TL;DR: There are three ways to hire a virtual assistant in the Philippines and they are not variations on one thing. An agency rents you hours from a pool of people who rotate across clients and stay employed by the agency. A freelance marketplace gives you a genuine independent contractor, which works when the engagement is genuinely independent. Hiring your own person through an employer of record (EOR) gives you one named employee who works your hours in your systems, employed legally in the Philippines. The line that decides which is legitimate is not price, it is control: someone who works your hours, on your tools, on tasks you assign daily, with you as effectively their only client, is an employee under Philippine law whatever the contract is titled. Through Shor that is $19 a month for a genuine contractor, or $299 a month per employee plus roughly 10 to 15 percent statutory employer contributions and an accrued 13th month.
The Philippine IT and business process management industry generated "$40.3 billion in revenue and employed 1.9 million people" in 2025, and its association is targeting $42.3 billion this year and more than $50 billion by 2028, according to the Information Technology and Business Process Association of the Philippines (Philstar, 27 September 2026). That is not a cottage industry of freelancers. It is an established profession with two decades of infrastructure behind it.
The language advantage is real and measurable rather than folklore. The Philippines scores 569 and ranks 28th in the world on the EF English Proficiency Index, second in Asia behind Malaysia and well above the global average.
Put those together and the Philippines is the default answer for US companies hiring administrative, support, and coordination roles abroad. What nobody explains clearly is that "hiring a VA in the Philippines" describes three different transactions with three different sets of obligations, and picking the wrong one is how small companies end up owing back contributions.
The three ways to hire, and what each one actually is
An agency or BPO sells you capacity. You pay a monthly rate per seat, the agency recruits and employs the person, and they work for you under the agency's management. The relationship is with the company. If the person leaves, the agency replaces them. You are buying continuity of coverage, not continuity of person.
A freelance marketplace sells you a contractor. You find someone yourself, agree a rate, and pay per hour or per project through the platform, which takes a cut. The person is genuinely self-employed, handles their own taxes and contributions, and typically works for several clients.
Your own hire is an employee. You recruit a specific person, they work your hours in your systems on the work you assign, and they are employed for you in the Philippines through an employer of record. They accrue the statutory benefits Philippine law requires, and they build up knowledge of your business that stays with you.
| Agency or BPO | Freelance marketplace | Your own hire via EOR | |
|---|---|---|---|
| What you buy | A seat | Project or hourly work | A person's full-time employment |
| Who employs the worker | The agency | Nobody, they are self-employed | An EOR, on your behalf |
| Who directs the work | Shared, in practice the agency | They do, within the brief | You do |
| Best for | Coverage you cannot lose, shift work | Genuinely independent project work | Continuous work you direct daily |
| Statutory benefits | The agency's problem | Their own problem | Handled, and they are your obligation |
| Cost shape | Fixed per seat, usually a markup | Hourly plus platform fee | Salary plus contributions plus EOR fee |
| Who keeps the know-how | The agency | They do | You do |
Agencies deserve credit where it is due. If you need phone coverage from 9pm to 6am Manila time that cannot go dark when one person is sick, an agency with a bench does something you cannot replicate with a single hire, and the markup buys real redundancy. The same is true when you want to try the model for one quarter without becoming an employer anywhere.
What Philippine virtual assistants actually do
The roles that work well are documentation-based, software-based, and either schedulable or genuinely asynchronous.
- Executive and administrative support. Inbox and calendar management, travel, expenses, meeting notes, CRM hygiene, research briefs.
- Customer support. Email, chat, and ticket queues to a documented policy, with escalation paths you define.
- Bookkeeping and accounts. Invoice processing, reconciliations, accounts payable and receivable chasing, expense coding.
- Revenue and marketing operations. List building, sequence management, data enrichment, reporting, content scheduling.
- Specialist administrative work. The industry verticals where this has already become standard practice, each with its own professional limits: medical billing and healthcare administration, legal support work under a supervising lawyer, real estate transaction coordination, and construction estimating and project coordination.
What does not work: anything requiring a US professional licence, anything that is really a judgment call you would not delegate locally, and anything a client contract forbids you to send offshore. Also, realistically, roles that need constant unplanned access to whoever is in your office, because a 12 to 15 hour time difference from US business hours does not disappear because everyone is willing.
The classification line that actually decides this
This is where small companies get exposed, because almost every pitch attaches the word contractor to a full-time role.
The test under Philippine law looks at the reality of the relationship rather than the label on the agreement. The elements a Philippine labor authority weighs are who selects and engages the worker, who pays them, who can dismiss them, and above all who controls not just the result of the work but the means and methods used to achieve it. Someone who works your hours, on your systems, on tasks you assign each day, reporting to your manager, with your company as effectively their only client, satisfies that test whatever the contract says.
The consequence of getting it wrong is not theoretical. Philippine employees have strong security of tenure, and a worker reclassified as an employee can be owed back statutory contributions, the 13th month, service incentive leave, and separation pay, with the employer bearing the burden of proving the engagement was genuinely independent.
A genuine contractor exists too: the freelance designer who takes discrete projects from several clients, on her own schedule, with her own tools, invoiced per engagement. That is real independent work and can be paid as such, with a proper contract, a W-8BEN on file, and invoices that match payments.
