Remote staff in the Philippines: hire your own or use a provider

Remote staff in the Philippines can work your business hours, because the Philippines is only 2 hours behind Sydney under standard time, 3 hours behind during daylight saving, and level with Perth. You can hire them yourself, usually with a recruiter’s help and one fee per hire, or go through an offshore provider that hires the person and bills you monthly. Tarino’s typical salaries start at about $1,100 a month for a virtual assistant.

This guide covers the practical questions Australian business owners ask before they hire: working hours, internet and power, which roles work, what it costs, and how to choose between hiring direct and using a provider.

Why do Australian businesses hire remote staff in the Philippines?

The main reasons are lower cost, strong English proficiency, a workable time zone and a large pool of skilled professionals in office roles. Here is what the Philippines offers an Australian employer, in short:

• Cost savings: salaries for the same role are typically around 80% lower than in Australia (see the table below)
• English: the Philippines ranks 28th of 123 countries and regions in the EF English Proficiency Index 2025
• Hours: Manila is 2 to 3 hours behind Sydney and level with Perth, so your remote workers can share most of your working day
• Talent: for each role, Tarino builds a pool of 1,000+ candidates, so there is real choice even for specialist jobs

The workforce behind that pool is large. The 2024 Census of Population put the Philippines’ population at 112,729,484, and the Philippine Statistics Authority’s Labor Force Survey counted 49.63 million employed people in May 2026. The unemployment rate was 4.9% in June 2026, which means about 95% of the labour force was employed.

How much can you save? Remote staff Philippines salaries vs Australia

The table compares Tarino’s typical salary for a Philippines-based hire with Tarino’s typical Australian salary for the same role. It is salary only: Australian super at 12% would widen the gap, and Philippine statutory benefits would narrow it slightly.

Role	Typical Australian salary	Typical Philippines salary (yearly)	Lower cost
Virtual assistant	$80,000	$13,200	About 84%
Admin assistant	$80,000	$14,400	About 82%
Bookkeeper	$90,000	$16,800	About 81%
Accountant	$115,000	$21,600	About 81%
Software developer	$145,000	$27,600	About 81%

The savings are real, but they are not the only reason to hire. The businesses that do best treat Filipino talent as a way to add skills and capacity to their team, not just to cut overhead costs.

What time zone overlap do you get with the Philippines?

The Philippines uses one time zone, Philippine Standard Time, which the Philippine Standard Time Act puts in the care of PAGASA, the national weather agency. In the IANA time zone database it is UTC+8 with no daylight saving.

Australia’s east coast is UTC+10 under standard time. NSW, Victoria, South Australia, Tasmania and the ACT move to daylight saving, which runs from Sunday 4 October 2026 to Sunday 4 April 2027. Queensland, Western Australia and the Northern Territory do not.

Your office	Difference to Manila	Your 9am to 5pm in Manila time
Sydney or Melbourne, standard time	Manila 2 hours behind	7am to 3pm
Sydney or Melbourne, daylight saving	Manila 3 hours behind	6am to 2pm
Brisbane, all year	Manila 2 hours behind	7am to 3pm
Perth, all year	Same time	9am to 5pm

That means an early start in Manila. Some businesses have their hire match the Australian day exactly; others start an hour later and cover the afternoon. Agree the schedule in the brief, and confirm each finalist’s availability before you choose. Philippine public holidays are different from ours, so plan around them with our 2026 Philippine public holidays guide.

Is internet in the Philippines good enough for remote work?

For most office roles, yes, as long as you check each person’s setup. DataReportal’s Digital 2026 report for the Philippines, using Ookla data, puts the median fixed internet download speed at 105.17 Mbps at the end of 2025, up 11.4% in the year to August 2025. The median mobile download speed was 59.64 Mbps. The same report counts 98.0 million internet users, or 83.8% of the population.

A median is a midpoint, not a promise. Speeds vary a lot between cities, providers and buildings. Before you hire:

• ask the candidate to run a speed test on a video call
• ask what their backup is if the main connection drops, such as a mobile data plan
• check they have a quiet, dedicated place to work
• test a long video call during the hours they will actually work

What about power and typhoons?

Plan for weather. PAGASA, the Philippine weather agency, says an average of 20 tropical cyclones enter its monitoring area each year, with about 8 or 9 crossing the Philippines. The peak of the typhoon season is July to October. Severe weather can disrupt power and internet in the areas it hits.

We have not found a current, reliable published figure for how often power outages affect home workers in the Philippines, so we won’t quote one. The practical answer is the same either way: ask about backup power, such as a UPS for the modem and laptop, and agree in advance what happens on a day the connection is down. If you use a provider with an office, ask whether it has backup power and a second connection. Where it does, that is a genuine advantage of the provider model.

What roles work well for remote staff in the Philippines?

Roles done at a computer, with clear processes and output you can check, work best. That covers most back-office operations, client support and production work across almost every industry. English is a strength: the Philippines ranks 28th of 123 countries and regions in the EF English Proficiency Index 2025, with a score of 569 against a global average of 488.

Common roles for Australian service businesses, with Tarino’s typical monthly salary:

Role	Typical monthly salary (AUD)
Virtual assistant	$1,100
Admin assistant	$1,200
Customer service	$1,200
Bookkeeper	$1,400
Marketing assistant	$1,500
IT support	$1,600
Executive assistant	$1,700
Accountant	$1,800
Paraplanner	$1,900
Software developer	$2,300

These are typical figures. The right salary depends on experience and the market for the role at the time, and Tarino benchmarks it with you before the search starts. A properly engaged employee also has statutory costs on top, including 13th month pay. For a full breakdown, see the Philippines salary guide.

