What an executive assistant actually costs
Salary is usually a little under half of it. Add benefits, employer taxes, recruiting, equipment, and software, and the real number looks different.
The salary is the number everyone quotes, and it is usually a little under half the real cost. Benefits and employer taxes add roughly 38% on top of base. Recruiting costs a fifth of first-year salary if you use an agency. Equipment, software seats, and the management time to keep the role filled are all real and all routinely left out of the comparison.
This calculator adds them up using published figures rather than our own numbers, so you can check the inputs. Change the market, the expected tenure, and what you include, and it shows its arithmetic.
- Base salary — Mid-size metro
- $75,500
- Benefits & employer taxes
- $28,690
- Recruiting, amortized
- $7,550
- Equipment & setup, amortized
- $1,100
- Software stack, per assistant
- $5,040
$65,000–$86,000 range, midpoint used
38% of base (BLS ECEC)
20% placement fee over 24 months
$2,200 over 24 months
knowledge base, AI, tasks, calls, time tracking, e-sign
Difference: $86,080 per year, before counting the management time an in-house hire needs.
Sources
- Robert Half 2026 Salary Guide (administrative & customer support) — base salary ranges for executive assistants
- US Bureau of Labor Statistics, Employer Costs for Employee Compensation (Dec 2025) — benefits and employer taxes as a share of total compensation
- Published vendor list pricing, 2026 — software seat costs
Estimates for comparison, not a quote. Salary bands are midpoints of published ranges; your actual cost varies with seniority, location, and benefits design.
Why tenure changes the answer
Tenure is the input people underestimate most. Recruiting and onboarding are one-off costs, so their annual weight depends entirely on how long the person stays. An assistant who stays five years spreads a $13,000 placement fee across sixty months. One who leaves at ten months does not, and you pay it again.
Average tenure for administrative roles runs shorter than most hiring plans assume, which is why the same salary produces very different true costs depending on retention. It is also the cost most invisible on a budget line, because it arrives as a replacement hire rather than as a number attached to the original one.
Executive assistant cost: FAQ
How much does an executive assistant cost per year?
A US-based executive assistant typically costs $95,000–$150,000 per year once you include base salary, benefits, employer taxes, recruiting, equipment, and software. Base salary alone runs roughly $55,000–$105,000 depending on market and seniority, which is where the common underestimate comes from.
What is the fully loaded cost of an executive assistant?
Fully loaded cost means base salary plus everything the employer pays on top: benefits and payroll taxes (about 38% of base), amortized recruiting, equipment, and per-seat software. For a mid-market EA at roughly $75,000 base, fully loaded lands near $115,000–$125,000 per year.
Is a remote executive assistant cheaper than hiring in-house?
Generally yes, and the gap widens once you count the costs that do not appear on a salary line. A managed remote assistant folds recruiting, benefits, payroll, equipment, software, and replacement cover into one rate, so the quoted price is the actual price. An in-house hire's quoted salary is roughly half of what the role costs.
Why is benefits overhead about 38% of salary?
The US Bureau of Labor Statistics tracks employer costs for employee compensation and puts benefits and employer-paid taxes at roughly 30% of total compensation for private industry. Expressed as a markup on base salary rather than a share of the total, that works out to about 43%. We use 38% to stay conservative.
Should I include recruiting cost when comparing?
Yes, amortized over expected tenure. An agency placement typically costs 20% of first-year salary. Charging that entirely to year one overstates it and spreading it over an optimistic ten-year tenure understates it — dividing by realistic tenure in months is the honest middle.
One rate, everything included
A dedicated executive assistant, the AI, the platform, and a lifetime replacement guarantee. No recruiting fee, no per-seat software, no payroll to run.