Employee Cost Calculator
The true annual cost of an employee — salary, employer payroll taxes at current IRS rates, benefits, equipment and overhead — as a multiple of base salary.
Employee Cost Calculator: with the default inputs, total annual cost is $126,419.
Cash compensation on top of salary. It is wages for payroll-tax purposes, so it carries the full employer tax load.
Annual employer contribution. Get the real figure from your broker — single and family coverage differ by thousands.
Dental, vision, life and disability cover, wellness stipends, transit.
Laptop amortized over its life, phone, monitors, and the per-seat cost of every SaaS licence they need.
Rent per desk, utilities, insurance, and a share of the finance, HR and IT functions.
Agency fees, job ads, interview time, onboarding. Spread over expected tenure below.
Used only to amortize the cost to hire.
- Multiple of base salary
- 1.49
- In words
- A $85,000 salary costs $126,419 a year all in — 1.49× base, or $60.78 per paid hour.
- Cost per month
- $10,535
- Cost per paid hour
- $60.78
- Cash compensation
- $93,500
- Employer payroll taxes and insurance
- $8,319
- Payroll burden on wages
- 8.9%
- Employer Social Security (6.2%)
- $5,797
- Employer Medicare (1.45%)
- $1,356
- Federal unemployment (FUTA)
- $42
- State unemployment (SUTA)
- $189
- Workers' compensation
- $935
- Benefits
- $13,600
- Equipment, space and hiring
- $11,000
- Everything above base salary
- $41,419
Assumptions
- Employer federal payroll tax rates are IRS Publication 15 (2026): social security 6.2% to a $184,500 wage base, Medicare 1.45% uncapped.
- FUTA is the net 0.6% rate available to employers who pay state unemployment tax on time; a state in credit reduction pays more.
- The 0.9% Additional Medicare Tax is employee-only and is excluded from employer cost.
- Bonus is treated as wages subject to the same employer taxes as salary.
- State and local payroll taxes beyond SUTA — paid family leave, state disability, local levies — are not included.
- Cost to hire is spread evenly over expected tenure; equipment is entered as an annual figure.
- Annual cost$93,500100%
| Item | Annual | % of base salary |
|---|---|---|
| Base salary | $85,000 | 100% |
| Bonus and commission | $8,500 | 10% |
| Social Security (employer 6.2%) | $5,797 | 6.8% |
| Medicare (employer 1.45%) | $1,356 | 1.6% |
| Federal unemployment (FUTA) | $42 | 0% |
| State unemployment (SUTA) | $189 | 0.2% |
| Workers' compensation | $935 | 1.1% |
| Retirement match | $3,400 | 4% |
| Health insurance | $9,000 | 10.6% |
| Other benefits | $1,200 | 1.4% |
| Equipment and software | $3,000 | 3.5% |
| Office space and overhead | $6,000 | 7.1% |
| Cost to hire, amortized | $2,000 | 2.4% |
| Total | $126,419 | 148.7% |
Employer payroll tax rates are IRS Publication 15 (2026) figures; benefits, equipment and overhead are yours to fill in.
How this is worked out
The formula
Total cost = cash compensation + employer payroll taxes + benefits + overhead Employer payroll taxes (IRS Publication 15, 2026): Social Security = 6.2% × wages up to $184,500 Medicare = 1.45% × all wages (no cap; the extra 0.9% over $200,000 is employee-only) FUTA = 0.6% × first $7,000 (6.0% less the 5.4% state credit) SUTA = your state rate × your state wage base Workers' comp = classification rate × payroll Benefits = retirement match + health premium + other benefits Overhead = equipment + office and shared overhead + cost to hire ÷ expected tenure Multiple = total cost ÷ base salary
Open How it’s calculated above to see this worked through with your own numbers.
What you enter
- Base salary
- A number.in dollars · 0 or more · defaults to 85000
- Bonus and commission
- Cash compensation on top of salary. It is wages for payroll-tax purposes, so it carries the full employer tax load.in dollars · 0 or more · defaults to 8500
- Employer retirement match
- A number.a percentage · from 0 to 25 · defaults to 4
- Employer share of health insurance
- Annual employer contribution. Get the real figure from your broker — single and family coverage differ by thousands.in dollars · 0 or more · defaults to 9000
- Other benefits
- Dental, vision, life and disability cover, wellness stipends, transit.in dollars · 0 or more · defaults to 1200
- Equipment and software
- Laptop amortized over its life, phone, monitors, and the per-seat cost of every SaaS licence they need.in dollars · 0 or more · defaults to 3000
- Office space and shared overhead
- Rent per desk, utilities, insurance, and a share of the finance, HR and IT functions.in dollars · 0 or more · defaults to 6000
- Cost to hire
- Agency fees, job ads, interview time, onboarding. Spread over expected tenure below.in dollars · 0 or more · defaults to 6000
- Expected tenure
- Used only to amortize the cost to hire.from 0.25 to 40 · defaults to 3
- State unemployment (SUTA) rate(under More options)
- Your experience-rated state rate. New employers commonly start near 2.7%.a percentage · from 0 to 15 · defaults to 2.7
- State unemployment wage base(under More options)
- Varies enormously by state — $7,000 in several, over $60,000 in Washington. Check your state agency.in dollars · 0 or more · defaults to 7000
- Workers' compensation rate(under More options)
- A percentage of payroll set by job classification: under 1% for office work, well into double digits for roofing.a percentage · from 0 to 30 · defaults to 1
- Paid hours a year(under More options)
- 2,080 is 40 hours × 52 weeks. It includes holidays and PTO, which is why the effective hourly cost of productive time is higher still.from 1 to 8760 · whole numbers only · defaults to 2080
What you get back
- Total annual costmain answer
- Multiple of base salary
- In words
- Cost per month
- Cost per paid hour
- Cash compensation
- Employer payroll taxes and insurance
- Payroll burden on wages
- Employer Social Security (6.2%)
- Employer Medicare (1.45%)
- Federal unemployment (FUTA)
- State unemployment (SUTA)
- Workers' compensation
- Benefits
- Equipment, space and hiring
- Everything above base salary
What this assumes
- Employer federal payroll tax rates are IRS Publication 15 (2026): social security 6.2% to a $184,500 wage base, Medicare 1.45% uncapped.
