Hiring a VA vs. Hiring Full-Time: The True Cost Comparison
The headline salary on a job posting is not what a full-time employee costs you. It's not even close.
When a business owner says "I'm looking at hiring someone at $55,000 a year," they're describing one line item in a cost structure that routinely runs 40–100% higher once you add employer taxes, benefits, equipment, office overhead, recruiting cost, management overhead, and the inevitable turnover cycle. The true all-in cost of a full-time administrative or operational hire lands somewhere between $65,000 and $110,000 per year — for a role that may not justify that spend in a growing business.
This post runs the actual numbers on both options — full-time employee versus dedicated VA — so you can make this decision with real financial clarity rather than gut instinct.
The Full Cost of a Full-Time Employee
Let's build the complete picture of what a full-time hire actually costs per year.
Base Salary
For an administrative assistant, operations coordinator, or executive assistant role, market rates in 2025 typically run:
- Administrative assistant: $38,000–$52,000/year
- Operations coordinator: $48,000–$65,000/year
- Executive assistant: $55,000–$75,000/year
We'll use $55,000 as our baseline — a mid-market executive assistant or senior operations hire in a non-coastal market.
Employer Payroll Taxes
The employer pays 7.65% in FICA taxes (Social Security and Medicare) on top of the employee's salary. On $55,000, that's $4,208/year you pay before the employee sees a dollar of it. Federal and state unemployment taxes (FUTA/SUTA) add another $500–$1,200 per year depending on your state.
Benefits Package
Health insurance, dental, vision, and life insurance for a single employee typically costs employers $6,000–$12,000 per year depending on plan selection and employer contribution level. Add a standard 401(k) match of 3–4% of salary and you're adding another $1,650–$2,200. Total benefits cost: approximately $8,000–$12,000/year.
Equipment and Technology
A laptop, monitor, keyboard, mouse, headset, and role-specific software licenses typically cost $2,500–$4,000 to set up initially, then $500–$1,500 per year in maintenance, replacements, and software subscriptions. Amortized, that's roughly $3,000/year.
Office Space and Overhead
If the role has any in-person component, you're paying for that square footage. Commercial office space in most mid-market cities runs $25–$60 per square foot annually. A single workstation footprint including shared space is approximately 150 square feet — that's $3,750–$9,000 in occupancy cost. Even fully remote employees carry seat costs in IT infrastructure, HR platforms, and collaboration tool licensing. Call it $4,000–$8,000/year in overhead.
Paid Time Off and Sick Leave
Standard PTO of 15–20 days plus 8–10 federal holidays means paying for 23–30 non-working days per year. On a $55,000 salary ($211/working day), that's approximately $4,800–$6,300/year in compensation for time when no work is being produced.
Recruiting and Onboarding Cost
The Society for Human Resource Management puts the average cost per hire at $4,000–$8,000, including job board postings, internal HR time, interview coordination across multiple team members, background checks, and onboarding. For senior administrative roles, external recruiter fees (typically 15–20% of first-year salary) can push this to $8,000–$11,000. We'll use $5,000 as our conservative estimate.
This cost recurs every time the employee leaves. The average tenure for an administrative or operational professional is 2.8–3.5 years.
Turnover Risk
SHRM estimates the cost of replacing an employee — recruiting, lost productivity during vacancy, new hire training time, and the ramp-up period before full productivity — at 50–150% of annual salary. On a $55,000 role, that's $27,500–$82,500 per turnover event. Amortized over a 3-year tenure, that adds $9,000–$27,500/year to the true annual cost of employment.
Management Overhead
Managing an employee takes time. Performance reviews, one-on-ones, HR compliance, PTO approvals, conflict resolution, and career development conversations typically consume 2–4 hours per week for a direct manager. At $150/hour, that's $15,600–$31,200/year of your own time spent managing a person who was supposed to free up your time.
The True Annual Cost: Full-Time Employee
| Cost Component | Annual Cost |
|---|---|
| Base salary | $55,000 |
| Employer payroll taxes (FICA + unemployment) | $5,500 |
| Benefits (health, dental, vision, 401k) | $10,000 |
| Equipment and software | $3,000 |
| Office/overhead | $6,000 |
| Paid non-working days (PTO + holidays) | $5,500 |
| Recruiting cost (amortized over 3-yr tenure) | $1,667 |
| Turnover replacement risk (amortized) | $11,000 |
| Total True Annual Cost | $97,667 |
That's a $55,000 salary that actually costs you close to $100,000 per year. Before you factor in your management time.
The True Annual Cost: THC Dedicated VA
| Cost Component | Annual Cost |
|---|---|
| Full-time VA plan ($1,300/mo) | $15,600 |
| Part-time VA plan ($700/mo) | $8,400 |
| Benefits | $0 |
| Equipment and software setup | $0 |
| Office or overhead | $0 |
| Paid non-working days | $0 (backup VA covers leave) |
| Recruiting or onboarding | $0 |
| Turnover/replacement | $0 (managed by THC) |
| Client Manager included | $0 additional |
| Total True Annual Cost (full-time VA) | $15,600 |
The gap at full-time: $82,000 per year.
