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An executive assistant in the Philippines earns about ₱26,500 to ₱43,000 a month in local salary (Indeed and Glassdoor, 2026), roughly $420 to $690 at September 2026 exchange rates, before statutory employer costs of about 21% to 22%. Whether the role is titled executive assistant or Philippines virtual assistant, the provider price for a full-time person runs $1,500 to $2,500 through recruiter and co-employer models (Somewhere’s placement examples, country not stated, are $1,800 and $2,500; Penbrothers’ worked example is $1,963) and $3,000 to $3,600 through managed services that also select, train, and manage (Pearl Talent from $3,000; Prialto from $3,600). The Philippines ranks #28 of 123 on the EF English Proficiency Index 2025 and is 12 to 13 hours ahead of US Eastern time, so a US-morning overlap is a night shift in Manila. Sri Lanka, where Oceans Talent recruits, is 9.5 to 10.5 hours ahead, ranks #73, has a pool about a tenth the size, and prices at the same managed tier, from around $3,000 a month. Both countries are below on the same axes, every figure sourced and dated.
How much does an executive assistant in the Philippines cost in local salary?
The salary data disagree with each other in the way salary data always do, so here are the sources side by side, converted at ₱62.6 to the dollar (XE mid-market rate, September 7, 2026).
| Source | Figure | Monthly in pesos | Monthly in dollars | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Philippine Statistics Authority, Occupational Wages Survey 2024 (released November 2025) | Average monthly wage of full-time time-rated workers, all occupations: ₱21,544; general office clerks: ₱19,721 | ₱19,721 to ₱21,544 | $315 to $344 | Official, but for clerks and for all workers, not executive assistants specifically |
| Indeed Philippines (updated August 2026, about 2,000 reported salaries) | Executive assistant average ₱26,495 a month | ₱26,495 | $423 | Largest sample |
| PayScale Philippines (July 2026, 205 profiles) | Executive assistant average ₱363,997 a year | About ₱30,300 | $485 | |
| Glassdoor Philippines (2026, 50 salaries) | Executive assistant median total pay ₱43,000 a month; range ₱28,000 to ₱64,000; base ₱25,000 to ₱45,000 | ₱43,000 | $687 | Includes additional pay; smallest sample |
| Metro Manila minimum wage | ₱695 a day under Wage Order NCR-26; ₱755 under NCR-27, published June 2026 with a first tranche dated July 25, 2026, but enjoined by a Pasig court and not yet in effect | About ₱18,100 to ₱19,600 at 26 working days | $289 to $314 | The floor, not a market rate for the role |
A reasonable reading is that a competent executive assistant in Metro Manila earns ₱26,000 to ₱45,000 a month in base pay, $420 to $720, with senior assistants to executives at foreign companies above that. Keep that number in mind when a provider quotes you $1,800 or $3,000: the difference is the provider’s recruiting, employment, benefits, equipment, management, and margin, and a good provider will show you the split.
Statutory employer costs come on top of base pay. At the Indeed average of ₱26,495, they look like this:
| Item | Rule | Monthly cost at ₱26,495 base |
|---|---|---|
| Social Security System | 15% of the monthly salary credit in 2025 and 2026 (up from 14%), of which the employer pays 10% and the employee 5%; salary credit capped at ₱35,000 | About ₱2,650 |
| PhilHealth | 5% premium, shared equally, on a ₱10,000 to ₱100,000 income band | About ₱660 |
| Pag-IBIG (home development fund) | 2% employer contribution on a maximum fund salary of ₱10,000 | ₱200 |
| 13th-month pay | One twelfth of basic salary earned in the year, payable by December 24 (Presidential Decree 851) | About ₱2,210 accrued |
| Total statutory add-on | About ₱5,720, or 21.6% of base |
Add five days of paid service incentive leave after a year, twelve regular holidays paid at 100% if unworked and 200% if worked, and 130% pay on special non-working days that are worked. All of it applies the moment the person is an employee, which under Philippine law is sooner than many foreign employers expect.
What does a Philippine executive assistant cost through a provider?
