How Much Do You Really Save With Offshore Hiring?

Australian and New Zealand businesses save 65% to 83% on staffing costs by hiring offshore directly, depending on the role. A full-time bookkeeper costs $55,000 to $70,000 a year in Australia or NZ$50,000 to $62,000 in New Zealand. The same role through Pear Tree costs AUD$1,400 per month ($16,800 per year), with no ongoing agency fees and full salary transparency. The real savings, after total cost of employment, are larger than the headline.

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What is the real cost of a local hire in Australia and New Zealand?

The real cost of a local Australian hire is roughly 1.25 to 1.4 times the base salary once superannuation, leave loading, workers' compensation, payroll tax, and overheads are included. A bookkeeper on a $65,000 base in Sydney typically costs the business between $81,000 and $91,000 fully loaded.

In New Zealand, the multiplier is lower but still material. A NZ$60,000 base typically lands at NZ$70,000 to NZ$75,000 fully loaded once KiwiSaver, ACC levies, and overheads are added (Stats NZ 2025; SEEK NZ 2025).

Then there is the cost to hire. Australian recruitment agency fees sit at 15% to 25% of first-year salary as standard (RCSA 2025), and the average time to fill a role is 44 days in Australia and 42 days in New Zealand (SEEK 2025; Trade Me Jobs 2025). Every day of vacancy is unbilled work or unfilled capacity.

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How much does offshore hiring through Pear Tree actually cost?

Offshore hiring through Pear Tree costs between AUD$1,200 and $2,800 per month per role, depending on seniority and skillset, plus a one-time placement fee. There are no ongoing agency margins, no monthly management fees, and no markup on the talent's salary. The client knows exactly what the offshore professional earns.

That covers a vetted, full-time professional working dedicated hours, with onboarding completed in 1 to 2 weeks. For an Australian or New Zealand business that has been waiting six weeks to fill a role locally, the speed alone is part of the saving.

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What are the actual savings by role?

Actual savings by role range from 65% on entry-level admin to 83% on senior project management when comparing Pear Tree offshore placements to local Australian or New Zealand salaries. The table below shows real, verified numbers across the most common offshore roles.

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How does the direct hire model save more than a BPO or agency?

The direct hire model saves more than a BPO or agency because no middleman is taking a margin. Traditional BPOs typically charge 3x to 5x what the talent actually earns. If an offshore professional earns $18,000 a year, a BPO often invoices the client $54,000 to $90,000 for the same person (Outsource Accelerator 2024). Staffing agency markups commonly sit at 40% to 70% above talent pay, with some exceeding 100% (Staffing Industry Data 2025).

Pear Tree uses a one-time placement fee instead of an ongoing markup. The client pays once to hire, the talent is paid transparently and fairly, and there is no agency margin sitting between the two. That structure produces 30% to 50% in additional savings beyond the salary difference alone (Industry comparison 2025).

It is also why Pear Tree's retention rate sits at 90%, against the industry average of around 60% (Outsource Accelerator 2024). Talent that is paid fairly stays, which removes the hidden cost of constant rehiring.

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What hidden costs do most businesses miss when comparing?

Most businesses underestimate offshore savings because they compare base salary against base salary and miss four cost lines that quietly stack up on the local side.

The first is on-costs: superannuation at 11.5% in Australia, KiwiSaver employer contributions in New Zealand, leave loading, workers' compensation, payroll tax, and statutory holidays. The second is recruitment. A 20% agency fee on a $90,000 role is $18,000 by itself, and the cost of a bad hire in Australia sits between $50,000 and $150,000 (SEEK and Hays 2024).

The third is overheads: desk, software licences, equipment, parking, and a share of office rent. Global Workplace Analytics puts these at around $11,000 per year per office-based employee (2025). The fourth is opportunity cost: 44 days unfilled in Australia, 42 days in New Zealand, is over six weeks of work not getting done.

Offshore hiring through Pear Tree removes most of these. Equipment is owned by the worker. Onboarding is 1 to 2 weeks instead of 6 weeks. There is no recruitment agency fee.

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What does an honest total cost comparison look like?

An honest total cost comparison for a single role looks roughly like this in Australia for a mid-level operations coordinator on a $75,000 base:

Local hire: $75,000 base + $8,625 super + $2,500 workcover and payroll on-costs + $11,000 overheads + $15,000 one-off recruitment fee = approximately $112,000 in year one, $97,000 a year ongoing.

Offshore hire through Pear Tree: $1,700 per month ($20,400 a year) + a one-time placement fee = approximately $25,000 to $28,000 in year one, $20,400 a year ongoing.

That is a $84,000 saving in year one and a $76,000 saving every year after. Across a team of five, that is over $380,000 a year that stays in the business.

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Do the savings hold up at scale?

The savings hold up at scale, and in many cases get larger. Pear Tree has placed talent with 750+ companies across Australia and New Zealand, with teams ranging from a single first hire to 20+ offshore staff supporting onshore operations. Deloitte's Global Outsourcing Survey 2024 puts the operational savings from offshore hiring at up to 60%, before the additional savings unlocked by going direct rather than through an agency.

The compounding effect matters most for SMEs. 78% of Australian companies using offshore staff are SMEs (Industry data 2024), and businesses as small as 5 to 10 employees now make their first offshore hire as a deliberate operating choice rather than a cost-cutting exercise (Market research 2025).

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What does this mean for your business?

The honest answer is that offshore hiring through a direct-hire model saves Australian and New Zealand businesses 65% to 83% on staffing costs per role, and the total saving is larger than the headline once on-costs, recruitment, and overheads are included. The savings are real, repeatable, and verifiable against published Australian Bureau of Statistics, Stats NZ, SEEK, and Hays salary data.

The savings are also not the whole story. The 90% retention rate, 1 to 2 week onboarding, and 200 to 400 applicants screened per role at Pear Tree mean the cost savings come paired with quality and stability, not at the expense of them.

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Key takeaway

Offshore hiring through Pear Tree saves Australian and New Zealand businesses 65% to 83% per role, with the bigger picture saving sitting closer to $75,000 to $85,000 per role per year once recruitment fees, on-costs, and overheads are factored in. The numbers hold up at scale, in any sector, and across both Australia and New Zealand.

AUTHOR BIO: Nick is Co-Founder of Pear Tree, a direct offshore talent placement company helping Australian and New Zealand businesses hire world-class Filipino and South African professionals, without the agency markup. With offices in Sydney, Auckland, Cebu, Manila, Cape Town, and Hawke's Bay, Pear Tree has placed talent with 750+ companies and maintains a 90% retention rate.

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