A Virtual Assistant’s salary ranges from $350 to $2200 a month depending on their skills. A programmer will obviously require a higher salary as compared to a data entry specialist, which is almost the same case with office-based jobs. Even if you take into account the 13th month pay, it’s not a lot.

Below is a gist of VA salaries. If you’re just getting started, you can check our blog post to help determine pay rates and our Virtual Assistant Salary Guide. Make sure to also check the guide if you already have a VA and you’re thinking about giving them a raise.

The cost of living varies across the country, as do salaries. When hiring, base your salary on talent rather than of region or on minimum wage.

When you compare average salaries in the Philippines with other countries, you begin to see why the Philippines is the fastest growing outsourcing market. When you combine the talent level in the Philippines with the average salaries, the Philippines becomes downright compelling.

And we’re talking about full-time workers here, which gives value to your business in the long run. Another hidden cost that VAs from the rest of the world that you may not have considered is the cost you’re paying the platform in commissions and operating costs.

To make it easier for you to formulate a rating of your own for your future VA’s, or if a raise is long overdue, we also have a chart on the cost of living in the Philippines. This includes the utilities that they need to fully function in the virtual assistant world.

Again, the chart only includes the basic utilities. Please keep in mind that there are other costs one requires in order to live, like clothes, mobile devices, and anything that allows them to go about their actual lives.

In the Philippines, a college degree is a prerequisite in order to get a job. That’s why majority of Virtual Assistants are college educated.

If you’re like me, you want to give a few extras for your loyal employees. There are some benefits such as health insurance (PhilHealth in the Philippines) or SSS (like Social Security in the USA). If you want to provide this benefit to your workers here’s how much it cost:

Source: http://www.philhealth.gov.ph/partners/employers/contri_tbl.html

As you can see, with Filipino workers, you don’t have to break the bank to give these highly skilled workers a living wage. If you just look at their salary in terms of numbers, yeah they do look insignificant compared to ours. And that’s just one of the benefits you can give your Filipino workers. If you want more details, we have a blog post where we discuss how you can compute for VA benefits.

So the next time someone accuses you of exploiting workers because you outsource, show them these numbers. Ask them what exploitation looks like and show them pictures of your VA being able to send their kids to private school and get iPhones for themselves. If this is exploitation, then giving them a “fair” wage would be winning the lottery.

You can also read more about paying your virtual assistant.