Employee Cost Calculator

The fully-loaded cost, in one screen.

Enter the pay, then adjust the assumptions to match your business. Results update live as you type — no button to press, nothing uploaded.

Gross base pay before any taxes or benefits — what the offer letter says. Enter a number of 0 or more.
Base pay per hour before taxes or benefits. Enter a number of 0 or more.
We annualize as wage × hours × 52 weeks. Default 40. Enter a number of 0 or more.

Adjustable assumptions

These are typical U.S. defaults — change any of them to match your state and plan. Percentages below are applied to base pay.

FICA: 6.2% Social Security + 1.45% Medicare = 7.65%. (Social Security applies up to an annual wage base; this tool applies it to the full salary as an estimate.) Enter a number of 0 or more.
FUTA + state unemployment (SUTA). Varies widely by state and experience rating — roughly 1–3%. Default 2%. Enter a number of 0 or more.
Employer share of health insurance, retirement match, paid leave, etc. Default 12%. Enter a number of 0 or more.
Workers’ compensation insurance. Rates depend heavily on job class — from well under 1% (office) to much higher (construction). Default 1.5%. Enter a number of 0 or more.
Flat annual cost: equipment, software licenses, workspace, training. A dollar amount, not a percentage. Default $0. Enter a number of 0 or more.
Estimates only. Payroll tax rates — especially state unemployment (SUTA) — vary by state, wage base, and your experience rating; Social Security tax stops at an annual wage cap. Benefits and workers’ comp vary by plan and job class. This is a planning estimate, not tax, legal, or accounting advice. The commonly cited rule of thumb is that a hire costs about 1.25–1.4× their base pay once everything is loaded in.

Enter a salary (or an hourly wage and hours) above to see the fully-loaded cost.

How It Works

The honest math behind the true cost.

No black box. Here is exactly what this tool computes, and what it deliberately does not — so you can trust the number and know where it needs a real accountant.

Start from base pay

Salary mode uses your figure directly. Hourly mode annualizes as wage × hours/week × 52. That base is the foundation every loaded cost is layered onto.

Layer on the loaded costs

Payroll taxes, benefits, and workers’ comp are each a percentage of base pay: base × (tax% + benefits% + wc%). Overhead is a flat annual dollar amount added on top. Sum it all with the base and you get the fully-loaded total.

The multiplier & per-hour view

The true-cost multiplier is total ÷ base — how many dollars you actually spend for every dollar of stated pay (usually 1.2–1.4×). Effective hourly is total ÷ (hours/week × 52), defaulting to 40 hours.

What this doesn’t do

It doesn’t apply the Social Security wage cap, state-specific SUTA wage bases, bonuses, overtime, recruiting/turnover cost, or the productivity ramp of a new hire. It’s a fast, honest sanity-check — not tax, legal, or accounting advice. Confirm the real numbers with a payroll pro before you budget.

Done For You

Want payroll & HR handled for you?

This free tool tells you what a hire costs. Our team runs the actual payroll, sets up compliant onboarding, and finds the people — so the true cost turns into a real, well-run team.

Payroll Setup

Payroll that runs clean

We stand up your payroll platform, employee onboarding, and tax filings so pay, FICA, and unemployment are handled correctly — not a spreadsheet you have to babysit.

From $698
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HR Support

An HR desk on call

Ongoing HR help — policies, handbooks, compliance, and the awkward questions — without hiring a full-time HR manager. Someone to own the people side month to month.

From $398/mo
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Recruiting

Find the right hire

Before you take on that fully-loaded cost, make sure it’s the right person. We source, screen, and shortlist candidates so you hire once and hire well.

From $3,498
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