- FUTA is the net 0.6% rate available to employers who pay state unemployment tax on time; a state in credit reduction pays more.
- The 0.9% Additional Medicare Tax is employee-only and is excluded from employer cost.
- Bonus is treated as wages subject to the same employer taxes as salary.
- State and local payroll taxes beyond SUTA — paid family leave, state disability, local levies — are not included.
- Cost to hire is spread evenly over expected tenure; equipment is entered as an annual figure.
About this calculator
A salary is a headline, not a cost. Between the offer letter and the P&L sit employer payroll taxes, benefits, a laptop, a desk and a share of everything the company pays for so that the desk can exist. The rule of thumb is that an employee costs 1.25 to 1.4 times base salary; once you include real overhead and the cost of hiring them, 1.4 to 1.6× is closer to the truth, and this calculator shows you which lines get you there.
The employer taxes are the part nobody can negotiate
These rates are set in law and apply to every dollar of wages, salary and bonus:
- Social Security: 6.2%, matched by the employer, on wages up to the $184,500 wage base for 2026.
- Medicare: 1.45%, matched, with no wage cap. The extra 0.9% Additional Medicare Tax on wages above $200,000 is withheld from the employee only — employers do not match it, and it is deliberately absent from this calculation.
- FUTA: 0.6% on the first $7,000 of wages. The statutory rate is 6.0%, reduced by a credit of up to 5.4% for state unemployment tax paid on time.
- SUTA: your state's experience-rated unemployment tax. The rate and the wage base both vary wildly — several states use the $7,000 federal base, Washington's is over $60,000 — so this is the input most worth checking against your own state agency.
- Workers' compensation is priced by job classification: a fraction of a percent for office work, double digits for roofing.
Together those come to roughly 8.9% of wages at the default settings, and the percentage falls as salary rises, because Social Security, FUTA and SUTA all stop at their wage bases while Medicare doesn't.
The parts you control
Health insurance is usually the single largest benefit line and the one most worth getting from your broker rather than guessing. The retirement match is a straight percentage of salary. Equipment and software sound trivial until you total the per-seat SaaS licences. Office space is real whether or not the person comes in, and even a fully remote employee carries a share of finance, HR, IT and insurance.
Cost to hire is the line most models omit. Agency fees, job ads, and the interviewing time of four people are a genuine cost of employing someone; spread over expected tenure, they're a recurring annual charge. Halve the tenure and you double it.
Reading the results
The multiple of base salary is the number to carry around: it lets you translate any salary into a budget line instantly. The cost per paid hour is the number for pricing client work — but note that 2,080 hours includes holidays, PTO and sick leave, so the cost per productive hour is meaningfully higher. If you bill time, divide by realistic billable hours (often 1,600–1,800) rather than paid hours before you set a rate.
What this doesn't cover
Payroll taxes vary by state and city, and a handful of states levy paid-family-leave or disability contributions on employers. It ignores stock compensation, relocation, training budgets, and the cost of management time. It also assumes an employee, not a contractor — misclassifying one as the other is expensive, and the IRS applies a behavioural, financial and relationship test rather than taking the contract's word for it.
Frequently asked questions
▸How much does an employee really cost above their salary?
Typically 25–60% more. Employer payroll taxes alone are about 8–9% of wages; health insurance, retirement match, equipment, space and hiring costs supply the rest. At the default settings here an $85,000 salary costs $126,419 — 1.49× base.
▸What payroll taxes does an employer pay?
Social Security at 6.2% up to the $184,500 wage base for 2026, Medicare at 1.45% on all wages, FUTA at 0.6% on the first $7,000, plus state unemployment tax and workers' compensation. The employer does not match the 0.9% Additional Medicare Tax.
▸Does the employer match the Additional Medicare Tax?
No. The 0.9% Additional Medicare Tax on wages over $200,000 is withheld from the employee's pay only. Employers must withhold and remit it but pay no matching share, which is why it's excluded from this calculation.
▸Why does the payroll tax percentage fall as salary rises?
Because Social Security, FUTA and SUTA all stop at wage bases — $184,500, $7,000 and your state's figure respectively — while Medicare has no cap. Above those thresholds the marginal employer tax is just 1.45%.
▸Is a contractor cheaper than an employee?
On the invoice, sometimes; in practice, often not, because contractors price their own payroll taxes, benefits and idle time into a higher rate. And the choice isn't yours to make freely: the IRS applies behavioural, financial and relationship tests, and misclassification carries back taxes and penalties.
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