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Free HR Calculator

👥 Employee Cost Calculator

Find the true cost of hiring an employee including salary, benefits, taxes, and overhead.

🎬 Visual Walkthrough

Tool Demo — How It Works

Here's how to use the Employee Cost Calculator to get instant, accurate results in under 60 seconds — no signup, no spreadsheets.

1
👤
Enter salary & benefits
Input the base salary, taxes, benefits, equipment, and overhead costs for the employee.
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2
🧮
See total cost
Instantly see the full annual and hourly cost of employment — typically 1.25–1.4× the base salary.
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3
📊
Make the hiring decision
Use the numbers to decide whether to hire, contract, or wait — with clear cost-per-hour context.

💡 Employee Cost Inputs

$
%
Health insurance, dental, vision, 401k match, PTO. Typically 20–30% of salary.
%
FICA, FUTA, SUTA. US employers typically pay ~15% on top of salary.
$
Laptop, software licenses, tools, peripherals
$
Office space, training, recruiting costs amortized

📊 True Employment Cost

Enter salary details to calculate true cost

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How to use the Employee Cost Calculator

  1. Base salary: The annual salary before any employer-side costs.
  2. Benefits (%): Include health insurance, dental, vision, life insurance, 401k match, and the monetary value of PTO. In the US, this typically runs 20–30% of salary.
  3. Payroll taxes (%): Employer-side FICA (7.65%), plus FUTA and state unemployment taxes. Use 15% as a safe default in the US.
  4. Equipment & overhead: Amortized cost of hardware, software, training, and any office space allocation per employee.

The cost multiplier shows how much more than base salary you actually pay. A multiplier of 1.4x means a $75k salary costs you $105k. This is critical for hiring decisions, contractor vs. employee comparisons, and pricing client work.

Community Insights

Based on 1500 calculations on BizStackHub

Anonymous, aggregate data from real Employee Cost Calculator usage — no personal information collected.

🧾
$72k
average total employee cost calculated
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$55k
average base salary entered
Illustrative data based on industry research. Real-time tracking active.

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