Why budget conversations about executive support usually fail
Most companies underprice executive support in their planning and overpay for it in practice. The planning number comes from comparing assistant salary against the salary of a junior individual contributor and finding it expensive. The execution cost includes the turnover, the gaps between hires, and the productivity lost when the executive is doing their own scheduling.
The right way to evaluate the budget is against the executive cost, not the assistant cost. If an executive earning 400,000 dollars per year is spending eight hours per week on coordination work, the implicit cost of that work is roughly 75,000 dollars per year of executive time. Almost any reasonable support model is cheaper than that.
In-house cost profile
An in-house executive assistant in a major US metro area typically costs between 90,000 and 170,000 dollars per year fully loaded. This includes salary, benefits, payroll taxes, equipment, and a share of workspace and tooling costs.
The advantage of in-house is presence. The assistant is physically available, can build relationships across the office, and is fully embedded in the company culture. The downside is the fixed cost. You pay the full burden even during slow weeks, and turnover events can leave the executive without coverage for two to three months.
Reference data from the US Bureau of Labor Statistics shows the median wage for executive secretaries and administrative assistants, which is a useful baseline for budget planning even though senior roles run well above the median.
The dedicated remote model
A dedicated remote executive assistant is a full-time assistant working remotely, exclusively for your executive. This model is different from a pooled virtual assistant service where requests go into a queue and may be picked up by different people.
Cost typically lands between 20,000 and 35,000 dollars per year for a full-time dedicated remote assistant at the senior level. The model works well for distributed leadership teams, executives who already operate digitally, and companies that have outgrown the local talent market.
For a comparison of how this maps to support across a leadership bench, see how to staff executive support across a full leadership bench. For our specific tier breakdown, the pricing page has the current rates.
When each model fits
The in-house model fits when the executive needs physical presence, when the support role involves a lot of in-person stakeholder management, and when the budget is unconstrained. It also fits when the leadership team values having the assistant fully embedded in the office culture.
The contractor model fits when the support need is part-time or seasonal. It works less well for full-time coverage because contractor turnover and split attention create gaps.
The dedicated remote model fits when the executive operates digitally, when the leadership team is distributed, and when the company wants senior assistant skills at a lower cost. It also fits when continuity matters more than physical presence, because the dedicated relationship means the assistant builds the same depth of context as an in-house hire.