Add employer taxes and benefits to gross payroll.
Every gross paycheck drags along employer-side taxes, benefits, workers comp and small administration extras that stack into the true labor cost. Budgeting payroll at gross pay alone understates labor spend by a fifth or more, and burdened cost is what pricing must recover.
Payroll Cost with Burden
Total cost = pay + pay x (taxes + benefits + comp + other)
Total cost = pay + pay x (taxes + benefits + comp + other) Every gross paycheck drags along employer-side taxes, benefits, workers comp and small administration extras that stack into the true labor cost.
Budgeting payroll at gross pay alone understates labor spend by a fifth or more, and burdened cost is what pricing must recover.
This calculator takes 5 inputs: Gross pay this period, Employer payroll taxes, Benefits as share of pay, Workers comp premium, Other burden. The pre-filled defaults are a realistic starting point — replace them with figures from your own environment for a result you can act on.