Why Asking “How Much Does a Personal Assistant Cost” Misses the Point

If you run a company or hold a C-suite role, you’ve probably asked how much a personal assistant costs. You want someone to take errands, household logistics, and personal scheduling off your plate.

The quotes you find will swing from a modest hourly rate to a full executive salary. But that spread hides the number that decides whether the hire pays off, which is what your own hour is worth.

As career executive assistants (EAs) to CEOs and their families, we’ve seen leaders overpay for help they didn’t need and underpay for help they did.

Below, you’ll see what each type of support costs, the costs a rate card leaves out, and how to size the help you actually need.

TL;DR: What a Personal Assistant Costs at a Glance

Here’s the short version of what you can expect to pay:

• A household personal assistant starts at about $22 an hour on average.
• A full-time executive assistant earns a median salary of $76,590 a year before benefits.
• Benefits make up about 30% of what a typical private-sector employee costs their employer.
• Paying one household worker $3,000 or more in a year makes you responsible for payroll taxes.
• Your own hourly value decides whether an assistant pays for itself.
• One experienced EA can cover both your business and personal tasks.
• Executive support from ProAssisting starts at $3,300 a month for a share of one assistant’s resources.

What a Personal Assistant Costs by Type of Support

“Personal assistant” means different things to different people. Some mean a local helper who runs errands by the hour. Others mean a seasoned EA who manages your whole calendar, at work and at home.

Here’s how the main options compare on price and on what you actually get:

The household rate is the national average starting rate reported by providers, according to Care.com (as of the time of writing).

The EA salary is the national median from the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS). The VA and fractional starting prices are ProAssisting’s own published figures.

A fractional executive assistant is an experienced EA you share with a small number of other principals, meaning the executives they support. You pay a flat monthly fee for a set share of that assistant’s resources.

Why the Hourly Rate Gives You the Wrong Number

A lot of leaders stop the math at the hourly rate.

That rate tells you what the assistant costs, but it leaves out the usually bigger cost of doing the work yourself.

Price Your Own Hour First

Divide your annual earnings by 2,080, the number of working hours in a year of 40-hour weeks. If you own the business, use the company’s annual net profit instead.

In our book, The 29-Hour Work Day, a $350,000 example works out to $168 an hour. At that rate, spending 1 hour a week on work an assistant could handle costs you $8,736 a year.

You can get a free digital or audio copy of the book and run the same math on your own week.

Add Up What the Work Already Costs You

For 1 week, write down every task someone else could reasonably handle. Think of booking dinners, chasing contractors, renewing passports, and planning family travel.

Does that list sound familiar? Each task looks small on its own, but together they quietly eat into your week.

Now multiply those weekly hours by your hourly value and by 52. At $168 an hour, 5 hours a week adds up to $43,680 a year.

That’s money you already spend in your own time, so the goal is support that buys those hours back for less.

The Costs That Don’t Show Up in the Hourly Rate

A rate or salary covers the paycheck. But hiring someone directly stacks several more costs on top of it:

• Benefits: Benefits such as health insurance, paid leave, and retirement plans make up 30% of total compensation for private industry workers, per the BLS. Applied to the $76,590 median EA salary, an employer’s full cost lands near $109,000 a year.
• Recruiting and onboarding: Finding, interviewing, and training a direct hire takes your own hours before the assistant gives any back.
• Turnover: When an assistant leaves, you pay to recruit and train someone new. Everything they learned about your preferences leaves with them.
• Unused hours: Some providers sell blocks of hours. Before you sign, ask what happens to the hours you don’t use in a given month.
• Household payroll taxes: An assistant who works in your home and takes direction from you is likely your household employee. Payroll taxes kick in once you pay one household employee $3,000 or more in cash wages in a year (as of the time of writing). From there, you owe 7.65% in Social Security and Medicare taxes and withhold the same amount from their pay, according to the IRS.

An accountant can confirm how the household tax rules apply to you before you hire.

What Pushes a Personal Assistant’s Price Up or Down

Rates shift with a handful of factors:

• Location: Assistants in high-cost metro areas charge more than those in smaller markets. Care.com’s city-level data shows rates in expensive areas running well above the national average.
• Experience: A career EA who has supported CEOs costs more than an entry-level helper. They also need far less direction from you.
• Schedule: Full-time, part-time, live-in, and on-call arrangements are each priced differently. Fractional executive assistant support sits between part-time and full-time on price.
• Scope: Household-only help costs less than an assistant who also manages your business calendar, travel, and key relationships.
• On-site needs: Some tasks need someone physically present, like meeting a contractor at your house. Research, booking, and coordination can all happen remotely.

