Most salary pages give you one number and stop. That number is the wrong one to budget with, for two reasons. The published figures for this job sit far apart, and base pay leaves out everything an employer pays on top.
This guide shows the sources, explains why they disagree, then builds a budget line by line so you can swap in your own numbers. Every published figure links to the page it came from, read on 31 October 2026. Anything we reasoned out ourselves is labelled as an estimate.
What do published salaries say?
They say anything from about $125,000 to about $211,000 at the midpoint. The gap comes from who is being counted, so read the table by its last column.
| Source | Midpoint | Spread | Who it counts |
|---|---|---|---|
| Payscale, updated 25 Sep 2026 | $124,557 average base | $74k to $197k (10th to 90th percentile) | 1,381 self-reported profiles, any sector and any size of employer |
| Recruiting from Scratch, dated 25 Jun 2026 | $185k median | $158k to $213k (25th to 75th) | 297 job postings from company career pages. The page doesn't say clearly whether this is base or total pay, and the firm sells recruiting |
| Salary.com, as of 1 Oct 2026 | $210,600 median base | $180,600 to $236,800 (25th to 75th) | A role titled chief of staff to CEO, so the senior end of the job |
A fourth figure is worth knowing, with a caveat. Underdog.io quotes Pave benchmark data at a median of about $187,000 in cash and about $235,000 at the 90th percentile, for US Tier 1 locations. We read that secondhand and couldn't check Pave directly.
For a venture-backed startup hiring someone who has done consulting or operating work, the middle row and the Pave figure are the closest match. Payscale's average is pulled down by the wide mix of employers, and it's more useful as a floor. We use $185,000 as the middle case below. Salary.com's own page also shows a different range in its FAQ, so we use the figures in its main table.
How much does a chief of staff cost after employer costs?
A $185,000 chief of staff costs an employer about $224,000 a year in cash, which is about $18,700 a month. Here's the sum, using three base salaries from the table above.
Three inputs are published. The IRS sets the employer's share at 6.2% for Social Security, on earnings up to $184,500 in 2026, and 1.45% for Medicare, with no cap. KFF's 2025 survey gives average premiums of $9,325 for single cover and $26,993 for family cover, of which workers pay $1,440 and $6,850. So the employer pays $7,885 for single cover ($9,325 minus $1,440) and $20,143 for family cover ($26,993 minus $6,850).
The $5,000 overhead line is our estimate for a laptop, software seats, payroll fees and unemployment insurance. Replace it with your own figure.
| Line | Lean: $124,557 base | Middle: $185,000 base | Senior: $236,800 base |
|---|---|---|---|
| Social Security at 6.2% | $7,723 | $11,439 (capped at $184,500) | $11,439 (capped at $184,500) |
| Medicare at 1.45% | $1,806 | $2,683 | $3,434 |
| Health cover, employer share | $7,885 (single) | $20,143 (family) | $20,143 (family) |
| Other overhead, estimated | $5,000 | $5,000 | $5,000 |
| Total a year | $146,971 | $224,265 | $276,816 |
| Total a month | $12,248 | $18,689 | $23,068 |
That table excludes bonus and paid leave. Payscale reports bonuses of $2k to $40k for this title, so add your plan if you have one.
The US Bureau of Labor Statistics offers a useful cross-check. Its June 2026 compensation table puts private-sector management, business and financial workers at $59.85 in wages and $28.78 in benefits, which is about 48% on top of wages. Of that $28.78, paid leave and supplemental pay make up $13.36. The remaining $15.42 is insurance, retirement and legally required costs, or about 26% of wages. So $185,000 × 1.26 is about $233,100, close to our $224,265. If you use the full 48% and count leave and bonus pay as well, you get $185,000 × 1.48, or $273,800. Use 1.2 to 1.5 times base as your planning range. That range is our judgment, and the BLS averages cover all pay levels, including people below the Social Security cap.
The one-off costs of hiring
Two costs land once, and they're easy to leave out of a budget.
Recruiter fees
Paraform puts contingency fees at 15% to 25% of first-year base salary, with most near 20%. Its page on retained search says 25% to 35% of first-year total compensation, usually paid in thirds and owed whether or not you hire. Paraform sells recruiting, so treat these as market conventions and check the fee base in your contract.
On a $185,000 base, 20% contingency is $37,000. Retained at 25% to 35% is $46,250 to $64,750, or more if the fee base includes bonus. If you hire through your own network, this line is zero, and that's a real saving worth a few extra weeks of search.
Ramp time
Bridgespan advises several days of shadowing the CEO, a mapped plan for the first 90 days and meetings with every direct report. So expect a slow first quarter. If you assume half of those three months is learning, the cost is 3 × $18,689 × 50%, or about $28,034. The 50% is our assumption, and no survey we read measures it.
Add it up for the middle case. Annual cash of $224,265 plus a $37,000 fee gives $261,265 of cash in year one. Counting ramp time brings the economic cost to about $289,299.
How to price the equity
Startups often pay part of this job in equity. Underdog.io, again citing Pave, gives 0.1% to 2% for founding or early hires. Movemeon's UK guide says startup candidates expect equity or options and often accept a sideways or slightly lower base when they move from consulting.