At part-time ($700/month, $8,400/year), the gap is nearly $90,000. That is not a rounding error. It is the difference between a cost that strains a small business and a cost that generates obvious, measurable return.
Full Side-by-Side Comparison
| Factor | Full-Time Employee | THC Virtual Assistant |
|---|---|---|
| Annual all-in cost | $75,000–$110,000 | $8,400–$15,600 |
| Benefits required | Yes | No |
| Equipment/office provided | You provide | None required |
| Paid time off impact | 23–30 days of paid non-work | Backup coverage included |
| Recruiting cost per hire | $4,000–$8,000 | $0 |
| Turnover risk | High (avg. tenure 2.8 yrs) | Managed by THC |
| Management overhead | 2–4 hrs/week of your time | Client Manager handles it |
| Backup coverage | No (role goes vacant) | Yes, briefed backup VA |
| Lock-in or commitment | At-will, but costly to exit | Month-to-month, cancel anytime |
| Scalability | Slow (hiring cycle) | Immediate |
| Dedicated to your account | Yes | Yes |
For full details on what each VA plan covers, visit the pricing page and our operations VA services overview.
When Should You Hire Full-Time Instead?
This is an honest section, because a VA is the right answer for many situations — but not all of them.
Hire full-time when:
The role requires in-person physical presence — reception, in-office operations, physical inventory management, or regular face-to-face client interaction that cannot be managed remotely. A VA cannot substitute for physical presence.
The complexity and sustained volume of work genuinely exceeds what a VA model can absorb — typically 50–60+ hours per week of complex, interdependent work that requires constant context and in-the-room decision-making.
You are building a team where the hire needs to manage other people. Management roles require a presence and organizational authority that don't translate cleanly to a remote contractor relationship.
Regulatory requirements or compliance rules in your industry mandate a specific employment relationship (W-2 classification, licensing requirements, etc.).
Use a VA when:
You are a founder, executive, or small team scaling toward your next hiring threshold and need operational support now, not after a 90-day recruiting cycle.
The work is administrative, support-oriented, or operational — inbox management, scheduling, CRM, research, document handling, customer support, social media.
You need the flexibility to scale up or down without the overhead and legal complexity of employment.
You want accountability and quality oversight without spending 3–4 hours per week managing it yourself.
You're not yet ready to justify a $97,000/year fully-loaded hire for work that doesn't require one.
THC's case studies document how founders at different growth stages have navigated this decision — some have transitioned VA relationships into full-time hires, others have found that the VA model is sufficient indefinitely.
The Bridge Strategy: VA Now, Full-Time Later
Most of THC's long-term clients describe the same trajectory. They started with a VA when they weren't sure exactly what they needed. That relationship helped them clarify what a full-time hire would actually look like — the scope, the skills, the volume. And when they eventually did hire full-time, they had documented processes, defined workflows, and a clear baseline for quality — because their VA had been demonstrating it for months.
The VA phase is an advantage, not just a stopgap. When you post for a full-time role, you know what you're looking for. You've already tested the scope. The onboarding is faster because the processes exist.
"Most of our clients start with a VA and only hire full-time once they've grown enough to justify it." That's not a marketing position. It's what the data from our client base actually shows.
For a perspective on what this looks like in a specific market, see our Miami executive assistant page — a city where the fully-loaded cost of an in-market executive assistant hire makes the VA calculus especially stark.
Frequently Asked Questions
What roles can a VA replace versus what requires a full-time hire?
A VA can effectively replace most administrative, operational, and support functions: inbox management, scheduling, CRM updates, data entry, customer support, social media management, invoicing, research, document formatting, and meeting coordination. A full-time hire is genuinely necessary when the role requires physical presence, in-person authority over other employees, or regulatory classification requirements. If the primary function is knowledge work and communication — which describes most admin and ops roles — a VA can handle it.
How does THC handle VA performance issues?
The Client Manager is the answer to this question. If you're experiencing quality issues, you escalate to your Client Manager, not directly to the VA. The Client Manager investigates, provides coaching, monitors improvement, and conducts structured performance reviews. If performance doesn't reach your standards despite that process, THC reassigns you to a new VA without penalty or disruption to your operations. You are never stuck managing a performance improvement plan for a contractor on your own.
What happens to my processes and workflows if I cancel?
Because your Client Manager maintains documentation of your workflows, communication preferences, and operating procedures throughout the engagement, offboarding is structured — not chaotic. You receive your process documentation, tool access, and any in-progress deliverables before the engagement closes. There is no hostage dynamic with your data. And because the plan is month-to-month, there's no financial penalty for canceling — you close at the end of your billing period.
The numbers make the decision clear for most businesses. The question isn't whether you can get more for $97,000 than for $15,600 — of course you can. The question is whether the additional value justifies the additional cost for the work you actually need done. For most founders and small businesses, it doesn't. Book a free 15-minute strategy call and get matched with a dedicated VA within 48 hours.