If the role is full-time and yours, employ the person. An employer of record is the legal employer in the Philippines, runs local payroll and statutory contributions, issues a compliant local employment agreement, and handles termination under local law, while you direct the work. If you already have a Philippine "contractor" doing employee-shaped work, converting a contractor to an employee is a defined process rather than an emergency.
What Philippine employment law requires
If the person is your employee, these are the obligations that come with it. They come from the statutory dataset behind our country guides, the same figures we use to run payroll.
| Requirement | What applies |
|---|---|
| Salary currency | Philippine pesos, to a Philippine bank account |
| Payroll frequency | Semi-monthly, twice a month, required |
| Employer statutory contributions | Roughly 10 to 15 percent of salary |
| Biggest lines | Social Security System 10%, PhilHealth 2.5%, Pag-IBIG 2% |
| 13th month pay | Mandatory, paid by 24 December |
| Standard week | 40 hours over five days |
| Notice period | 30 days |
| Termination | Documented cause and due process required |
Three of those deserve more than a table row. Payroll runs twice a month, not once: monthly payroll is not compliant in the Philippines, and it is the detail US employers most often get wrong because their own cadence is monthly or biweekly. The 13th month is not a bonus you decide on in December; it accrues all year and is owed, so provision roughly one twelfth of salary every month. And security of tenure is strong, which means performance management has to be real from the start: set the probation properly, document reviews, and do not treat termination as an at-will decision you can take in an afternoon. Our Philippines guide has the full statutory detail, and the employer cost league table puts the Philippines next to every other market we publish data for. Statutory rates change and depend on salary bands, so confirm the specifics with your accountant.
What it actually costs
Take a virtual assistant in Manila at $1,200 a month. Your number depends on experience, specialism, and the market that week; this is the shape of the math, not a quoted rate.
As your own employee through an EOR: $1,200 gross, plus roughly 10 to 15 percent statutory employer contributions ($120 to $180), plus one twelfth of a 13th month accrued ($100), plus $299 for the EOR. All in, roughly $1,719 to $1,779 a month, with a legal employer, statutory benefits, and termination exposure handled in the Philippines.
As a genuine contractor: $1,200 to them, $19 to us, and a flat disclosed 2 percent only if and when they convert dollars to pesos. Roughly $1,219 a month. That is the right answer only when the relationship is genuinely independent, as described above, and it is the cheapest option on this page precisely because you are not carrying employment obligations. If you are carrying them in practice, the saving is a liability with a delay on it.
Through an agency: agencies price per seat and the markup is theirs to disclose, so ask for the rate and what it includes rather than assuming a multiple. The useful question is not the headline number but what you are buying with the difference: bench coverage, supervision, recruitment, and the ability to stop next month. If you would answer "none of those, I just want the person", you are paying a markup for something you do not want.
The employer cost calculator will break a specific Philippine salary into its statutory lines, and the pricing calculator will price your headcount.
What it costs through Shor
$19 per month per contractor, including the contract, W-8BEN collection, and invoicing. $299 per month per EOR employee in the Philippines, plus statutory employer costs and benefits. A flat 2 percent FX margin, disclosed on the receipt, charged only when money actually converts. Month to month, with no setup fee. Where a country requires a deposit for EOR employment, it is country-dependent and quoted up front before you sign.
The Philippines is one of our same-day local rail corridors, so a contractor paid today is paid today rather than in three business days. Contractors can also hold their earnings in USD and convert to pesos on their own timing rather than on the day you happen to pay, which matters more to them than it does to you.
Employment and tax rules change, and the statutory figures above are approximate ranges. Confirm your specific situation with your accountant.
FAQ
How much does a virtual assistant in the Philippines cost?
It depends on the salary you agree and on which of the three models you use. On a $1,200 a month salary, a genuine contractor costs roughly $1,219 a month through Shor, and your own employee through an employer of record costs roughly $1,720 to $1,780 once statutory contributions of 10 to 15 percent, the accrued 13th month, and the $299 EOR fee are included. Agencies price per seat with their own markup, so ask what the difference buys.
Can I hire a Philippine virtual assistant as an independent contractor?
Only if the engagement is genuinely independent. Philippine law looks at who controls the means and methods of the work, not the title on the agreement. Someone working your hours, on your systems, on tasks you assign daily, with your company as effectively their only client, is an employee, and misclassifying them can mean back contributions, the 13th month, leave, and separation pay. A freelancer taking discrete projects from several clients on her own schedule is a real contractor.
Do I need a company in the Philippines to hire someone there?
No. An employer of record is already the legal employer in the Philippines and employs the person on your behalf, which is what makes a single hire practical without registering an entity, opening a local bank account, or running Philippine payroll yourself. You still choose the person and direct their work.
What is 13th month pay and do I have to pay it?
It is a mandatory extra month of salary for Philippine employees, payable by 24 December each year. It is a legal entitlement rather than a discretionary bonus, it accrues across the year, and it is owed pro rata to someone who joins or leaves mid-year. Budget roughly one twelfth of salary every month so December is not a surprise. It does not apply to genuine independent contractors, who are not employees.