Employee Cost Calculator
Find the true fully-loaded cost of an employee beyond salary — payroll tax, benefits, and overhead.
Total annual cost
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Monthly cost
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Effective hourly cost (2,080 hrs/yr)
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Salary is never the whole story
A common rule of thumb is that an employee's fully-loaded cost runs about 1.25 to 1.4 times their base salary once you add employer payroll taxes, benefits, and overhead — so a $60,000 salary often actually costs $75,000–$84,000. This calculator adds up your specific numbers rather than relying on the rule of thumb, but it's a useful sanity check: if your multiplier comes out well outside that range, double-check your inputs.
What's typically included
Employer payroll taxes usually include the employer's 7.65% share of FICA (Social Security and Medicare) plus state and federal unemployment insurance. Benefits commonly include health insurance premiums and any 401(k) or retirement match. Overhead covers the less-obvious costs — equipment, software licenses, a share of office space or a home-office stipend — that scale with headcount even though they don't show up on a pay stub.