Labor percentage calculator
- Labor as a share of revenue, percent
- 30
- Labor the target allows on this revenue
- $16,800
- Labor above or below the target
- $1,200
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 (30). Change any input and the answer updates as you type.
Download the Labor percentage calculator worked example (CSV)
This is a labor percentage calculator that reads labor as a share of revenue for a period against your own target. Total loaded labor cost for the period, wages plus the taxes and benefits on them, over revenue for the same period is the labor percentage; your target percentage times the revenue is the labor the target would have allowed; and the difference is how far over or under the period ran, in dollars. The target is yours; the tool publishes no industry figure. Free, on the page, no account; the paid plan keeps every period against the record.
Loaded labor, not wages, over the same period's revenue
Labor as a share of revenue is only honest if the labor is loaded: wages alone leave the taxes and benefits out and the percentage reads low by the burden. Enter the period's loaded labor and the period's revenue, the same weeks on both sides, and the percentage is labor over revenue times 100.
The labor your target allows, in dollars
A target percentage on its own is a feeling; the target times the revenue is a dollar figure. On $60,000 of revenue a 28% target allows $16,800 of labor, and that is the number a schedule can be built to and a month can be judged against.
The gap, over or under, as money
Labor spent minus the labor the target allowed is the gap, positive when the period ran over and negative when it ran under. A month that ran $1,200 over is a figure to act on: fewer hours, a higher price or a different target. The paid plan keeps every period so the trend is a column, not a memory.
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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
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Labor percentage calculator: common questions
Is this a free labor percentage calculator? Yes. Enter the period's loaded labor cost, its revenue and your target percentage, and it works out labor as a share of revenue, the labor the target allows and the gap on the page with no account and no card. Print it as it stands. BurdenRateLedger Pro adds your business name and keeps every period against the record.
What labor percentage should a restaurant or a contractor run at? Your own target, set from your prices and your margin; the worked example uses 28% to show the arithmetic and nothing more. Trades differ, a restaurant reads labor against sales and a contractor against contract revenue, and a figure that suits one would sink the other. The tool publishes no industry percentage.
Does labor cost include payroll taxes and benefits? For this calculation it should: the employer payroll taxes, benefits and insurance on the wages are labor cost the revenue has to cover, and leaving them out understates the percentage by the burden. The labor burden calculator on this site loads the hourly figure; multiply it by the period's hours for the labor input here.