Search for the cost of a Filipino virtual assistant and you will get numbers that contradict each other by a factor of ten. A salary survey reports one figure in pesos. An agency page two results down quotes a dollar rate several times higher for what looks like the same job title. Neither is lying.
They are measuring different things, and knowing which is which is most of what you need to evaluate a quote.
Why published virtual assistant rates disagree
There are three different numbers floating around under the same label.
- Local salary data. Philippine salary surveys report what a worker earns domestically, in pesos, usually from employers hiring for the local market. For scale, the statutory daily minimum wage for non-agricultural workers in Metro Manila is ₱695, set by the regional wage board. This number tells you about the Philippine labour market. It does not tell you what you will pay for a skilled remote specialist working your hours.
- Freelance marketplace rates. What an individual lists on a bidding platform. This is closer to what you would pay a direct freelancer, but it excludes the platform fee, your screening time, your management time and the cost of the hire not working out.
- Agency or managed-team rates. What a client pays a company that recruits, vets, replaces, supervises and reports. The specialist's pay is one line inside that number.
Comparing a salary survey against an agency rate and concluding the agency is expensive is like comparing the wholesale cost of flour to the price of bread. The useful comparison is between two quotes for the same scope.
What actually moves the number
In order of how much they matter:
- Specialisation. This is the biggest lever by a wide margin. An assistant doing inbox and calendar work sits at one end. A software developer, a motion designer or an automation specialist sits somewhere entirely different, because the supply of people who can do that work is far smaller.
- Experience in your specific field. A general admin assistant and an assistant who already knows Dotloop, SkySlope and MLS listing rules are not the same hire, even with the same job title. Domain knowledge you do not have to teach is worth paying for.
- Hours and schedule. Part-time costs more per hour than full-time, for the same reason it does everywhere. Shifts that require someone to work a full US night have a premium attached.
- What surrounds the seat. Recruitment, skills testing, a trial task, onboarding, supervision, quality review, daily reporting, payroll administration, equipment and internet redundancy, and cover when someone is sick. Every one of these is either in the rate or on your plate.
The cost most quotes leave out
The rate is the part everyone compares. The expensive part is usually the part nobody prices.
If you hire direct, you own recruitment and screening, the risk of a bad match, onboarding time, day-to-day supervision, payment logistics across borders, and the whole thing again when the person leaves. None of that appears on an invoice, which is exactly why it gets ignored until it happens.
A managed seat moves those costs into the rate. Whether that is worth it depends entirely on how much your own hour is worth and how much management capacity you actually have. For a founder who is already the bottleneck, a cheaper direct hire that needs three hours of supervision a week is not cheaper.
How to compare two quotes properly
Ask both sides the same five questions and the real price difference usually becomes obvious.
- What happens in week one if the fit is wrong? Who pays for the replacement, and how long does it take?
- Who supervises the work day to day, and what do I receive without asking for it?
- What are the agreed hours, and what is the overlap with my working day?
- Who owns the documented processes if the specialist leaves?
- What is explicitly not included?
A quote that is 20% lower and answers question one with "you would need to start the search again" is not 20% lower.
What Virtual Level Up charges
We quote after the discovery call, not before, and we do it in writing. There are two structures.
An ongoing seat is billed hourly, based on the discipline and the weekly hours. A virtual administrative assistant and a remote software developer are not the same rate, so a single published number would be misleading for one of them.
A one-time project is one fixed price for one agreed scope. A website, a brand kit, an explainer video, an automation build, an SEO audit. You see the number before work starts and you pay once.
We put pricing after the call because the honest answer depends on what you are handing over. Scoping it takes half an hour and costs nothing. Tell us what is eating your week and you will have a number in writing.
