What the markup
actually costs you.
Staffing agencies that employ the CSR or dispatcher bill you every month for as long as that person works for you. We charge once. Below is the arithmetic, using published rate cards rather than numbers we invented.
Your assumptions
How long the person stays
Our fee is 20% of first-year compensation with a $2,500 minimum, charged once. At $750 per month that is $2,500. The $500 commitment deposit is credited against it.
Total cost over 2 years
$1,988 × 24 months
$2,500 once + $750 × 24 months, paid to your employee
Difference
$27,212
Kept in your business over 24 months — and the gap widens every month after that.
- Breakeven
- Month 3
- When the one-time fee is fully repaid by the monthly difference.
- Agency multiple
- 2.7×
- What you are billed, divided by what the person earns.
- Retained per month
- 62%
- Share of your monthly payment that never reaches the worker.
Methodology
How the comparison is calculated.
- 01Agency totalThe monthly rate the agency bills you, multiplied by the number of months the person stays. Nothing amortises: month 48 costs the same as month one.
- 02Direct-hire totalOur one-time placement fee, plus the salary you pay the person yourself for the same number of months. The salary is not a cost we compare away — you would pay it either way. It simply goes to the employee instead of through an intermediary.
- 03Placement fee20% of first-year compensation, $2,500 minimum, charged once when you hire. The $500 search commitment is credited against it.
- 04BreakevenThe month at which the monthly difference has repaid the placement fee in full. Every month after that is pure difference.
- 05Normalising hoursFractional providers sell hours per month, not seats. Where a rate card quotes an hourly figure we apply 173 monthly hours so a full-time comparison stays honest.
- 06What we excludeLocal statutory contributions, contractor-of-record fees, equipment stipends, and bonuses. They apply to both models and would not meaningfully move the gap.
The figures behind the presets.
Agency rate cards
- Dedicated assistant agency (Athena)$3,000/mo
Flat $3,000/mo for a full-time Philippines-based assistant, 12-month term. athena.com/pricing
- Managed remote staffing (MyOutDesk)$1,988/mo
Published starting rate for a managed, dedicated full-time remote employee. myoutdesk.com/pricing
- Full-time general remote staff (Wing)$999/mo
Upper end of the general full-time tier; specialists bill $1,299. wingassistant.com pricing tiers
- Outsourced answering / dispatch desk$2,400/mo
Shared or dedicated call-handling desks commonly quote $1,800–$3,000/mo for full business-hours coverage. Vendor-quoted, not audited. Published vendor quotes, 2026
What the professional earns
- Philippines — remote CSR$780/mo
$9/hr at 40 hrs/week is roughly $1,560/mo; experienced CSRs commonly ask $700–$900/mo for full-time work. OnlineJobs.ph listings + applicant data, 2026
- Philippines — dispatcher / scheduler$900/mo
Live postings advertise ₱40,000–₱55,000/mo (~$710–$980) for dispatch and scheduling work. OnlineJobs.ph listings, Aug 2026
- Philippines — office / admin support$750/mo
Median full-time salary asked for across 1,385 applications (Oct 2025 – Jul 2026): $714/mo. Armasourcing Filipino Remote Staff Salary Report 2026
- Latin America — CSR / admin$1,300/mo
Vendor-quoted fully-loaded $900–$1,900/mo for Colombia and Mexico; raw wage sits below that. remoteria.com country cost pages, 2026
Where we will not overclaim
Some numbers in this industry simply are not audited.
- No verified industry markup figure exists. Published margin claims of 35–55% come from agency-adjacent blogs with a commercial interest in the framing. This tool therefore derives the retained share from the two numbers you enter, not from a borrowed statistic.
- There is no credible data comparing turnover between agency-employed and directly-employed overseas staff. We have not modelled a retention advantage, even though we believe one exists.
- Rate cards change. Figures were compiled in 2026 from public pricing pages. Where an agency quotes hours per month rather than a full-time seat, we say so rather than presenting a flattering comparison.
- This is an estimate, not a quote. Real compensation depends on the role, the seniority, and the market you recruit from. We will tell you the honest salary band during the intake call.
Sources
Compiled in 2026 from published pricing pages, salary datasets, and industry reporting. Caveats are stated where a figure is self-reported, vendor-published, or an aggregator estimate.
- Dedicated full-time overseas staff, billed monthly$3,000 / month, 12-month termAthena published pricing
- Managed full-time remote employeeFrom $1,988 / monthMyOutDesk published pricing
- Full-time general and specialist remote-staff tiers$699–$1,299 / monthWing Assistant pricing tiersTier boundaries vary by role and are partly quoted through secondary summaries.
- US-managed fractional support hours$36–$39 / hour ($1,480 for 40 hours per month)Time etc published pricingSold by hours per month, not full-time seats. We normalise to 173 monthly hours before comparing.
- Fractional support-staff hourly equivalent≈ $65 / hour ($2,600 for 40 hours per month)Boldly pricing plans
- Philippines full-time remote staff salary expectationMedian $714 / monthArmasourcing Filipino Remote Staff Salary Report 2026 (1,385 applications, Oct 2025 – Jul 2026)First-party applicant data from a recruiting firm, not an independent survey body.
- Philippines remote staff hourly base₱35 / hour average across 219 reported profilesPayscale, updated 2026Self-reported; local-market roles pull the average below dollar-denominated remote work.
- Philippines dispatcher / scheduler postings₱40,000–₱55,000 / month (≈ $710–$980)OnlineJobs.ph live listings, Aug 2026Individual postings, not a survey average.
- South Africa office / admin support salaryR17,925 / month average (≈ $970)worldsalaries.com, 2026Aggregator estimate; methodology is not published.
- Contingency recruiting fee, US market norm15–25% of first-year salary, 20% most commonly citedMultiple recruiting-industry references, 2026A US domestic staffing benchmark. Our 20% applies to a far lower salary base, which is why the minimum fee exists.
- Philippine BPO annual attrition30–45%, higher in voice-heavy frontline rolesIndustry reporting summarising CCAP attrition studiesLarge call-centre labour, not boutique dedicated remote staffing. We do not present it as a direct-hire comparison.
Want the number for your actual role?
Tell us the responsibilities and the hours. We will give you a realistic salary band, a fee figure, and an honest answer about whether the search is worth running.