Free Tool · Payroll Math Suite
Salary is only the start. Add employer taxes, workers’ comp, benefits, and overhead to see what a hire actually costs per year and per hour, and the multiplier on top of base pay. Adjust every assumption to your business. No email required.
Nothing you enter leaves your browser. Adjust the benefit, tax, and overhead assumptions to match your business.
The loaded cost is base pay plus everything the employer pays on top: Social Security and Medicare matches, federal and state unemployment, workers’ compensation, health and retirement benefits, and overhead like equipment, software, and space.
For most US employers the fully loaded cost lands between 1.25 and 1.4 times base salary. Richer benefits, higher workers’ comp class codes, and generous retirement matches push the multiplier up; lean benefits pull it down.
Once you know the true hourly cost of a role, you can compare it honestly against a managed service. A dedicated payroll hire can cost $60,000 to $100,000 loaded, where BEG managed payroll runs at $25 to $45 per employee per month.
Most employees cost roughly 1.25 to 1.4 times their base pay once you add employer payroll taxes, workers’ compensation, benefits, retirement match, and overhead. The exact multiplier depends on benefits and your state rates.
Employers pay a 6.2% Social Security match up to the wage base, 1.45% Medicare on all wages, 0.6% federal unemployment on the first $7,000, and state unemployment that varies by state and experience rating.
The cost multiplier is the fully loaded annual cost divided by base pay. A 1.3x multiplier means every $100,000 in salary actually costs about $130,000 once taxes, benefits, and overhead are included.
Knowing the loaded hourly cost lets you price work, set bill rates, and compare an in-house hire against outsourcing. Undercounting the burden leads to underpriced jobs and over-hiring.
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Lower Your Cost Per Employee
A dedicated payroll hire is a $60,000 to $100,000 loaded cost. BEG fully managed payroll runs at $25 to $45 PEPM, all-inclusive, and replaces that overhead. See your exact price in 90 seconds.
