We replace them ASAP. No cost, almost no waiting, no disruption. Your Customer Success Manager handles the transition so you don't miss a beat. That's our guarantee.
Quick answer: You can hire an executive assistant three ways. A full-time in-house EA costs a median of $76,590 a year before benefits, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. An executive assistant staffing agency finds that person for you and charges a placement fee on top. A virtual executive assistant works full-time for you remotely and costs $2,999 a month through Stellar Staff, with no recruiting fee and no employer overhead. Most founders and small teams start with the third option, because it takes about a week instead of two months.
What Does an Executive Assistant Do?
An executive assistant owns the work that keeps a leader's day running: calendar management, inbox triage, meeting preparation, travel, expenses, and follow-up on commitments made in meetings. The role is judgment work, not clerical work. A good EA decides which meetings are worth your time, which emails you never need to see, and what has to happen before Thursday's board call.
That is the line between an executive assistant and an administrative assistant. An administrative assistant supports a team or an office and works from instructions. An executive assistant supports one or two people, learns how they think, and protects the most expensive hours in the company. It is also why the two roles are paid differently: the BLS median for secretaries and administrative assistants is $48,310, while executive secretaries and executive administrative assistants sit at $76,590, both as of May 2025.
In-House, Staffing Agency, or Virtual Executive Assistant?
Executive assistant services come in three shapes, and they differ in cost, speed, and how much of the employer burden you carry. Most executive assistants for hire today work remotely, which is why the third option has grown fastest.
In-house EA. You post the role, screen candidates, interview, negotiate, and put the person on your payroll. You carry salary, benefits, payroll taxes, equipment, and management. The hire sits in your office or works remotely on your systems, and you own the relationship entirely.
Executive assistant staffing agency or placement agency. The agency sources and screens candidates and hands you a shortlist. You still employ the person and pay a placement fee, usually a percentage of first-year salary. This is the traditional route for a senior, on-site EA in a large company.
Virtual executive assistant. An agency places a dedicated, full-time assistant who works remotely during your business hours. The agency handles recruiting, payroll, HR, and replacement. You pay one monthly fee and can end it month to month. An outsourced executive assistant stays on the agency's payroll, which is the practical difference between this route and the first two.
How the three compare
| Route | What you pay | Time to start | Who employs them | Best for |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| In-house EA | $76,590 median salary, plus benefits and overhead | 6 to 10 weeks | You | Companies that need someone on site |
| Staffing or placement agency | Salary, plus a placement fee | 4 to 8 weeks | You | Senior, on-site roles in larger companies |
| Virtual executive assistant | $2,999 a month, all in | 5 to 6 days | The agency | Founders and small teams that need support now |
How Much Does It Cost to Hire an Executive Assistant?
Cost depends on the route more than on the person.
In-house. Start with the BLS median of $76,590 a year for an executive administrative assistant, then add the employer side: payroll taxes, health coverage, paid time off, equipment, and software. Benefits and taxes commonly add roughly 30% on top of salary, which puts the real number closer to $100,000 a year in most U.S. markets, and higher in New York or the Bay Area.
Placement agency. Same salary, plus a one-time fee for the search. The fee is usually quoted as a percentage of first-year pay, so a more senior hire costs more to recruit.
Virtual. Stellar Staff charges $2,999 a month for a full-time Executive Virtual Assistant at 160 hours, which works out to about $18.74 an hour. Virtual Assistant PRO is $1,999 a month for the same hours when the work is closer to general administrative support. Custom Recruitment, where we find the person and you put them on your own payroll, starts at $4,999 as a one-time fee. Current plans are on the pricing page.
For a wider view of rates across roles and regions, see our guide to how much a virtual assistant costs.
What Is a Virtual Executive Assistant, and Is It Enough?
A virtual executive assistant, sometimes called a remote executive assistant, does the same job as an in-house EA from another location. The daily work is identical: calendar, inbox, travel, meeting prep, vendor and client communication, expense reports, and follow-up. What changes is that the person is not in the room with you.
That matters for a small set of tasks. Anything physical stays with someone local: greeting visitors, handling mail and packages, setting up a conference room, running an errand, or managing an office. Everything else moves cleanly to a remote assistant, and most executive work today already happens in software you can grant access to.
The test is simple. If more than a quarter of the job is physical presence, hire locally. If it is not, a virtual EA gives you the same support for a fraction of the cost, and you can start in days.
Full-Time, Part-Time, or Fractional Support?
A part-time executive assistant looks cheaper per month and often costs more per unit of work. Split attention means context switching, and context switching is where EA quality goes. An assistant who works four hours a day for two executives rarely learns either one well enough to make decisions for them.
Full-time, dedicated support is the right default for anyone whose calendar drives other people's work. Part-time makes sense when the load is light and predictable, such as a solo consultant with ten meetings a week. Fractional arrangements, where one assistant is shared across several clients by design, fit teams that want coverage rather than ownership.
Stellar Staff places full-time assistants only, at 160 hours a month, because the dedicated model is what makes the relationship work.
How to Hire an Executive Assistant, Step by Step
The process below works whether you hire in-house or through an agency.
1. Write down the week you want. Before the job description, list what you want off your plate: the meetings you should not be scheduling, the inbox you should not be sorting, the reports nobody is chasing.
2. Decide the decisions. Name what the assistant can decide alone, what needs a check, and what always comes to you. Most failed EA hires are a permissions problem, not a skills problem.
