Labor burden calculator
- Loaded cost of the hour
- $31.50
- Payroll taxes on the hour
- $2.50
- Burden rate, percent above the wage
- 26
Every figure on this page is computed from the inputs entered, by the method stated below it. BurdenRateLedger publishes no wage, no tax rate, no benefit cost and no industry labor percentage: the defaults are a worked example to replace with your own payroll's figures.
The figures above start from a worked example ($31.50). Change any input and the answer updates as you type.
Download the Labor burden calculator worked example (CSV)
This is a labor burden calculator that works out what an hour of labor really costs. The hourly wage is what the worker is paid; employer payroll taxes at your share are added on top; benefits and insurance per hour actually worked come next, then tools, training and anything else that rides on the hour. The loaded cost is the total, and the burden rate is everything above the wage as a percentage of it. Every figure is yours from your own payroll; the tool publishes no rate. Free, on the page, no account; the paid plan saves every loaded rate against the employee.
Payroll taxes at your employer share
The employer share of Social Security and Medicare, federal and state unemployment and any local employer tax, as your payroll provider states it for your business, applied to the wage. The tool takes the share as a percentage you enter and shows the dollars it adds to the hour; it publishes no rate, because the state unemployment rate is assigned to you and changes.
Benefits and insurance per hour worked, not per hour paid
Health, retirement match, workers' compensation and liability insurance are costs per year that land on the hours actually worked, so an employee who works 1,800 hours carries them at a higher hourly figure than one who works 2,000. Divide the year's cost by the hours worked and enter it here; the difference from dividing by hours paid is the burden most spreadsheets miss.
The loaded cost and the burden rate, both shown
Wage plus taxes plus benefits plus other is the loaded cost of the hour, the figure every job should be priced from. The burden rate is the same fact the other way: everything above the wage as a percentage of it, so a $31.50 hour on a $25 wage is a 26% burden. Both are shown so the rate can be compared across employees and dated when it changes.
BurdenRateLedger Pro
Keeping what you make
The tools are free forever. Pro turns them into the ledger: every employee's loaded rate kept and dated, every job's crew hours and labor price filed against it, your name and logo on the sheet, no watermark, and an export when the accountant or the bonding agent asks.
- Save worked loaded rates and job prices against the employee and the job
- Compare a job at two crews or two markups
- Share under your own name
- Job-priced and rate-review reminders emailed to your team
- Connect your own Stripe account and get paid online
- Connect your QuickBooks Online or Xero
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Labor burden calculator: common questions
Is this a free labor burden calculator? Yes. Enter the wage, your employer payroll tax share, benefits and other costs per hour, and it works out the taxes on the hour, the loaded cost and the burden rate on the page with no account and no card. Print it as it stands. BurdenRateLedger Pro adds your business name, a PDF without our line, and saving every loaded rate against the employee.
What should the labor burden rate be? Whatever your payroll and your insurer make it; the worked example comes to 26% to show the arithmetic and nothing more. It rises with workers' compensation class, with benefits and with fewer hours worked, and it is different for every employee. The tool publishes no rate and no benchmark, because the right figure is the one your own costs produce.
Should I include overhead in the burden? Not here. This tool loads the hour with the costs that ride on the employee: taxes, benefits, insurance, tools and training. Office rent, the truck and your own salary are overhead that the markup carries, and the construction labor calculator on this site applies that markup to the loaded cost. Mixing the two double-counts one of them.