Meeting Cost Calculator
See what a meeting really costs: multiply attendees, their average salary and the meeting length to get the dollar value of the time in the room.
How it works
Hourly cost = salary ÷ paid hours/year · Meeting cost = hourly cost × (minutes ÷ 60) × attendees · Annual = meeting cost × times/week × 52
A meeting’s cost is simply the paid time of everyone in the room. Converting salary to an hourly figure (salary ÷ 2,080 hours for a full-time year) and multiplying by head-count and duration turns an abstract calendar block into a real number. For a recurring standing meeting the annualized figure is often the eye-opener — a weekly hour with eight people costs far more over a year than any one instance suggests.
Worked example
Eight people earning an average $95,000 meet for 60 minutes. Each costs 95,000 ÷ 2,080 ≈ $45.67/h, so the hour costs 45.67 × 8 = $365.38. Held weekly, that is about $19,000 a year of paid time.
Frequently asked questions
Should I use salary or fully loaded cost?
Salary alone understates the true cost, which also includes benefits and overhead. For a fuller picture, inflate the salary by your payroll burden (often 25–40%) before entering it.
Why annualize a meeting?
One-off meetings are cheap; recurring ones quietly compound. A standing weekly meeting multiplied by 52 reveals whether the habit is worth its cost or ripe for trimming.
Does this mean meetings are wasteful?
Not necessarily — many are worth far more than they cost. The number is a prompt to ask whether the outcome justifies the time, not an argument against meeting at all.
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Educational estimate, not financial advice.