Pricing:   It is very important to carefully read and understand the information on this page.

1 - When company leaders first learn of our service they often assume we are an offshore company such as virtual assistant or outsourcing. We are not like these companies. In fact, it is important to understand what these "rent-a-worker" companies are to compare with our business model and plan.

Offshore companies such as virtual assistant or outsourcing hire people as their employees to rent to American companies as remote, extra, lower cost and expendable staff.

A - These companies pay people poverty level wages and do not treat the people with dignity. American companies that use these offshore services may unknowingly contribute to bad situations for these workers.

B - The workers know the offshore company is their employer and the American company is just a Gig. Think of it, if you worked for an offshore company and knew the American company perceived you as extra, rented and expendable, would you give 100% to the job and be loyal?  Probably not!

C - In fact, it is common for offshore services to double and triple dip by assigning the same person to 2 or 3 American companies hoping nobody notices.

D - Although there can be exceptions., most American companies that try these offshore rent-a-worker services cancel when realizing the flaws and failures outweigh the benefit of lower cost.

The cost for people from offshore services can be low. Yet the old saying is true, you get what you pay for.  Sometimes if the cost for something is very low the quality is very bad.

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Let's compare to our HR/payroll/recruiting model and plan 

1 - In the USA you are likely familiar with HR companies like ADP. Using ADP as the example and Nancy as the person you hire, Nancy is hired to ADP's payroll system while she fits in and works for you same as a normal career employee. In this example Nancy is not rented from ADP, she is payrolled by ADP to work for you.

2 - Our business model is similar except our HR company and the people are located in the Dominican Republic where they can work remote for your company at half the cost of an office employee at your U.S. location.

3 - Let's walk you through the steps to be clear.

A - Assume you decide to work with us and your first person to hire will be a personal assistant. The agreement is between our USA corporation and your USA company. There is no legal connection between your company and people working for you remote from the DR.

B - Our Dominican HR company recruits 3 suitable people for you to interview over video call such as Zoom.  The total billing rate that includes the worker + taxes + HR + computer + internet = everything is clearly shown on the resume cover page. You will know the total cost of a person before interviewing.

In this example you interviewed and selected Nancy for hiring.

C - Our Dominican HR company sets up Nancy on our HR and payroll system. This is KEY. Nancy is not our employee who we are renting to your company. We recruited Nancy in the Dominican Republic where you interviewed and selected her for hiring.

On paper Nancy is payrolled through our Dominican HR company although she fits in working for you same as a career employee.

Your Company > Our USA corp > DR HR company > Nancy in DR works remote for you!

D - These next steps are very important: You should not compare our pricing to an offshore rent-a-worker type of company that pays people poverty wages.

The correct comparison is the cost to have a person like Nancy work for you remote from the DR verses a person like Nancy working for you locally as a U.S. employee.

E - Let's use real numbers for this explanation. In Florida the minimum wage is $15 per hour. This is for an unskilled worker such as a McDonalds burger cook or laborer.  

When taxes, FICA, insurance and other legal employee overhead costs are added to the $15 wage the actual cost to employ the minimum wage worker is $21 to $23 per hour.

F - Assume that your job description for an Assistant requires at least an associates degrees or 2 years of college along with strong computer and job skills. 

Nancy is the Dominican candidate for this example. She may have a 4 year bachelor's degree, bilingual English & Spanish and impressive job & computer skills. She is FAR above a minimum wage type of person!

In Florida the realistic pay to hire a person like Nancy can be $25 to $35 dollars per hour. 

Using $30 per hour as the average wage for a person like Nancy and then add taxes, insurance and overhead costs her actual cost can be $38 per hour in USA.

H - In reality, we can find a person like Nancy in the DR to work as your remote personal assistant for the same $15 per hour that is the basic pay rate for an unskilled burger cook. This also shows how Nancy at $15 per hour cost less than the minimum wage burger cook because their $15 is actually $21 to $23 when overhead costs are included.

With Nancy the $15 bill rate includes everything.

H - This is also very important. Using Nancy as an Assistant and $15 as our bill rate for this example, within this $15 bill rate we have enough margin to pay Nancy a better salary than she would normally get at jobs in the Dominican Republic. Your cost is low, we make some money and we pay Nancy a good wage so she is happy.

Our philosophy is you should benefit from Nancy's lower cost while together you and we lift her up to a better job and life. That is how you get loyalty, hard work and longevity!

I - Same as if you hired Nancy through an HR company like ADP you have full control over annual evaluations, raises, advancement, paid time off such as sick days or holidays, you should think of Nancy and treat her as a career employee. We fit in the middle as her HR and payroll provider.

On paper Nancy is a contractor through our Dominican HR company while fitting in with your company same as a career employee.

FYI, USA IRS rules regarding long term use of contractors only apply to USA citizens. This means Nancy can work for your company 20 years as a long term contractor while fitting in same as if she is your employee.

When you ask for a person through us in the Dominican Republic we will openly tell you what we think the realistic minimum and maximum bill rate range will be so you know the cost before deciding to interview.

I hope you can understand why we are so detailed on this page. When American companies use offshore services that pay poverty wages and treat people badly the workers are not happy and that affects their attitude towards the job with your company.

If you train people to work your way and want to retain them long term our business model and plan makes logical sense and is clearly a more intelligent option compared to renting people from offshore companies.

Other benefits of the Dominican Republic are being 2 hours from Miami, same time zone as Florida and is easy for you to fly over to DR to visit your remote workers. An example is a Christmas dinner with your Dominican team. That is not doable with people from offshore companies usually in India or Philippines.

I personally live in Pompano Beach and also spend time over in the Dominican Republic.

David Fogg - owner of Nearshore USA