly salary.

Discover a Stress-Free Way to Hire Skilled, Affordable Virtual Assistants Faster!

Outsourcing tasks to a Virtual Assistant can bring many benefits to your business, but hiring one can be a bit tricky. You can’t just hire a VA with the lowest rates or based the decision solely on their profile/portfolio. After all, you’ll be sharing sensitive internal information with them, so it’s imperative that they are not only qualified—but also trustworthy.

To find and hire a professional who ticks all the boxes, you’ll need to thoroughly test and evaluate dozens of candidates. Without any hiring automation, this can quickly turn into a time-consuming nightmare.

As applications start rushing in, it’s easy to get overwhelmed. And while you assess resumes, distribute tests, and interview candidates—your business operations will slow down to a crawl.

That is precisely why we’ve created Workello—a fine-tuned, fully automated applicant tracking system that allows you to go through the hiring process with greater speed and efficiency!

When you sign up for Workello, you’ll be able to: 

1. Post job ads across a limitless number of hiring platforms
2. Review all applications in a single, robust dashboard, regardless of where they came from
3. Automatically distribute tests that will help you spot and filter out underskilled candidates
4. Move applicants through each stage of your hiring funnel with a single button-click
5. Lower the number of transactional questions by providing applicants with a Candidate Status page where they can find all the necessary answers

Create a Workello account for free today, and test and review 5 Virtual Assistants on the house!