How to hire a personal assistant, and what it costs
This is written by a company that sells the alternative, so here is the useful half first: which job you are actually filling, what it pays, how long it takes and where it goes wrong. Airmond is at the bottom, and only if it fits.
$999/month after your free week · cancel any time
The job
Decide which of the three jobs you are filling
One title covers three different jobs, and the commonest mistake in this hire is not choosing between them before writing the advert. Which one you pick decides the pay, the hours, and the kind of person who says yes to you.
The US Bureau of Labor Statistics splits roughly the same ground two ways, which is a useful sanity check on your own job description: executive assistants support one or two senior people and run their diary, correspondence and travel, while administrative assistants support an office. If your description reads like both, you are about to hire somebody who will do neither well.
- The executive assistant.One or two people, their diary, their inbox, their travel, the calls they never get to, and the judgement to know which meeting is worth breaking a morning for.
- The personal assistant.The same work with your life in it rather than only your job: the dentist, the school run, the car, the birthday you keep forgetting.
- The household or estate manager.Property, contractors, staff and logistics. A different job, a different market, and usually a different bracket.
- What all three have in common.Access. Whoever you hire ends up inside your inbox, your diary and often your money, and that is the real decision rather than the salary.
The money
What it costs to hire a personal assistant
Two figures, both from the US Bureau of Labor Statistics rather than from a recruiter's blog. In the May 2025 national estimates the median annual wage was $47,540 for secretaries and administrative assistants outside the legal, medical and executive categories, and $76,590 for executive secretaries and executive administrative assistants. Those are medians, so half the market is above them, and a major city is well above them.
The salary is not the cost. Across all US civilian workers in March 2026, employers spent $49.32 an hour on total compensation, of which $15.60 was benefits rather than wages: 31.6 percent of the total. If benefits ran at that average for your hire, a $60,000 salary is roughly $88,000 of employer cost before you count recruitment, equipment, or the hours you will spend managing somebody. That percentage is a national average across every job in the country rather than a quote for yours, which is exactly why it is the only multiplier on this page.
Agency and recruiter fees are normally a share of first-year salary and vary enough that we are not going to print a number we cannot source. Two phone calls to two agencies will give you a better figure than any page on the internet, this one included.
The clock
How long it takes, and why there is no number here
We went looking for a current, citable figure for how long this hire takes and did not find one worth quoting. The measure people used to cite, the DHI-DFH mean vacancy duration series, stopped being published in 2018, and what replaced it in blog posts is either behind a paywall or published by companies that sell recruitment. So here is the shape instead of a number we would have had to invent.
None of these steps is optional if you want somebody good, and the point is not that hiring is a bad idea. The point is that the earliest a person can start is weeks from today, and it is worth knowing that while you decide.
- Deciding the job.Which of the three roles above, what hours, what you will hand over in the first week, and what you will not.
- Advertising and shortlisting.Collecting applications is the easy part. Reading them properly is the part people skip and then regret.
- Interviews and a trial task.The best predictor is a real piece of your actual work, done in front of you, rather than a conversation about competencies.
- References and checks.You are about to give somebody your inbox and your calendar. This is the step to take slowly.
- Their notice period.Anybody worth hiring is currently working somewhere, and their current employer gets whatever notice the contract says. That part of the calendar is not yours.
The honest part
What goes wrong after you hire a personal assistant
None of these is a reason not to hire. They are the four failures that come up most from people who already did, and every one is far easier to avoid than to fix afterwards.
Three of the four are the same problem wearing different clothes: a personal assistant only works when the work is genuinely handed over, and handing work over is a skill the person doing the hiring has to learn as well.
- You never actually hand anything over.The commonest outcome by a distance. It is quicker to do it yourself for the first month, so you do, and three months later nothing has moved.
- The job you hired for is not the job there is.You advertised for a diary and an inbox, and what you needed was somebody who chases people. Write down a real week before you write the advert.
- There is no cover.One person is one person. Holiday, illness and a resignation all leave the same hole, and it is your hole to fill.
- Access without a plan.Somebody now has your inbox, your calendar and possibly your card. Decide what they can reach, and how you would take it back, before the first day rather than after a bad week.
The alternative
Or start this afternoon, without hiring anybody
Airmond gives you an assistant you reach by phone, WhatsApp and email, who makes the calls you keep putting off. They are artificial intelligence, they say so on the call, and one of them is ready for you within a couple of minutes of you leaving your number, then rings the moment you say so. The first week is free and we do not take a card to start it.
After that it is $999 a month, which is $11,988 a year, one price, cancel any time. Set that against a $76,590 median wage before an employer pays anything on top of it, and against a start date that is weeks away rather than this afternoon. Where an assistant of ours is not the answer is on the next page over, written in the same plain words.
