Payroll Cost Calculator
Estimate the fully loaded cost of your team — wages plus employer payroll taxes and benefits — per employee and in total.
How it works
Loaded cost per employee = salary × (1 + payroll tax% + benefits%) · Total = loaded cost × employees
An employee’s salary is only part of what they cost. On top of gross wages an employer pays its share of payroll taxes — 7.65% for Social Security and Medicare in the US — plus benefits like health insurance and retirement matching, which together often add 20–30% to base pay. This fully loaded figure is the number to use for budgeting, pricing labour into projects, and comparing the cost of hiring against outsourcing.
Worked example
Ten employees average $55,000 in salary, with 7.65% employer payroll tax and 15% benefits. The load factor is 1 + 0.0765 + 0.15 = 1.2265, so each costs 55,000 × 1.2265 = $67,457.50 and the team totals about $674,575 a year.
Frequently asked questions
What is the employer payroll tax rate?
In the US the employer share of FICA is 7.65% — 6.2% Social Security up to the annual wage cap plus 1.45% Medicare — matching what the employee pays. Federal and state unemployment taxes add a little more on the first portion of wages.
What counts as benefits and overhead?
Health, dental and vision insurance, retirement contributions, paid leave, workers’ compensation, and payroll processing. Expressed as a percentage of salary these commonly run 15–30%, though it varies by employer and country.
Why use fully loaded cost instead of salary?
Because the true cost of an employee is well above their paycheck. Pricing projects or comparing headcount to contractors on salary alone understates cost and can turn an apparently profitable job into a loss.
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Educational estimate, not financial or tax advice.