Providers that state that they recruit in the Philippines and publish a price or a worked example, read on September 7, 2026:
| Provider | Stated location | Published price or example | Model |
|---|---|---|---|
| Somewhere | Latin America, South Africa, Philippines; country of the example hires not stated | Placement examples: executive assistant $1,800 a month; senior executive assistant $2,500; direct-hire fee is a percentage of first-year salary (not published); talent-on-demand is a monthly fee | Recruiter or monthly staffing |
| Penbrothers | Metro Manila | Worked example: $1,463 compensation plus $500 management fee, $1,963 total; $300 setup and one month’s deposit per its FAQ (its how-it-works page says “no setup fees”); 90-day replacement | Co-employer (PEO) |
| Sourcefit (guide) | Philippines | Mid-level professional: $800 to $1,600 salary, benefits of 15% to 25%, management fee of $395 to $695, total $1,400 to $2,800 | Salary plus fee |
| Pearl Talent | Philippines, Brazil, Mexico | From $3,000 a month, managed, month to month, 30-day replacement guarantee | Managed |
| Prialto | Philippines, Kenya, Guatemala | $1,500 to $1,600 per 55-hour unit; full-time from $3,600; 90-day minimum, $250 setup | Managed, team-backed |
| MicroSourcing, Cloudstaff, Outsourced.ph, Emapta, Remote Staff | Metro Manila and other Philippine sites | Bundled or itemized monthly rate, figures on quote | Staff leasing |
Three well-known assistant providers are not in the table. Wing states its assistants are “in India or elsewhere globally.” Magic and Athena do not state a country on their pricing pages; Athena’s FAQ says only that its assistants “are located overseas.” If a provider does not say where the person is, ask before comparing prices.
Local salary for the role is $420 to $720. A recruiter-plus-payroll model lands at $1,400 to $2,500. A managed model, where the provider also selects at a high bar, trains, and manages performance after placement, lands at $3,000 to $3,600. Which layer you are paying for is the question, and the best offshore staffing agencies guide has a twelve-item checklist for finding out.
What are the labor rules when you hire an executive assistant in the Philippines?
The Philippines has a codified, employee-protective labor law, and it applies to foreign employers of Filipino workers as it applies to local ones. Five rules matter most.
Regular employment after six months. Under Article 296 of the Labor Code (formerly Article 281), “probationary employment shall not exceed six (6) months from the date the employee started working,” and “an employee who is allowed to work after a probationary period shall be considered a regular employee.” Article 295 deems any employment regular “where the employee has been engaged to perform activities which are usually necessary or desirable in the usual business or trade of the employer.” An executive assistant supporting your business is that by definition. Regular employees have security of tenure; termination requires just or authorized cause and due process.
The four-fold test. Philippine courts decide whether someone is an employee by “(1) the selection and engagement of the employee; (2) the payment of wages; (3) the power of dismissal; and (4) the power to control the employee’s conduct, or the so-called ‘control test’” (Supreme Court, Atienza v. Saluta, 2019). A full-time assistant who works your hours, on your tools, under your direction, passes all four, whatever the agreement calls them.
Contracting rules. Department Order 174-17 restricts “labor-only contracting,” where a contractor without substantial capital supplies people who do work directly related to the client’s main business. Department Circular 01-17 clarifies, as SyCipLaw summarizes it, that DO 174 “does not apply to business entities engaged in Business Process Outsourcing (”BPO”), Legal Process Outsourcing (“LPO”), and Knowledge Process Outsourcing (“KPO”),” which is the legal basis on which the established BPO and staff-leasing providers operate.
The contractor route exists, but it is narrow. A Filipino freelancer can register with the Bureau of Internal Revenue as a self-employed professional and, below the VAT threshold, elect an 8% tax on gross receipts above ₱250,000. That is a legitimate structure for a freelancer with several clients. It is not a legitimate structure for a full-time assistant with one client, for the four-fold-test reason above, and Deel’s guidance is that a worker who is a contractor under US law “may be considered an employee under the local law of their home country,” which exposes the company to back taxes, unpaid benefits, and penalties there.
The employer-of-record route. If you have found the person yourself and want to employ them compliantly without a Philippine entity, an employer of record will do it for a flat fee: Deel at $599 per employee per month, Remote and Oyster at $699, Multiplier from $459 (billed annually). The EOR employs, runs payroll and statutory contributions, and issues a compliant contract; you manage the work.
Data protection is governed by the Data Privacy Act of 2012 (Republic Act 10173), enforced by the National Privacy Commission, which investigates complaints and issues compliance orders. If your assistant handles EU or UK personal data, you also need a GDPR transfer safeguard such as standard contractual clauses, whichever country the assistant is in.
How do time zones work with a Philippine executive assistant?