- It starts today.No advert, no shortlist, no references and no notice period. One of them is ready for you a couple of minutes after you leave your number.
- It does not go home.The cancelled flight at eleven at night is handled at eleven at night, not on Monday morning.
- There is no cover problem.No holiday, no sick day, no resignation, and nothing walks out of the door knowing how you like things done.
- You can stop.Cancel any time by telling your assistant or writing to us. No notice, no handover, no conversation to sit through.
- And it is not a person.Artificial intelligence, said plainly on every call. If what you need is somebody in the room, or somebody whose name goes on the work, hire the person.
Side by side
Hiring somebody, beside starting with an assistant today
The row that decides this for most people is not the price. It is that one of these columns can begin this afternoon and the other cannot, and that the other one does things this one never will.
| Compared on | An Airmond assistant | Hiring a personal assistant |
|---|---|---|
| What it costs | $999 a month, which is $11,988 a year. One price, everything included, cancel any time. | A US median wage of $47,540 for an administrative assistant, or $76,590 for an executive one, before anything an employer pays on top. |
| What sits on top | Nothing. No usage meter, no task count, no recruitment fee and no equipment to buy. | Benefits were 31.6 percent of US employer compensation costs in March 2026, plus recruitment, equipment, and the hours you spend managing somebody. |
| How soon it starts | Today. Leave your number and one of them is ready for you within a couple of minutes. | Weeks. Deciding the job, advertising, shortlisting, interviews, references, and then their notice period. |
| Cover when they are away | There is no away. Any hour, every day, including the ones nobody wants to work. | Yours to arrange. Holiday, illness and a resignation leave the same hole. |
| Being in the room | Never. There is no physical presence at all, and none is coming. | Yes, if they are near you. This is a row where hiring plainly wins. |
| Whether it is a person | No. Artificial intelligence, and they say so on the call. | Yes, with the judgement and the accountability that comes with that. |
| Stopping | Cancel any time. Tell your assistant, or write to us, and the billing stops. | Notice, a handover, and a conversation nobody enjoys. |
- The $47,540 median wage for a secretary or administrative assistant: US Bureau of Labor Statistics, Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics: Secretaries and Administrative Assistants, Except Legal, Medical, and Executive (43-6014), May 2025 national estimate
- The $76,590 median wage for an executive assistant: US Bureau of Labor Statistics, Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics: Executive Secretaries and Executive Administrative Assistants (43-6011), May 2025 national estimate
- Benefits at 31.6 percent of employer compensation costs, and the $49.32 hourly total: US Bureau of Labor Statistics, Employer Costs for Employee Compensation, civilian workers, March 2026 national estimates
Questions people ask about this
How much does it cost to hire a personal assistant?
In the US Bureau of Labor Statistics May 2025 national estimates the median annual wage was $47,540 for secretaries and administrative assistants outside the legal, medical and executive categories, and $76,590 for executive assistants. Wages are not the whole cost: across all US civilian workers in March 2026, benefits were 31.6 percent of what employers spent on total compensation. Agency fees vary too much for us to quote a figure we could stand behind.
How long does it take to hire a personal assistant?
Longer than people expect, and we are not going to give you a number, because the measure that used to supply one stopped being published in 2018 and everything that replaced it is either paywalled or written by companies selling recruitment. What is certain is the sequence: deciding the job, advertising, shortlisting, interviews, a trial task, references, and then whatever notice their current employer is owed. The earliest a good hire starts is weeks from today.
What should a personal assistant actually do?
Decide that before you write the advert, because one title covers three jobs. An executive assistant runs one or two people's diary, inbox and travel. A personal assistant does the same with your life in it: the dentist, the school run, the car, the birthdays. A household manager runs property, contractors and staff. Writing a description that reads like all three is how you end up hiring somebody who does none of them well.
Should I hire a personal assistant or use an AI one?
Hire the person if the job needs somebody in a room, a relationship they own, or a name on a decision. Start with an AI assistant if the job is the phone, the inbox, the diary, travel and the chasing, because that begins today, runs at any hour, and costs a fraction of a salary. Plenty of people do both: an assistant takes the scheduling and the chasing off a good hire and gives you back the person you meant to employ.
Is an Airmond assistant a real person?
No. Every Airmond assistant is artificial intelligence, with a first name, a face and a voice of their own, and they say so on the call. Nobody at Airmond is on the phone pretending to be one. It is $999 a month after a free week, and we do not take a card to start the week.
Or hand something over this afternoon and see how far it gets.
They're ready when you are.
Your assistant is a couple of minutes away.