What an Offshore Marketing Seat Costs, Line by Line

Most staffing providers give you one number per seat. It's simple, but it leaves you guessing about what's inside it: how much reaches the person doing the work, what goes to statutory costs, and what the provider keeps.

We price differently. Lumikha Teams uses cost-plus pricing, which means you see every component of a seat, including the salary, and our fee is a stated percentage on top. This post walks through one marketing seat so you can see exactly how that works.

How cost-plus pricing works

A cost-plus seat has two parts:

1. The loaded cost of the person. Their salary plus everything an employer in the Philippines is required or expected to provide: statutory contributions, 13th-month pay, benefits, equipment, and a place to work.

2. Our fee. A fixed percentage of that loaded cost, which covers recruiting, employment, compliance, the structured first 45 days, and ongoing retention and development.

Because the fee is a percentage of a cost you can see, the price of any seat is easy to check and easy to plan around.

The worked seat: a Content Producer

Here's a mid-level Content Producer, one of the most common seats in our marketing teams. This person writes long-form content, email, and social copy, working to your direction and your brand.

Converted at [PHP 00.00] to USD 1. Invoiced monthly in USD.

What each line means

Base salary. Set against current Philippine market rates for the role and seniority in your specification. You see this number before you approve the brief, and your team member hears about the cost-plus arrangement from us first.

13th-month pay. Required under Philippine law: one additional month's salary per year, paid in December. We accrue it monthly so your invoice stays level across the year.

Employer statutory contributions. The employer's share of social security (SSS), national health insurance (PhilHealth), and the housing fund (Pag-IBIG). These are set by law and adjust periodically.

Health cover and benefits. The benefits package that comes with regular employment at Lumikha.

Equipment. A work-ready setup with the security configuration your data needs.

Workspace. Our teams work hybrid, with a co-working base for collaboration and focused work.

What the fee covers

The fee is where the structure of the engagement lives. It covers:

• Recruiting against a specification you approve. Sourcing, screening, a practical exercise drawn from your actual work, and a structured interview, before you meet the shortlist.

• Employment and compliance. Contracts, payroll, statutory filings, data privacy obligations, and everything that comes with being the employer of record.

• A structured first 45 days. Reviews at day 15, 30, and 45, and a knowledge-transfer plan that leaves you with documented processes.

• One free replacement within 90 days, if a placement isn't the right fit.

• Retention and development. A four-day week, a development plan for every seat, and an annual increase of 2–5% tied to performance.

There's no separate recruitment fee. Recruiting is part of the seat.

How the price changes as your team grows

Our percentage steps down as you add seats, so each additional seat costs proportionally less to support.

Most marketing clients start with two seats, typically a Coordinator and a Producer, and add a Designer and a channel specialist as the work grows. The quarterly review is where those conversations happen.

How annual increases work

Each year, team members receive an increase of 2–5% tied to their performance. Because the fee is a percentage of loaded cost, an increase moves the seat price by a predictable amount, and you see it coming.

We build increases in deliberately. People who are paid fairly and see a path forward stay, and a team member who has worked inside your business for two years carries knowledge a new hire can't match.

Building your own estimate

You can estimate any seat with the same structure:

1. Start with the base salary for the role and seniority you need.

2. Add 13th-month pay: base salary ÷ 12.

3. Add statutory contributions, benefits, equipment, and workspace. For planning, these typically add [00–00]% to base salary.

4. Apply the fee percentage for your team size.

That gives you a monthly figure you can plan against with confidence. For a precise number, we build a seat-by-seat cost as part of your brief.

Senior and specialist roles, such as a Chief of Staff or an AI oversight lead, are scoped and priced per engagement through our Bespoke Teams line.