The Philippines is UTC+8 with no daylight saving time. That puts Manila 12 hours ahead of New York in summer (Eastern Daylight Time) and 13 in winter, and 15 to 16 hours ahead of Los Angeles.
| Your workday | Manila local time | Colombo local time (Sri Lanka, UTC+5:30) |
|---|---|---|
| 9am to 5pm Eastern, March to November (EDT) | 9pm to 5am | 6:30pm to 2:30am |
| 9am to 5pm Eastern, November to March (EST) | 10pm to 6am | 7:30pm to 3:30am |
| 9am to 5pm Pacific, summer (PDT) | 12am to 8am | 9:30pm to 5:30am |
| 9am to 5pm Pacific, winter (PST) | 1am to 9am | 10:30pm to 6:30am |
Neither country’s daytime overlaps a US workday. What differs is how deep into the night the overlap runs. The common managed arrangement is a partial overlap: Oceans Talent operators, for example, work four to five hours in real time within the client’s time zone plus three to four hours independently. A four-hour overlap covering 9am to 1pm Eastern in summer is 9pm to 1am in Manila and 6:30pm to 10:30pm in Colombo. The Philippine BPO industry has run night shifts at scale for two decades and the workforce is used to them; the point is not that it cannot be done, but that a full US-hours schedule is an overnight shift in Manila and an evening shift in Colombo, and turnover and alertness follow from that.
The Philippines is well ahead on bandwidth (Ookla median fixed download 107.95 Mbps against Sri Lanka’s 32.61 Mbps, December 2025); power reliability is similar (0.8 and 1.0 outages a month for a typical firm, World Bank Enterprise Surveys). Any provider in either country should state what backup power and connectivity its people have. The overlap patterns that work in practice are on the offshore executive assistant page.
How does Sri Lanka compare with the Philippines for executive assistants?
The same axes, same sources, same date.
| Axis | Philippines | Sri Lanka | Source |
|---|---|---|---|
| Time zone | UTC+8; 12 to 13 hours ahead of US Eastern | UTC+5:30; 9.5 to 10.5 hours ahead of US Eastern | time.is; timeanddate.com |
| EF English Proficiency Index 2025 | #28 of 123, score 569, “High” band | #73, score 486, “Low” band (global average 488) | EF EPI 2025 |
| Adult literacy | 98.5% (2020) | 92.7% (2024) | World Bank |
| Tertiary gross enrollment | 47.4% (2024) | 20.7% (2023) | World Bank |
| IT-BPM workforce | 1.89 million (2025) | About 175,000 (2025) | IBPAP; SLASSCOM |
| IT-BPM export revenue | $40.3 billion (2025) | $1.65 billion official, about $2 billion estimated (2025) | IBPAP; Central Bank via EDB; SLASSCOM |
| Local executive assistant salary | ₱26,500 to ₱43,000 a month, about $420 to $690 | LKR 95,000 a month median in Colombo (Glassdoor, 50 salaries), about $290; PayScale average LKR 612,499 a year, about $155 a month | Indeed, Glassdoor, PayScale |
| National minimum wage | ₱695 a day in Metro Manila (₱755 published but enjoined) | LKR 30,000 a month from January 1, 2026 | NWPC; National Minimum Wage of Workers (Amendment) Act No. 11 of 2025 |
| Statutory employer add-on | About 21% to 22% (SSS 10%, PhilHealth 2.5%, Pag-IBIG, 13th month) | 15% (EPF 12%, ETF 3%), plus gratuity of half a month’s pay per year after five years’ service at employers with 15 or more workers | SSS, PhilHealth, Pag-IBIG; EPF, ETF, Payment of Gratuity Act No. 12 of 1983 |
| Probation and regularization | Six months maximum, then regular employment | Six months, extendable once | Labor Code Art. 296; Minimum Retirement Age of Workers Act |
| Data protection law | Data Privacy Act of 2012, National Privacy Commission | Personal Data Protection Act No. 9 of 2022, core parts in force from March 18, 2025 | NPC; Data Protection Authority |
| Fixed broadband median download | 107.95 Mbps | 32.61 Mbps | Ookla, December 2025 |
| Electrical outages, typical firm | 0.8 a month; 43.9% of firms affected | 1.0 a month; 38.1% of firms affected | World Bank Enterprise Surveys |
| Managed dedicated executive assistant, full-time | $3,000 to $3,600 (Pearl Talent, Prialto); $1,500 to $2,500 recruiter or PEO models | From around $3,000 (Oceans Talent) | Provider pages |
The Philippines has a far larger pool, a much higher national English score, higher tertiary enrollment, and faster broadband. Sri Lanka has a time-zone offset two and a half hours shorter, which turns an overnight shift into an evening one; a much smaller pool that is also much less competed for by the world’s outsourcers; an education system rooted in US and British standards; lower statutory employer costs; and a local salary base that, at the managed price tier, produces the same $3,000 sticker with more of it going to selection and management.