Should you hire remote staff directly or use a provider?

This is the real decision. Both models give you a dedicated person working your hours. The differences are who the legal employer is, where they work, and what you pay.

	Hire your own (direct hire)	Use an offshore provider
Who finds the person	A recruiter, or you	The provider
Where they work	Usually from home	Often the provider’s office, or from home
Who is the legal employer	You, an employer of record, or a genuine contractor arrangement	The provider
Ongoing fee	None (Tarino EOR adds $387 a month if you want it)	Monthly, for as long as they work for you
Example cost	Tarino: $5,000 excl. GST once per placement	One published rate: A$1,099 per person per month plus A$1,200 per hire
You see what they are paid	Yes	Depends on the provider

A provider makes sense if you want your hire in a supervised office with IT support, or you would rather the provider handle HR and equipment. You pay for that every month.

Hiring your own makes sense if you want a long-term team member, a direct relationship, and no ongoing fee. You take on more of the setup: equipment, payroll and day-to-day management. If you don’t want to run Philippine payroll, Tarino EOR can be the legal employer for a flat $387 per employee per month, with AUD pricing that may vary slightly with exchange rates.

One caution on hiring direct. Calling a full-time remote worker a “contractor” does not make them one. If you control their hours and how they work, the arrangement may be treated as employment. Our guide to sham contracting explains the risk, and you should confirm your structure with an employment lawyer.

Remote staffing vs outsourcing: what is the difference?

They are often confused, but they are different models.

	Remote staffing	Outsourcing
What you get	A dedicated person who works only for your business	A third-party company that delivers a task or process
Who directs the work	You, day to day	The outsourcing company
How you pay	A salary (plus any provider fee)	Per task, per hour or per seat
Best for	Ongoing roles that need your processes and knowledge	Discrete, well-defined jobs or overflow
The working relationship	Your remote team member, part of your team	A supplier relationship
Main focus	Quality and fit with your business goals	Volume and throughput at an agreed price

Remote staffing can also give your hire full-time work with statutory benefits, which helps you keep good people. If the work is ongoing and depends on knowing your clients and systems, remote staffing usually suits better. If it is a self-contained job you can hand over and check, outsourcing can work.

How do you hire remote workers in the Philippines?

Remote hiring follows the same steps as local hiring, with a few Philippine specifics.

1. Define the role precisely. List the key tasks, responsibilities, tools, hours and how you will measure success. Most hiring mismatches start with a vague brief.
2. Choose how you will hire. You can post jobs yourself on job boards, use a recruiter such as Tarino and hire directly, or go through a provider.
3. Screen for the job, not the CV. Use a practical task that mirrors the real work, a video interview to check communication, and a check of the candidate’s internet and workspace.
4. Structure the offer properly. If the person will work as an employee, use a written employment contract. Under Article 281 of the Labor Code of the Philippines, a probationary period cannot exceed six months, and you must make the standards for regular employment known at the start.
5. Budget for statutory benefits. Employees in the Philippines are covered by SSS, PhilHealth and Pag-IBIG, with contributions shared between employer and employee, and are entitled to 13th month pay. An employer of record can run this payroll and compliance for you.
6. Onboard with context. Give your new hire the documents, access and background they need before day one, and map the workflow they will slot into.

How do you pay remote workers in the Philippines?

If you hire an employee, salary payments run through Philippine payroll, which also handles statutory contributions and withholding. Many Australian businesses that hire direct use an employer of record for this, so they never set up a Philippine entity. If you engage a genuine independent contractor, you pay their invoices instead, but that only works where they really do control how and when they work. Either way, agree the currency, pay dates and payment method in writing.

The model also scales. You can start with one hire and add more as demand and growth justify it, using the same recruitment partner and the same HR management setup.

How do you manage remote staff in the Philippines well?

The businesses that get the most from remote staff treat them as part of the team, not as a task queue. A few habits help:

• a structured first month, with clear tasks and a named person to ask
• a short daily check-in, at least to start
• written processes for recurring work
• the same tools and access as your local team, with sensible security controls
• clear communication rules: which channel to use for what, and the response time you expect
• simple tracking of output against a few agreed measures, so you can identify problems early

Two more points matter in practice. If your hire supports several people or projects, set priorities so the workload doesn’t pile up, and share your company policies in writing during onboarding rather than assuming they will be picked up. And respect Philippine public holidays and reasonable hours: it is one of the simplest ways to keep a good remote team member for the long term.

Most things that go wrong with remote teams come down to unclear expectations, not distance. Document the process, agree how work is checked, and keep secure, role-based access to client data. Treat remote employees with the same ongoing support you would give a local team member, and the working relationship tends to last.

Our guides to managing offshore staff and your first 30 days with an offshore hire go into more detail.

Remote staff Philippines checklist: before you hire

• Write a one-page role brief with tasks, hours and measures of success
• Decide between hiring direct, using an employer of record, or using a provider
• Test each finalist’s skills with a practical task
• Check internet speed, backup connection and workspace on a video call
• Put hours, probation and benefits in a written contract
• Plan the first 30 days, including access, training and a named contact

How Tarino helps you hire your own

Tarino finds remote staff in the Philippines for Australian businesses, and you hire them directly. We build a pool of 1,000+ candidates per role, screen them through CV, video, practical and interview stages, and send you a shortlist of 3–4, typically within about 2 weeks. The fee is $5,000 excl. GST per placement, with 6-month replacement cover for the same role. See pricing, run your role through the cost calculator, or book a 30-minute call.