Full monthly salary benchmarks for offshore roles in Manila and Cebu — by seniority, shift and function — with the local-market equivalents side by side.
This guide sets out what a full-time offshore employee in the Philippines actually costs, role by role and seniority band by seniority band. Every figure below is an all-in monthly rate: salary, statutory contributions, recruitment, payroll, HR, equipment, secure workspace and account management consolidated into one invoice. There is no separate placement fee and no hourly billing.
Executive and administrative support is the most common entry point. A Data Entry Specialist with two or more years of experience sits at roughly $1,100 per month. An Administration Officer or Office Coordinator with three-plus years lands around $1,400. A Personal Assistant runs about $1,500, a core Executive Assistant with five-plus years about $1,800, and a Senior Executive Assistant supporting a C-suite calendar about $2,200. Document Controllers working in Aconex or SharePoint sit near $1,600.
Customer and sales roles price against complexity rather than volume. A Customer Service Representative is approximately $1,500 per month, an Appointment Setter $1,600, a Sales Support Specialist $1,700, and an SDR running Apollo and LinkedIn Sales Navigator sequences $1,900. Technical Support Agents working tiered escalation in Freshdesk and Jira are also around $1,900. A Customer Success Manager owning retention and QBR cadence is closer to $2,400.
Finance and accounting is where the local-market delta is widest. Bookkeepers and accounts payable or receivable officers sit in the $1,400 to $1,700 range. Qualified Accountants with reconciliation and month-end ownership are typically $2,200 to $2,600. Financial Analysts and Management Accountants building board packs sit toward the upper end of that band and above, depending on whether CPA or CA qualification is required.
Technology and engineering roles carry the highest bands. Junior developers start around $2,000 per month. Mid-level full-stack engineers with three to five years in React, Node or .NET typically fall between $2,800 and $3,600. Senior engineers, DevOps and cloud specialists run from $3,600 upward. QA automation and data engineering sit between the mid and senior bands.
Marketing, creative, construction and design roles cluster between $1,600 and $2,800. Graphic designers, video editors and content writers occupy the lower half; performance marketers, CAD drafters, BIM technicians and estimators occupy the upper half where accreditation or software depth is required.
Seniority is the largest single driver of cost, and the increments are predictable. Moving from junior (0–2 years) to mid (3–5 years) typically adds 30 to 45 percent. Moving from mid to senior (6–10 years) adds another 30 to 40 percent. Team lead or supervisory scope adds a further 15 to 25 percent on top of the senior band. Buying seniority you do not need is the most common budgeting error we see.
Shift differentials matter in the Philippines because they are statutory. Night differential applies to hours worked between 10pm and 6am and is legally set at a minimum of 10 percent of the hourly rate. In practice, roles covering US Eastern or Pacific business hours carry a 10 to 20 percent premium over the same role on a Manila-day schedule. UK and European coverage sits in between. Australian and New Zealand hours overlap almost entirely with Manila daytime and carry no differential, which is why AU and NZ businesses see the cleanest economics.
Weekend coverage, public holiday work and 13th-month pay are the three other line items that surprise first-time offshore employers. The 13th month is a mandated annual payment equivalent to one month's salary; a compliant provider amortises it into the monthly rate rather than presenting it as a surprise December invoice.
Against local markets the comparison is stark. An Executive Assistant costing $1,800 per month offshore typically costs the equivalent of $5,500 to $7,000 per month fully loaded in Sydney, London or a major US metro once superannuation or employer taxes, payroll tax, workers compensation, recruitment amortisation, floor space and software seats are counted. A mid-level developer at $3,200 offshore compares against $9,000 to $12,000 locally. Savings across the catalogue generally land between 60 and 75 percent.
Two caveats keep those numbers honest. First, salary is roughly 68 percent of the true cost of a local hire, so any comparison built on base salary alone understates the offshore advantage. Second, the cheapest available rate is rarely the correct one: underpaying against the Manila market produces attrition, and attrition costs more than the differential you saved.
Use these benchmarks to size a budget, not to negotiate a candidate down. Define the outcomes the role must own, map those to a seniority band, add the shift differential your timezone actually requires, and price from there. If you want the specific band for a role that is not listed here, the full role catalogue with indicative pricing, experience requirements and typical time-to-hire is published on our roles page.