BELAY

2.0

18 Sept 2025

Virtual assistant

Recommend

CEO approval

Business outlook

Pros

Remote - Work from home. Clients are great!

Cons

Belay keeps 60% of income that client pays and does nothing for it. Clients expect $50/hr level work but you’re only getting $20/hr to do it. You’re also classified as an “independent contractor”. You will have to file self-employment taxes, so make sure you put that money aside. They never allow any contract to have more than 30hrs to a single client so neither Belay, nor the client, have any legal obligation to provide any benefits. Client has to pay a huge buyout fee if they want to take you on as an employee which discourages permanent placements. Noncompete clause for at least one year after employment so you can’t even go work for your employer when your Belay contract ends. All Belay does is match “contractors” with employers, after that they’re completely hands off as they are “your clients”. They do nothing but wire your pay once monthly. You’re also responsible for all of your own time tracking and time card submissions for each client you handle, in order to get paid. They do very little and take a lot. Also, Management is friendly and appears helpful until you actually need something. their answer is always basically “this is your client so work it out yourself”. If for some reason, you can’t, their answer is simply to take the client from you without notice and place it with another contractor. So you lose pay almost instantly and you don’t know how long it’ll take them to place you with another client. This didn’t happen to me personally, but I heard it from other employees and basically understood from my manager what would happen if I didn’t sort things out myself. They must have high turnover because if you’re good at your job, they assign you the dumpster fires which is basically a previous contractor couldn’t meet client expectations and they are trying to keep the client. They do not care about contractors. They care about keeping clients happy and contractors are just the tools.

BELAY Response

8mo

Thank you for taking the time to share such detailed feedback about your experience with BELAY. We’re truly grateful for the work you contributed and are glad to hear that you enjoyed partnering with your clients and appreciated the flexibility of remote work. We’re sorry to hear, however, that aspects of your experience left you feeling unsupported or undervalued. We understand that compensation and workload balance are meaningful considerations, and your perspective has been shared with our leadership and contractor success teams. While BELAY’s model is intentionally structured to allow independent contractors to serve clients with autonomy and flexibility, we also recognize the importance of ensuring that support and communication remain consistent throughout each engagement. Please know that BELAY strives to offer competitive pay rates, and we continue to evaluate our pay structure annually. We are proud to serve as one of the highest-paying firms in our industry while continuing to add perks each year for our community, such as: Unmatched Flexibility: The ability to work from anywhere and choose your hours. Access to Opportunities: Hundreds of job postings across various industries, saving you the time and effort of sourcing and vetting clients. Administrative Support: We handle invoicing and payment collection, allowing you to focus on your work instead of back-end logistics. Dedicated Support: Intentional placements, success consultants for personalized guidance, and resources to help you excel in every engagement. Professional Development: Networking opportunities, fellow contractor support, webinars, and a comprehensive library of resources to grow your skills. Exclusive Benefits: Access to our Wingspan marketplace, offering health, dental, vision, financial tools, tax planning assistance, and more. While we try to keep costs low, BELAY's portion of our client fees goes towards maintaining the items above, along with ensuring we continue to grow efforts in supporting our amazing network of contractors (through staffing, technology, perks, compliance, client acquisition, and more). Your feedback helps us continue refining our processes and reinforcing the support we provide to our contractor community. We sincerely appreciate your contributions during your time with BELAY and wish you continued success in your professional journey. Warmly, The BELAY Team

Low Pay for High Workload & Expectations - Virtual Assistant BELAY Employee Review

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