The national English score is the axis on which Sri Lanka looks weakest and the one buyers ask about. EF’s index measures the adult population that takes its test, not the candidates a provider selects. Oceans Talent screens English at the individual level across a six-step process that accepts about 1% of applicants and states 100% English proficiency across its talent pool. The Philippines’ #28 ranking is a real advantage for anyone hiring at random from the population. Nobody hiring an executive assistant should be hiring at random from the population.
Which country should you choose?
Choose the Philippines when you need scale in one function (a ten-person support or back-office team), when you want to set and see the salary yourself through a staff-leasing provider, or when you have found a specific person there and want an employer of record to employ them. The infrastructure and provider ecosystem are the deepest in the world for this, and the best countries to hire a remote executive assistant page places it against Latin America, India, South Africa, and Eastern Europe.
Choose Sri Lanka when you need one or a few excellent people rather than a team, when a four-to-five-hour real-time overlap that ends before midnight for the assistant matters to you, and when you would rather pay for selection and management than for pool size. At the managed tier the price is the same either way, so the decision is about the person and the overlap, and the way to decide on the person is the same in both countries: a paid work sample, reference checks, and a defined first 30 days, which how to vet an executive assistant and how to hire a remote executive assistant lay out.
Oceans Talent recruits in Sri Lanka only and has placed operators with 600+ companies. It screens English and judgment at the individual level across a six-step process that accepts about 1% of applicants, employs and manages the operator, and starts at around $3,000 a month with a free rematch if the first match is not right. If you are comparing a Philippine provider against that, book a call and ask both for the same twelve answers.
Frequently Asked Questions
How much does an executive assistant in the Philippines cost?
About ₱26,500 to ₱43,000 a month in local salary, or roughly $420 to $690 at September 2026 rates (Indeed average ₱26,495; Glassdoor median total pay ₱43,000, with base pay of ₱25,000 to ₱45,000), plus statutory employer costs of about 21% to 22% for SSS, PhilHealth, Pag-IBIG, and 13th-month pay. Through a provider, $1,500 to $2,500 a month for recruiter and co-employer models (Somewhere’s examples, country not stated, are $1,800 and $2,500; Penbrothers’ is $1,963) and $3,000 to $3,600 for managed services that also select, train, and manage (Pearl Talent from $3,000; Prialto from $3,600). Employer-of-record platforms add $459 to $699 a month to a salary you set.
Is it legal to hire a Filipino executive assistant as an independent contractor?
Only if the person is a contractor under Philippine law, which a full-time assistant working one client’s hours under its direction almost never is. Courts apply a four-fold test (selection, wages, dismissal, control), the Labor Code deems core work “regular” employment, and probation cannot exceed six months. Misclassification exposes the foreign employer to back statutory contributions, benefits, and penalties. The compliant routes are a staff-leasing or managed provider that employs the person in the Philippines, or an employer of record (Deel $599, Remote and Oyster $699 a month) if you found the person yourself.
What is the time difference between the Philippines and the United States?
The Philippines is UTC+8 with no daylight saving, so Manila is 12 hours ahead of US Eastern in summer and 13 in winter, and 15 to 16 hours ahead of Pacific time. A 9am to 5pm Eastern day is 9pm to 5am in Manila in summer. Sri Lanka, at UTC+5:30, is 9.5 to 10.5 hours ahead of Eastern, so the same day is 6:30pm to 2:30am in Colombo. Most managed arrangements use a partial real-time overlap of four to five hours rather than a full US shift.
Which providers hire executive assistants in the Philippines?
Among providers that state the Philippines on their own sites and publish prices or examples, as of September 7, 2026: Somewhere (placement examples $1,800 and $2,500 a month, country of the hire not stated), Penbrothers ($1,963 worked example), Pearl Talent (from $3,000), and Prialto ($1,500 to $1,600 per 55-hour unit, full-time from $3,600). MicroSourcing, Cloudstaff, Outsourced.ph, Emapta, and Remote Staff are Manila-based staff-leasing providers that price on quote. Wing states India or global; Athena and Magic do not state a country.
Is Sri Lanka or the Philippines better for hiring an executive assistant?
