Cheapest way to legally hire an English speaking assitant?

You can post an ad about your offer in the Wanted - Members Looking To Hire You Forum. I'am pretty much sure that you'll get decent appeal from people to work for you. good luck!

I don't think it's "taking advantage," either. In 3rd World nations, as little as $300-$500/month is a decent salary that affords a middle-class standard of living. Applicants in those countries are willing to work for $1.00/hour because that's the going wage in their country.

However, if you're going to hire abroad, make sure the applicant really can speak English before agreeing to contract with them. I've seen foreign workers claim to be "fluent" in English, but they speak it about as well as I do Spanish (and the average Spanish-speaking 2-year-old smokes me). OTOH, I've seen foreign workers who have better English skills than most Americans.

The importance of their fluency in English also depends on what you're having them do. It's not as important for someone who is doing easy, rote tasks to be 100% fluent as it is for, say, a copywriter, or someone who will be making lots of phone calls or conversing online with English-speaking customers.

You might want to look at oDesk. You can specify that you will only consider applicants who have passed the English language skills tests on the site; further, you can insist on a Skype interview before hiring the applicant.

Call a spade a spade and don't come with the "I'm doing the person I'm employing a favour" BS.

If you are looking to get the cheapest possible labour source so that you can make more money then that's one thing.

However, it really and truly pisses me off when people are trying to go cheap and use the excuse that they are still "helping" some poor Phillipino or Indian worker.

You're not doing this out of the goodness of your own heart, you're doing this because it is beneficial to YOU. The fact that someone else is also benefiting is completely a secondary by product to your personal/business benefit.

you can hire skilled assistants on odesk or freelancer. there are many of them looking for someone like you.

oDesk and look at the English Skills test (as Teresa said). You aren't taking advantage of anyone... and I don't think anyone sensible would see it that way. If someone is looking for work, and someone is looking to provide work, and both parties are happy with the conditions... then nothing else should matter (outside of labor laws of course).

As an aside, some oDesk tests can be really easy (and to make matters worse some people post 'cheats' online). I don't consider myself a great English writer by any means but I am a born/raised American boy with an Associates in English and scored the following on oDesk's speech/language related tests:

Source: https://www.odesk.com/users/speciali...c969d8762b4a19
Email Etiquette Certification 4.85 Top 10% 14 min Details
Internet Marketing 4.90 Top 10% 10 min Details
Telephone Etiquette Certification 4.55 Top 10% 13 min Details
Office Skills 4.40 Top 10% 22 min Details
Social Media Marketing 4.50 Top 10% 18 min Details
Advertising Skills Certification 3.40 Top 10% 7 min Details
Business Strategy 4.25 Top 20% 24 min Details
U.S. English Basic Skills 4.10 Top 20% 19 min Details
Management Skills 3.10 Top 30% 31 min Details
Search Engine Optimization 3.10 Top 30% 30 min Details
Online Article Writing and Blogging Test (U.S. Version) 4.10 Top 30% 21 min Details
English Spelling Test (U.S. Version) 4.75 Top 30% 18 min Details
Customer Service 4.25 Top 30% 15 min Details

(I'm not listing these to brag, because again I don't consider myself a good writer at all... I'm listing them so you can compare an average skill-set of an American-raised worker with standard English education [who is also bad at test taking] against other applicants you come across).

If you're looking to hire someone as an employee, not a freelancer, then I recommend hiring a VA fulltime like through Onlinejobs.ph. They have experienced VAs there that pretty much know what to expect from employers.
$300-$500 is a good starting wage for experienced VAs. But if you want, you can also give benefits expected by Filipino employees like 13th month bonus or a little extra to pay for social security and health insurance =) Just saying

Look at Odesk, find someone with a minimum of 500 hours experience on odesk
Look at feed back.
Set them some sort of test
interview them over skype.
It may take a few interviews to get the right person, but it's definitelly worth it

Graeme

Look in oDesk.com !

For some reason people from the Philippines tend to be great VAs. They also speak better English than most other Asians. Just something to keep in mind.

Agreed with joaquin. If you are on a budget. VA's from the Philippines are the best followed by India.

I've heard good things from onlinejobs.ph

I'm not yet in position the get a full VA but that's my place when I'm ready as they speak perfect English and are well educated and like to work.

G.