Here's one way to see the cost. Take a made-up grant of 0.5% at a $20,000,000 valuation, which is $100,000 on paper. Over a four-year vest, that's $25,000 a year. It doesn't leave your bank account, but it's real dilution, and the person is likely to leave early. a16z describes the job as a 2 to 3 year commitment, and Bridgespan quotes Tyler Parris on rotations of 18 to 36 months. So check what happens to unvested equity if the role ends at month 30, and decide before you make the offer whether you'd want a path into a functional leadership job.
Is a chief of staff worth the money? A break-even sum
It's worth the money if the hire frees about 16 hours of founder time a week and those hours go to work that matters. That figure rests on an assumption you should change.
Suppose an hour of the founder's focused time is worth $300 to the company. That's an estimate, and yours may be higher near a raise or lower before revenue. Then $224,265 ÷ $300 is about 748 hours a year. Over 48 working weeks, that's about 16 hours a week.
Two things follow. First, a founder who only gets back time for email won't hit that number, and an executive assistant would cost far less for the same relief. Second, the hours have to be redeployed. If the freed time fills up with more meetings, you've bought nothing. Write down what you would do with 16 extra hours before you open the role. If that list is vague, the timing may be wrong.
What the job costs outside the US
Published data gets thin quickly, so take these as rough guides. Employer costs differ by country and aren't included here.
- United Kingdom. Payscale shows an average base of £78,289, with £45k to £130k at the 10th to 90th percentile, from 94 profiles. Movemeon puts startup and scaleup roles at £70,000 to £100,000 basic, and large organisations at £120,000 to £175,000.
- India. Payscale shows an average base of ₹1,900,000, with ₹365k to ₹5m at the 10th to 90th percentile. That's only 41 profiles, so it's too small to set a budget. Ask two recruiters or peers for current offers.
What the cheaper options cost
Comparing these lines on price alone would mislead you, because they do different work. The table is here so you can see the size of each decision.
| Option | Annual cost | How we got there | What it won't do |
|---|---|---|---|
| Full-time chief of staff | About $224,000, our estimate | Middle case above | Stay forever. Plan for a 2 to 3 year stint |
| Part-time or fractional, one day a week | About $45,000, our estimate | 20% × $224,265. We found no reliable published rate, and part-time people may charge a premium | Be present when the crisis lands on a Tuesday |
| Executive assistant | About $95,000, our estimate | BLS median of $76,590 (May 2025), plus $4,749 Social Security, $1,111 Medicare, $7,885 single health cover and $5,000 overhead | Run cross-functional work or challenge your priorities |
| AI chief of staff software | $588 to $1,548 for Nautis at monthly rates | $49 to $129 a month × 12, as of October 2026, with a 14-day trial | Build trust, read a room or own an outcome |
Software at that price isn't a like-for-like swap. What an AI chief of staff cannot do lists the gaps plainly. For a five-person company, the real comparison is usually with the founder doing the work alone, since a $224,000 line would take a large share of a seed budget. Once you have a cost figure, check it against your burn in the runway calculator: divide your monthly burn by the new total, and see how many months the hire takes off your runway.
FAQ
What is the typical chief of staff cost at a startup?
One recruiting firm's review of 297 job postings gives a median of $185,000, and it's unclear whether that's base or total pay. Add employer tax, health cover and overhead, and we estimate about $224,000 a year in cash. Bonus, equity and any recruiter fee come on top.
Why do chief of staff salary figures vary so much?
They count different people. Payscale uses self-reported profiles across all kinds of employers and shows an average of $124,557. Salary.com's figure of $210,600 is for a role titled chief of staff to CEO, which sits at the senior end.
How much equity does a startup chief of staff get?
Underdog.io, citing Pave benchmarks, gives 0.1% to 2% for founding or early hires. That's a wide range, and we couldn't check Pave's data directly. Stage and cash level move the number most, so test it against recent offers in your network.
What does an executive assistant cost compared with a chief of staff?
The BLS median for executive secretaries and executive administrative assistants was $76,590 in May 2025, and Payscale shows an average of $68,422 for executive assistants. That's well under half of a typical startup chief of staff's pay. It's also a different job, focused on the executive's time and logistics.
Sources
- Payscale: chief of staff salary, United States (checked Oct 31, 2026)
- Recruiting from Scratch: chief of staff salary from job postings (checked Oct 31, 2026)
- Salary.com: chief of staff to CEO salary (checked Oct 31, 2026)
- Underdog.io: how to hire a chief of staff for your startup (checked Oct 31, 2026)
- IRS Topic 751: Social Security and Medicare withholding rates (checked Oct 31, 2026)
- KFF: 2025 Employer Health Benefits Survey (checked Oct 31, 2026)
- US Bureau of Labor Statistics: employer costs for employee compensation, Table 4 (checked Oct 31, 2026)
- US Bureau of Labor Statistics: secretaries and administrative assistants (checked Oct 31, 2026)
- Payscale: executive assistant salary, United States (checked Oct 31, 2026)
- Payscale: chief of staff salary, United Kingdom (checked Oct 31, 2026)
- Payscale: chief of staff salary, India (checked Oct 31, 2026)
- Movemeon: what is a chief of staff and when would you hire one (checked Oct 31, 2026)
- Paraform: contingency recruiting guide (checked Oct 31, 2026)
- Paraform: retained executive search (checked Oct 31, 2026)
- a16z: how to hire a chief of staff (checked Oct 31, 2026)
- Bridgespan: what a chief of staff is and when you know you need one (checked Oct 31, 2026)