Low Rates, High Cost

One number is not the market

The first thing I want you to sit with is this: the rate you saw is one number. One person and one post, at a singular moment in time. You have no idea what’s sitting behind it, and without that context, it tells you almost nothing.

We tend to treat a single figure like a verdict on our whole business (which it isn’t).

It’s a data point, floating, with no explanation attached.

Where those low rates come from

When you see a rate that seems shockingly low, there’s usually a reason you can’t see from the outside. It might be:

• A VA who started a few weeks ago and is pricing low on purpose to build a portfolio and land those first testimonials.
• Someone offering a completely different level of service, like light inbox tidying, say, rather than the specialised work you do.
• A different business structure altogether. A side gig looks different to a full-time business with real overheads (or staff).
• Someone serving a different market, with different clients and expectations.
• An entry-level VA who feels they do not yet have the skills or experience to charge more than what they have decided is the minimum.
• A truly green contractor who wasn’t across the minimum requirements for Australian employees, let alone what reasonable margins are needed to cover their overheads.

None of that is wrong. People price for all sorts of reasons, but it does mean stacking your rate against theirs, with none of the backstory, is like comparing your grocery bill to a stranger’s without knowing who they’re feeding.

Without context, the number means very little.

The mistakes that trip us up

A few things tend to go sideways when we compare Australian VA rates in the wild.

One, we compare general admin to specialised work as though they’re the same job. Two, we forget to factor in experience, efficiency, and the level of responsibility we carry. And three, we quietly assume all VA work is interchangeable, that a VA is a VA is a VA.

Picture two people who both list “social media management“. One is responsible for scheduling a handful of pre-made founder posts each week, while the other builds the strategy, writes the copy, designs the graphics, watches the analytics and adjusts as they go. It’s the same words on the website, but different jobs with different workloads attached.

Both of these jobs are within the scope of what has been contracted and have value within their context, but naturally, they have different price tags for that reason.

Why the lowest rate isn’t the benchmark

When we go looking for Australian VA rates online, we tend to fixate on the lowest one we can find.

But remember this: one low submission becoming “the lowest rate” doesn’t make it typical, or average, or a target to match. More often, it’s actually an outlier – the single point way out at the edge, not a reflection of what most people charge.

There will always be someone who is the cheapest.

There will always be someone who is the most expensive.

Outliers don’t define the market. They’re the exception you can see, not the rule you should follow.

What “cheap” can really cost

There’s another layer that rarely shows up in the rate itself: that a lower hourly rate can quietly cost more. It can mean more time to get the job done, with more direction and hand-holding required, and of course, a higher chance of rework when things aren’t quite right the first time.

Practice explaining this to potential clients who question your higher rate and consider selling packaged deliverables instead of hours.

A lower hourly rate doesn’t always add up to a lower total cost – for the client or for you. This is exactly why chasing the cheapest number is such a shaky way to price your own work.

A better way to look at it is this:

If a single number isn’t the answer, what is?

The 101s of not falling into the underpricing trap

1. Think of averages instead of extremes, or ranges instead of one figure.
2. Always use context instead of comparison. For example, it’s a useful practice to shift your thinking from “what’s that one person charging?” to “what does the whole spread look like?”, and shape your pricing strategy from there.

That’s the whole point of our annual Rates Report. It gives you a real, industry-wide picture of Australian VA rates – what VAs and OBMs are charging right now – so you’re working from actual data rather than a screenshot that made you spiral at 11pm.

We’ll say this part plainly, because we think it’s worth being upfront about.

We’ve copped a fair bit over the years for including low rates in the report. We’ve had to explain more than once that the figures come from real survey results, not our opinions, or our recommendations (or even our personal wish list for where the industry should be!).

If we started cherry-picking which submissions to include based on what we’d prefer, we figure the whole thing would stop being trustworthy (and your trust is important).

So we don’t.

Every rate we publish comes from respondents who confirmed they’re running a VA or OBM business with an active ABN, and that their Australian VA rates are contractor rates that cover the overheads of running a business and the benefits they don’t get as employees. It’s the bar and what keeps the data honest.

The Latest on Statistical Confidence

This year, we’ve delved further into a Statistical Confidence framework, which you can read about in the “Understanding the Rates Reported” chapter of the latest report. The short version: it’s there to give you more clarity and transparency, not more numbers to stress about.

After all, better data leads to better decisions for everyone.

Our advice, as always, is to use it as a benchmark, not a rulebook. The Rates Report shows you what others are charging, but you should never set your rates purely on what everyone else is doing.

Why your input matters

A report like the Australian VA & OBM Rates Report is only as good as the data behind it, and that data comes from you.

Without fresh contributions each year, the picture slowly goes blurry and less reliable.

With strong participation, we all get a clearer, more accurate reference point to work from, so every rate you add makes the whole thing a little truer.

And it’s worth knowing your data does more than help you price.

We use the Rates Report to make the case for the whole Australian VA industry, showing business owners what local VAs are worth and why hiring one is a smart move. So your rate isn’t just a figure in a table, it’s part of the argument we get to make for all of us.

It’s also why the survey grows a bit each year.

We add new questions and fresh angles each round so future reports have something new to say, and some of the newest questions simply can’t be put to work yet, not until enough of you have answered them. The more VAs take part, the more we can show.

Over to you (with a little treat to boot)

If you haven’t done the Rates Survey in the past 12 months, consider this your nudge.

It takes most VAs and OBMs less than 10 minutes, and your submission strengthens the data that the rest of us rely on.

Contributing is one of the simplest ways to back your own VA industry, and now, there’s something in it for you too. Everyone who completes the survey enters the monthly draw to win 12 months of Career Member access, with one winner drawn every month.

Plus, every annual member who completes it gets an automatic one-month extension on their membership, no draw required, just a thank you for taking part.

You can read the full rules and rewards, and jump straight into the survey, right here: Australian VA & OBM Rates Survey.

Together, we can build a much clearer picture of the market, one honest data point at a time.

Current as at September 2026