Self-employed Virtual Assistants in the UK don’t have a salary or pay rate. We run our own businesses and decide what to charge for our services. Many UK VAs charge, and more importantly get, £35+ per hour. The current average increases most years so do check the Society of Virtual Assistants’ website for the most up-to-date information.
Indeed – the world’s #1 job site (not for VAs!) – currently claims the average UK Virtual Assistant ‘salary’ is £31,611 (that equates to £16.21 an hour for a 37.5 hour week). It then breaks the figures down by location.
The problem is, Indeed’s article ranks highly on Google when people search ‘What should a Virtual Assistant get paid?’, so it’s causing quite a bit of confusion.
So allow me to break it down.
Firstly, let me address what a Virtual Assistant is. A Virtual Assistant is a self-employed business owner. Indeed are talking about employed remote workers. There’s a difference, one of the biggest being – self-employed business owners have to pay their own tax and NI out of what they charge.
Secondly, we are virtual – location is totally irrelevant when it comes to our pricing.
Thirdly, ‘salary’ is defined as: A fixed, regular payment made by an employer to an employee. We’re not employees.
Fourthly, sit down and be quiet, Indeed, but thanks for your input.
As a Virtual Assistant, you’re a self-employed business owner. Only you decide what you’re going to earn.
Verbal mindset shifts
Getting out of the corporate, employed mindset isn’t easy sometimes and it can massively hold us back from creating a thriving, sustainable, profitable business, so here are some common phrases and how we can say things differently to start realising our worth and coming out of one controlled environment to one where we call the shots and set our own income ceilings.
Ready?
Instead of: ‘What should a VA get paid?’
Think: ‘VAs charge £xx for their services’
Instead of: ‘Their budget is £25 an hour.’
It’s: ‘My rate is £35 an hour.’
Instead of: ‘They want to put me on a retainer.’
It’s: ‘I’ve put that client on a monthly retainer.’
Instead of: ‘They’ve offered me 10 hours a month.’
It’s: ‘The client has booked 10 hours of my time each month.’
If you reply to enquiries or job opps where the client has set the rate you’re instantly in an employer/employee situation – not legally, but mentally – they’re calling the shots. This shouldn’t ever happen. You’re equals. They set their rates and you set yours.
What should entry-level Virtual Assistants charge?
There is no recognised hierarchy that determines what a VA should charge. Entry-level, mid-level, expert-level or whatever-level Virtual Assistant isn’t a thing.
However, there is a UK article currently ranking online categorising VAs as ‘entry level’ at £10–£15, ‘mid level’ at £15–£25 and ‘expert’ at £25–£50+ and I need to address it.
One of the sections in the article talks about ‘UK virtual assistant hourly rates by experience level’ experience of what?
Experience of being a VA? No client is paying us based on how long we’ve chosen to call ourself a Virtual Assistant, or how long we’ve been in business. That’s totally irrelevant.
Clients pay us to do the jobs they either can’t, won’t or shouldn’t be doing. They pay us for the change we make to their business, for the services we’re providing.
And because you should only be providing services you’re confident and competent at, how long you’ve been calling yourself a VA doesn’t determine what those services are worth.
I’ve tried to do some research on the owners of the article but can’t find any company number, founder or individual owner, which is odd for a self- described UK-based online quoting and invoicing tool for freelancers and small businesses. Therefore, that article can wrap my chips this Friday.
What if the client has a budget of £20 an hour?
I’ve been thinking about getting hair extensions because I had my hair cut too short (my fault). My hairdresser charges anything from about £120. But I’m going to tell her my budget is £30.
Update… she’s blocked me on all platforms.
A prospective client’s budget does not determine our rate.
One LinkedIn ‘ad’ for a self-employed Virtual Assistant, from an online influencer who does brand deals btw, read…
‘I need 25 hours a month support and my budget is £500 a month.’
While £500 is a nice amount of money, and not to be sniffed at. Let’s do the sums.
- £500 / 25 hours = £20 an hour
- £20 an hour minus 30% for tax and NI = £14 an hour
No!
However, what they could have is 14 hours of your time a month for £500 if your hourly rate is the current average reported by the Society of Virtual Assistants of £35 an hour!
Or they can accept that they’re not yet earning enough to afford a Virtual Assistant.
What they can’t reasonably do is decide that because they have £500 available, your £35 hourly rate is now £20. (Associate VA roles are different and explained in my blog here.).
The hourly rate of our target client is often much more than you’re charging. If it’s not, then maybe they need to reconsider their own prices.
Honestly, low-paying clients are often the most difficult, demanding, ungrateful clients. Ask any established VA. We’ve done the accepting of low rates so you don’t have to.
Don’t accept less just because you can afford to
Maybe your partner brings in most of the household income. Maybe your mortgage is already paid off. Maybe you don’t need to earn as much as the next VA.
That’s great, but it doesn’t mean your work is worth less.
When VAs deliberately accept very low rates because their income is ‘just extra’, it can help create the expectation that Virtual Assistance should be cheap and that sadly is how many people would like to see a female-dominated industry.
So many of us have worked hard for years to maintain the professionalism and the value we bring to other business owners’ lives. We’ve fought and won many an online argument with those who would rather we were charging £15 an hour – usually some retired dude from Texas, but that’s not the point.
And for most of us, this isn’t a little side hustle or a way to earn some extra spending money for Christmas.
It’s a business we’re proud to have built.
In the UK, women lead approximately 19% of active companies (just over 1 million businesses), compared to roughly 81% led or owned by men and mixed partnerships. (Source: Funding Circle)
So every VA is making a huge difference for the women coming after us: our daughters, granddaughters, nieces.
It pays mortgages, bills and pensions. And for many, it gives us a way of earning and living that employment never could.
So price your services as a business owner, not according to how desperately your household happens to need the money.
My quick and easy online tool, which I have very modestly called ‘What Would Catherine Charge’, has been an absolute game changer for so many Virtual Assistants when they’re unsure what to charge.
You didn’t leave employment just to let a different person decide what your time is worth.