Where to hire an affordable remote executive assistant

The short answer

If you want one person to own your inbox, calendar and follow-ups for a long time, hire directly: find the person through a job board or a recruiter, sign the contract with them yourself and pay them every month, with no margin on top. If you need a few hours of help a week, or you do not yet know what to hand over, a freelance marketplace or a monthly assistant service is the lighter start.

Five places to find an executive assistant

1. A freelance marketplace

You post a job, freelancers send proposals and you pay through the platform. It is quick to start and good for trying out a few tasks. The platform takes a fee on every payment for as long as you work there: on Upwork, the client marketplace fee is up to 7.99%¹ of each payment. Many marketplace assistants serve several clients at once, so check that the person can commit to your hours.

2. A job board

You post the role, people apply, and you hire and pay them directly. It costs the least in fees and the most in your time: you read every application, run the calls and set the test. On Stafka, posting a job is free; pricing shows when a fee applies. The post is shown to candidates in Ukraine, Georgia, Armenia and Kazakhstan.

3. A recruiter paid once

A recruiter screens candidates and sends a shortlist; you hire the person directly and pay the recruiter once. Stafka works this way: three matching profiles within 5² business days of your brief, and a one-time fee of $2,500³ on the start day, nothing before.

4. A monthly assistant agency

The agency provides the assistant and bills one monthly price that covers the person's pay and its own margin. You get flexibility and less admin, and you pay the margin for every month you keep the person.

5. Your own network

A referral from a founder you trust can be the best hire of all, and it costs nothing. It is also slow and unpredictable.

What affordable means for this role

An executive assistant is a judgement role: the person decides what reaches you, writes in your name and holds your week together. Saving on judgement is expensive, so look for savings in the route and the location, not in the quality of the person.

For reference, the US national median wage for executive assistants is $76,590⁴ a year, about $6,382⁴ a month, before benefits. Our own executive assistant vacancies for candidates in Ukraine, Georgia, Armenia and Kazakhstan pay $800–1,100⁵ a month for full-time work. That band is fair for the local markets, and it is the main reason a remote assistant costs a small company much less than a local hire.

Add the cost of paying the person: Deel's contractor plan is $49⁶ a month, and Wise charges from 0.23%⁷ per transfer. Our cost guide for executive assistants and the cost of hiring calculator walk through a full first-year budget.

Pick the country by your hours

An executive assistant does not need to share your whole day, but three or four live hours make the work much easier: time for a quick call, a calendar change or a question that cannot wait. From the four countries we recruit in, typical patterns look like this:

• US East Coast: the assistants we place work your 9:00 to 17:00, which is 16:00 to midnight in Kyiv in winter. On a 13:00 to 22:00 local shift instead, Kyiv covers 6:00 to 15:00 in New York, and Tbilisi or Yerevan the New York morning.
• US West Coast: a Los Angeles 9:00 to 17:00 is a night shift in all four countries. Ask for it in the brief and the recruiter confirms it with each candidate before the interview; many teams instead combine one or two shared hours with work done while they sleep.
• UK and Western Europe: a normal local day overlaps most of a London or Paris working day.

The country hubs for Ukraine, Georgia, Armenia and Kazakhstan show roles, hours and pay by country, and the time-zone overlap tool checks your own city.

Choosing a route in five questions

1. Is this a long-term, full-time role or a few hours a week? Long-term points to a direct hire; a few hours to a marketplace or a monthly service.
2. Do you have five to eight hours over the next two weeks for screening? If yes, a job board is the cheapest route. If not, use a recruiter.
3. Do you want the contract with the person or with a company? A direct contract keeps the cost lower; a company contract keeps the admin lower.
4. Which hours must be live? Decide this before you look, because it narrows the countries.
5. What happens if the hire leaves after two months? Ask every provider before you pay anything.

If you take the direct route, our step-by-step guide on how to hire a remote executive assistant covers the scope, the test and the first week.

When Stafka is not the right place

We place people who work remotely from Ukraine, Georgia, Armenia and Kazakhstan under a direct contract with you. That is the wrong fit if you need someone in your office, a US employee on your payroll, or a few hours of help for a single project. A local hire, a US-based service or a marketplace will serve you better there.

If it does fit, the terms are simple. Stafka replaces the person free of charge if they leave or do not work out within 180³ days of the start date: one replacement per placement, once the placement fee has been paid and as long as the role, hours and pay stay as agreed. The fee itself is not refunded.