3. Choose the route. In-house, placement agency, or virtual, using the comparison above.
4. Screen for judgment, not tools. Software is learnable in a week. Ask candidates how they handled a double-booked CEO, an angry client, or a deadline that slipped.
5. Run a paid trial task. Give finalists a real scenario: a messy week to rebuild, an inbox to triage, a trip to plan with a budget.
6. Set up access before day one. Calendar, email, files, travel tools, and expense systems, with the permissions you decided in step two.
7. Review at 30 days. What moved off your plate, what did not, and what the assistant still needs from you.
What Separates a Good EA From a Great One
Judgment under pressure. The job is a stream of small decisions made without you. Ask for examples.
Written communication. Your assistant writes on your behalf. Read their emails during the process, not just their resume.
Discretion. An EA sees board material, compensation, and personal calendars. References matter here more than in most roles.
Time zone overlap. Calendar work is real-time work. Your assistant should be online when your meetings are.
Follow-through. The difference between a good EA and a great one is that nothing needs a second reminder.
How Long Does It Take to Hire an Executive Assistant?
Hiring in-house usually runs six to ten weeks: writing the role, sourcing, screening, two or three interview rounds, an offer, and a notice period. A placement agency shortens sourcing but not the offer and notice stages.
Through Stellar Staff, most clients go from the first call to a working assistant in five to six days. We accept about 0.1% of applicants, and every assistant completes more than 60 hours of qualification before a client meets them, so the interviews you run are with a shortlist rather than a pipeline. Every client also gets a Customer Success Manager who tracks performance and arranges a replacement at no cost if the fit is wrong.
Where Do You Find Executive Assistants?
Four sources cover almost every hire.
Your own network. The fastest route when it works, and the least predictable. Referrals skip the trust problem but rarely arrive when you need them.
Job boards. LinkedIn and Indeed give you volume. Expect several hundred applicants for a remote EA role and plan for the screening time that implies.
Executive assistant staffing and placement agencies. They shortlist for you and charge a fee. Useful for senior, on-site roles where you want a permanent employee.
Virtual assistant companies. They recruit continuously, keep a bench, and place someone in days. You trade the employer relationship for speed and a monthly fee.
Do You Actually Need an Executive Assistant?
Four signs say yes. You are scheduling your own meetings and rescheduling them twice. Your inbox has become a to-do list you never get to the bottom of. Decisions wait on you because nobody prepared the material. You are working evenings on tasks that do not require you specifically.
Two signs say not yet. The work is seasonal, in which case part-time or project support fits better. Or the tasks are mostly specialized, such as bookkeeping or ad management, in which case you want that specialist rather than a generalist EA.
Where an Executive Assistant Stops
Setting this boundary early prevents most first-month friction.
An EA does not sign contracts, approve payments, or commit the company to terms. They do not replace a chief of staff on strategy, a bookkeeper on the books, or a recruiter on hiring. They do not work without access: an assistant locked out of your calendar and inbox cannot protect either one. And they do not read minds, which is why the decision list in step two matters more than any tool on the resume.
Questions Founders Ask Before Hiring an EA
How much does it cost to hire an executive assistant?
An in-house executive assistant costs a median of $76,590 a year in salary, per the BLS, and closer to $100,000 once benefits, taxes, and equipment are counted. A full-time virtual executive assistant through Stellar Staff costs $2,999 a month, or about $18.74 an hour, with no recruiting fee and no employer overhead.
What is the difference between an executive assistant and an administrative assistant?
An administrative assistant supports a team or an office and works from instructions. An executive assistant supports one or two leaders, makes decisions on their behalf, and owns the calendar, inbox, and follow-up. The pay gap reflects the difference: $48,310 against $76,590 at the median.
Should I use an executive assistant staffing agency or hire directly?
A staffing or placement agency saves you the sourcing work and charges a fee for it, and you still employ the person. Hiring directly costs less in fees and more in your own time. A virtual EA agency removes both the fee and the employer side, because the assistant stays on the agency's payroll.
Can an executive assistant work remotely?
Yes, for everything except physical tasks. Calendar, inbox, travel, meeting prep, expenses, and communication all run in software. Office management, visitors, and mail need someone on site.
Is a part-time executive assistant worth it?
It works when the load is light and predictable. For most founders, part-time support splits the assistant's attention and slows the learning that makes the role valuable in the first place.
What should I hand off to an executive assistant first?
Start with the calendar and the inbox, then travel and expenses. Those four give you back the most hours in the first month and teach the assistant how you make decisions.
How quickly can I get an executive assistant through Stellar Staff?
Five to six days from the first call, in most cases. You interview pre-vetted candidates and choose your own assistant, and the plan is month-to-month with a 100% replacement guarantee.
Do I need an executive assistant or a chief of staff?
An executive assistant runs your time. A chief of staff runs your priorities and often manages projects and people. Our guide to the difference between a chief of staff and an executive assistant covers where the line falls.
Decide How Much of the Employer Side You Want
Hiring an executive assistant is less about finding a person and more about deciding how much of the employer side you want to own. If you need someone in the room, hire in-house and budget close to $100,000 a year. If you need the work done and the person can be anywhere, a dedicated virtual executive assistant costs $2,999 a month and starts in under a week.
See what a Stellar Staff executive assistant handles, read what clients say, or book a call to meet candidates this week.
Salary figures are from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics Occupational Outlook Handbook, May 2025. Stellar Staff pricing is current as of September 2026. We review this page every quarter.