The Philippines has a larger pool (1.89 million IT-BPM workers against about 175,000), a higher national English score (#28 and 569 on EF EPI 2025 against #73 and 486), and faster broadband. Sri Lanka is 2.5 hours closer to US time zones (9.5 to 10.5 hours ahead of Eastern against 12 to 13), has lower statutory employer costs (15% against about 21%), a less-competed talent pool, and an education system rooted in US and British standards. At the managed tier both price around $3,000 a month for a full-time dedicated executive assistant. The provider’s selection process matters more than the national averages in either country.
What is the minimum wage in the Philippines in 2026?
In Metro Manila, ₱695 a day for non-agricultural workers under Wage Order NCR-26. Wage Order NCR-27, issued June 23, 2026, sets ₱755 with a first tranche dated July 25, 2026 and ₱780 from January 20, 2027, but its implementation was enjoined by a Pasig Regional Trial Court and, as of September 7, 2026, is awaiting resolution. Regional rates outside Metro Manila are lower. Executive assistants earn well above the minimum in every source reviewed.
Do Philippines virtual assistants and executive assistants speak English well?
By national measures, yes: the Philippines ranks #28 of 123 on the EF English Proficiency Index 2025 with a score of 569, in the “High” band, and its BPO industry serves English-speaking clients at scale. National scores describe the population, though, not the individual you hire; the useful test is a written work sample and a live call, which any provider in any country should let you run before you commit.
Sources and Methodology
Salary and wage data. Philippine Statistics Authority, Occupational Wages Survey 2024; Indeed Philippines, executive assistant salaries; PayScale Philippines; Glassdoor Philippines; NWPC, National Capital Region wage orders (NCR-27 noted as “awaiting final Resolution” from the Pasig and Navotas courts); Glassdoor, executive assistant, Colombo; PayScale Sri Lanka; National Minimum Wage of Workers (Amendment) Act No. 11 of 2025. Exchange rates: XE, USD to PHP (₱62.60 mid-market on September 7, 2026) and Wise, USD to LKR (about LKR 328 to 330). Dollar figures are rounded conversions and will drift with the rate.
Statutory costs and labor law, Philippines. SSS, 2025 contribution rate and the employer split per KPMG; PhilHealth 2026 premium, via the Philippine Information Agency; Pag-IBIG contribution rates, DBM Circular Letter 2024-2; Presidential Decree 851, 13th-month pay; DOLE Handbook on Workers’ Statutory Monetary Benefits, 2023; Labor Code, Book Six; Atienza v. Saluta, G.R. No. 233413 (2019); DOLE Department Order 174-17 and Department Circular 01-17, via Lexology; National Privacy Commission, Data Privacy Act; Deel on foreign contractors; BIR freelancer registration and the 8% option, Respicio & Co. commentary. EOR pricing: Deel, Remote, Oyster, Multiplier. None of this is legal advice.
Sri Lanka. EPF; ETF; Payment of Gratuity Act No. 12 of 1983; Department of Labour, wages and leave; D. L. & F. De Saram, guide to Sri Lanka employment law; Data Protection Authority, commencement; Personal Data Protection Act No. 9 of 2022.
English, education, infrastructure, industry. EF EPI 2025, Philippines and Sri Lanka; World Bank indicators for literacy and tertiary enrollment; Ookla Speedtest Global Index, December 2025, via World Population Review; World Bank Enterprise Surveys, Philippines 2023 and Sri Lanka 2025; IBPAP 2026 industry overview; SLASSCOM year in review, via Daily FT; Sri Lanka IT-BPM export revenue, via EconomyNext; time zones from time.is Manila, time.is Colombo, and timeanddate.com New York.
Provider pages. Somewhere; Penbrothers and FAQ; Sourcefit; Pearl Talent; Prialto pricing and FAQ; MicroSourcing; Cloudstaff; Outsourced.ph; Emapta; Remote Staff; Wing; Athena FAQ; Magic.
Our own estimates, labeled. Dollar conversions, the 21.6% statutory add-on at the Indeed average, the monthly minimum-wage figures at 26 working days, the time-zone tables, and the “about a tenth the size” comparison are arithmetic on the sourced inputs. The characterization of what the managed price tier buys is our assessment of the category.
First-party data. Oceans Talent figures (Sri Lanka, six-step selection with about 1% acceptance, 100% English proficiency across the talent pool, 86% first-match success, free rematch, four-to-five-hour overlap, an education system rooted in US and British standards, 600+ companies, pricing from around $3,000 a month) are stated at hire executive assistants, how we hire, why us, and the home page.
Oceans Talent places vetted, dedicated, full-time executive operators recruited in Sri Lanka, employed and managed by Oceans Talent, starting at around $3,000 a month. See why Sri Lanka, or book a call to compare against a Philippine provider on the same terms.
