Employer Payroll Cost Calculator

About this calculator

The salary an employer quotes an employee is only part of what it actually costs to keep that person on the payroll. On top of base salary, employers must pay their share of payroll taxes — such as Social Security and Medicare contributions and unemployment insurance in the U.S. — and typically fund benefits like health insurance, retirement matching, and paid leave, all of which add up to what HR and finance teams call the fully loaded cost of an employee.

This fully loaded figure, often running 25–40% above base salary depending on the benefits package and jurisdiction, is the number businesses actually budget against when deciding whether to hire, not the salary line alone — using base salary for headcount planning routinely understates true labor cost. This calculator takes the salary, payroll tax rate, and benefits rate to compute the total annual cost of employing that worker.