When an Executive Assistant Covers Your Personal Work Too

Many leaders assume they need 2 hires, one for the office and one for home. But a senior EA can often handle both.

Personal assistant work is one of the 5 Performance Multipliers, the roles a top EA plays for their principal. The other 4 are business partner, chief of staff, project manager, and assistant/scheduler.

Here, chief of staff means the single point of contact for everyone in your world, from your direct reports to your landscaper.

Remote personal work covers more ground than you might expect. An EA can collect 3 contractor quotes for a repair, put your kids’ activities on your calendar, and book the family vacation.

Splitting your business and personal worlds between 2 assistants can mean paying twice for overlapping work. For tasks that need someone on site, a remote EA can line up a local provider to handle them.

At ProAssisting, we call our EAs ProAssistants.

You’re a 30-minute meeting away from knowing which of your business and personal tasks one could take over. Book your free consultation and get a clear plan for the hours you could reclaim each week.

How to Size the Support You Actually Need

Sizing your support starts with the work itself. Follow these 4 steps to turn a general sense of overload into a clear budget:

1. List the Tasks You Keep Putting Off

Write down the personal and business tasks you avoid, delay, or dislike. In the book, we call these the items that always sink to the bottom of the pile. The insurance claim form that never gets filed is a classic example.

2. Separate On-Site Work From Remote Work

Mark each task that needs someone in person, since a short list means a remote EA plus an occasional local provider may cover everything.

3. Estimate Your Weekly Volume

Count roughly how many hours the list represents in a normal week and in a busy one. Your needs might spike during a move, a renovation, or a major event.

A full-time hire costs the same in both weeks, which is where a fixed salary can waste money.

4. Match the Volume to a Support Model

Light, on-site needs fit an hourly household assistant. Steady business and personal work that doesn’t fill a full week fits a fractional EA. A full-time hire makes sense when the work fills every day.

If you’re unsure where you land, our 2-minute executive support assessment points you to the right structure.

How ProAssisting Prices Fractional Personal and Business Support

At ProAssisting, plans start at $3,300 a month for 1/3 of a ProAssistant’s resources, according to our pricing page. You can move up to 1/2 or 2/3 of a ProAssistant’s resources as your needs grow.

Every plan includes Monday-to-Friday support. During business hours, you get replies within an hour or less. You also get after-hours help when you travel or something unexpected comes up.

You pay a flat monthly retainer. There are no timesheets to track and no benefits, overtime, or onboarding fees to cover.

More than 75% of your monthly retainer goes directly to your ProAssistant. Each one brings at least 5 years of experience as an EA, project manager, or equivalent at globally recognized brands.

We also keep a 3-to-1 client-to-assistant ratio. That cap gives your ProAssistant the room to learn your preferences and stay responsive. For context, the same pricing comparison puts a full-time EA at $8,500 or more a month.

Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)

Here are quick answers to the questions leaders ask most about personal assistant costs:

How Much Should You Pay a Personal Assistant?

Start with what similar roles pay in your area, then adjust for experience and scope. Our guide on how to hire a personal assistant covers pay alongside screening and onboarding. In our book, we point out that an underpaid assistant eventually takes their skills to another principal.

Is a Personal Assistant Worth the Cost?

It’s worth it when the hours you get back are worth more than what you pay. The payoff also shows up at work, because household problems that stay off your mind leave more focus for your business.

Who Usually Pays for a Personal Assistant?

It depends on who the assistant works for. A household personal assistant is usually paid by you or your family directly. An EA who supports your work is usually paid by your business, so ask your accountant how to handle any personal tasks they cover.

Can You Hire a Personal Assistant for a Single Day?

Yes. Hourly household assistants and local errand services take one-off jobs, like waiting for a delivery or running a day of errands. An EA relationship works differently, since its value builds as the assistant learns your preferences over months.

How Is a Fractional Assistant Different From a Part-Time One?

A part-time assistant usually bills by the hour, so their hours can swing from 2 one month to 20 the next. A fractional assistant works on a flat monthly retainer for a set share of their resources. That setup keeps them available to you across the whole business week.

Get Business and Personal Support From ProAssisting

The cheapest assistant on paper can cost you the most once you count your own hours and the extra costs of a direct hire. So the smart buy is the level of help that matches your real workload.

That’s where ProAssisting comes in.

We pair you with a ProAssistant, a senior, US-based EA who handles your business and personal tasks. You get a share of one experienced assistant for a flat monthly fee.

You don’t run a hiring process or manage payroll and benefits. Your ProAssistant learns how you work and takes more off your plate every month.

Schedule your free consultation and find out which tasks you could hand off first.