Professional services
Payroll Calculator
Works payroll cost, where the employer's share sits on top of every wage figure.
Result
Burden rates vary by state, trade and claims history. Take yours from the accounts rather than the default here, because a ten point error moves every price you quote.
Get a Free Business AuditHow the calculation works
Staff times wage times hours, with overtime at its multiplier, then a burden applied for the employer's costs: payroll taxes, unemployment insurance, workers compensation, benefits, paid time off and training. The burdened figure is what the employee actually costs and what any pricing or estimating should use, because the wage alone is a substantial understatement.
What moves the number
- Overtime hours, which carry burden on the premium as well.
- Workers compensation rate, which depends on the work performed.
- Benefits offered, which vary the burden widely.
- Paid time off and holidays, which spread across productive hours.
Where this one goes wrong
Overtime eligibility depends on classification rather than on job title or on being paid a salary, and the tests are set by the Fair Labor Standards Act with state rules sometimes stricter. Treating a salaried employee as automatically exempt is a common and expensive error, since a misclassification produces back overtime. On the arithmetic, burden applies to the overtime premium as well as base pay, so an overtime hour costs the uplifted wage plus burden on that larger figure.
Before you quote
- Confirm overtime exemption by the actual tests, not by job title.
- Apply burden to the overtime premium as well as base hours.
- Check state overtime rules, which can exceed federal.
Where the rules come from
Questions
About this calculator
Does a salary make someone exempt from overtime?
No. Exemption depends on meeting specific duties and salary tests under the Fair Labor Standards Act, and some states are stricter. Treating salaried staff as automatically exempt is a common error, and a misclassification is corrected with back overtime rather than going forward.
What does an employee really cost?
Meaningfully more than the wage, once payroll taxes, unemployment insurance, workers compensation, benefits, paid time off and training are counted. That burdened figure is what estimating and pricing should use, and businesses pricing from the wage are underpricing consistently.
How much does overtime actually cost?
More than the multiplier implies, because the burden applies to the premium too. An overtime hour costs the uplifted wage plus burden on that larger figure, which is worth calculating before committing to a deadline that depends on it.
The formula
cost = (wage x hours + wage x multiplier x overtime) x (1 + burden%)
Put this calculator on your site
Free to embed. Paste this where you want it to appear. It stays up to date automatically because it loads from BDEVY.
Please keep the attribution line. It is the only thing we ask in return.
How to use this calculator
- People. Enter your own figure; the page starts at 5.
- Hourly wage ($). Enter your own figure; the page starts at $48.
- Normal hours per week. Enter your own figure; the page starts at 40.
- Overtime hours per week. Enter your own figure; the page starts at 4.
- Overtime multiplier. Enter your own figure; the page starts at 1.5.
- Labour burden (%). Payroll tax, insurance, holiday, training.
The result updates as you type, so you can try a figure, see what it does to payroll per week, and change it back. Nothing you enter is sent anywhere or saved.
A worked example
These are the figures the calculator opens with. Every number in the results column below is produced by the same calculation the page runs, so you can follow it through before putting your own figures in.
What goes in
| Input | Value |
|---|---|
| People | 5 |
| Hourly wage | $48 |
| Normal hours per week | 40 |
| Overtime hours per week | 4 |
| Overtime multiplier | 1.5 |
| Labour burden | 28% |
What comes out
| Result | Value |
|---|---|
| Payroll per week main result | $14,131 |
| Payroll per year | $734,822 |
| True cost per hour | $64.23 |
| Overtime per year | $95,846 |
Payroll is $14,131 a week, $734,822 a year. A $48.00 wage really costs $64.23 an hour, and overtime alone accounts for $95,846.
How sensitive the answer is
Holding everything else steady and changing only hourly wage, this is what happens to payroll per week. It is worth knowing which of your inputs the answer actually hinges on, and which barely move it.
| Hourly wage ($) | Payroll per week |
|---|---|
| $24 | $7,066 |
| $36 | $10,598 |
| $48 example above | $14,131 |
| $72 | $21,197 |
| $96 | $28,262 |
Every other input is held at the example value while this one changes, which is not how a real job behaves. Treat it as a guide to which number matters most, not as five separate quotes.
What each figure means
- People
- A number, between 0 and 500, starting at 5.
- Hourly wage ($)
- A money amount, starting at $48.
- Normal hours per week
- A number, between 0 and 80, starting at 40.
- Overtime hours per week
- A number, between 0 and 60, starting at 4.
- Overtime multiplier
- A number, between 1 and 3, starting at 1.5.
- Labour burden (%)
- Payroll tax, insurance, holiday, training.
What the results tell you
| Result | What it is |
|---|---|
| Payroll per week | The headline result. A money figure. |
| Payroll per year | A money figure. |
| True cost per hour | A money figure. |
| Overtime per year | A money figure. |
Estimating is the easy part
The jobs you never hear about cost more than the ones you mis-measure. BDEVY builds the marketing, systems and automation that bring them in.