At what GCI do I hire admin, a TC, an ISA, a buyer agent?

BLS publishes wages by occupation rather than job title, so each hire below is matched to its nearest occupation code. BLS defines telemarketers (41-9041) as workers who "solicit donations or orders for goods or services over the telephone," the closest code to an ISA's calling work (BLS, May 2026). BLS has no occupation for a transaction coordinator; for a TC on your payroll, the administrative assistant line is the nearest guide.

Inside the real estate industry itself (NAICS 531), the median for administrative assistants was US$22.55 an hour in May 2025, close to the all-industry figure (BLS, May 2026).

These are wages only, with no benefits, and the survey leaves out the self-employed (BLS, July 2026). That matters for the buyer agent row: BLS says most real estate brokers and sales agents are self-employed (BLS, August 2026), so the wage line describes the agents who are on a payroll.

Statistics Canada's job vacancy survey reports the average hourly wage employers offered for open jobs, by occupation, each quarter (Statistics Canada, September 2026). Offers for open jobs can differ from what current staff earn.

Canada's occupation list has no transaction coordinator either. Its group 65109, other sales related occupations, lists telemarketer and telephone solicitor among its examples (Statistics Canada, September 2024).

Treat the buyer agent row with care: the survey estimated only 35 vacant real estate agent jobs across Canada in the quarter (Statistics Canada, September 2026).

In the US, you pay 6.2% Social Security tax on each employee's wages up to US$184,500 and 1.45% Medicare tax on all wages, matching what you withhold from the employee (IRS Publication 15, December 2025).

Federal unemployment tax is 6.0% of the first US$7,000 of each employee's wages, or 0.6% if you get the full credit for state unemployment tax (IRS Publication 15, December 2025). State unemployment tax and its wage base differ by state.

Benefits add more. For US private-industry office and administrative support workers in June 2026, wages were 68.7% of the employer's cost and benefits the other 31.3% (BLS, September 2026).

In Canada outside Quebec, you match each employee's CPP contributions at 5.95% of earnings between C$3,500 and C$74,600 for 2026 (CRA, October 2025). You also pay 1.4 times the employee's EI premium (CRA, November 2022), and the 2026 employee rate is 1.63% of insurable earnings up to C$68,900 (CRA, September 2025).

For employees whose province of employment is Quebec, you deduct Quebec Pension Plan contributions instead of CPP (CRA, July 2026). The 2026 EI rate there is lower, 1.30%, and Quebec administers its own maternity, parental and adoption benefits (CRA, September 2025). Your province may add employer costs of its own.

Here is the sum for one hypothetical hire: a full-time admin paid the typical wage, who takes 15 hours a week of your own work off you for 50 weeks, or 750 hours a year. Those hours are our example; put in your own.

On these numbers the hire pays for itself only if each of those 750 hours, spent on clients and prospects instead, is worth more to your business than the break-even figure in the table. To judge that, look at your own books: last year's GCI after your split and fees, divided by the hours you worked. Splits and fees vary by brokerage, so use yours.

To add benefits at the US average for private-industry office and administrative support workers, scale the yearly wage, which already pays for time off, by the employer's total cost per hour worked over wages plus paid leave: US$36.73 against US$27.99 (BLS, September 2026), which puts the US total, payroll taxes included, at about US$62,400 and the break-even at about US$83 an hour.

A buyer agent paid only by split costs you nothing until a deal closes, then costs the share you agreed to. The test there is whether you have more buyer business than you can serve well yourself.

The facts of the job decide it, whatever you call the role. In the US, under the common-law rules, anyone who performs services for you is generally your employee "if you have the right to control what will be done and how it will be done" (IRS Publication 15-A, December 2025).

Licensed real estate agents are a special case. The IRS treats them as self-employed for federal tax if substantially all their pay is tied to sales rather than hours worked and a written contract says they won't be treated as employees (IRS Publication 15-A, December 2025). That can fit a buyer agent on a split. An ISA paid by the hour doesn't meet the first condition.

In NAR's 2026 member survey, 86% of REALTORS® were independent contractors at their firms (US, NAR, June 2026).

In Canada, the CRA looks at the whole working relationship: "all of the facts, including the actual terms and conditions of employment, determine a worker's employment status, not just the intention." Either side can ask the CRA for a ruling (CRA, January 2026).

Real estate license law also governs who may be paid for licensed work, and how. It differs by state and province, so check with your state's real estate commission or your provincial regulator.

In the US, if someone asks about your services, the FTC's Do Not Call rules let you call them for three months after the inquiry, even if their number is on the national registry, unless they ask you to stop. After a purchase or transaction with you, the window is 18 months (FTC, September 2025).

In Canada, the National Do Not Call List rules let you call people who did business with you in the last 18 months or asked about your services in the last 6 months, and every telemarketer must keep its own internal do not call list (National Do Not Call List, April 2018).