Staffing Cost Calculator

Example data table

Fully loaded cost structure

For many teams, base pay represents 55–75% of total staffing cost. Benefits, employer taxes, retirement match, and workers’ compensation can add 15–35% on top of pay. The calculator separates rate-based items from fixed per-employee healthcare so flat premiums are not diluted when headcount is small. As a check, compare your employer load to last quarter’s actuals and investigate gaps above five points.

Turnover economics and hiring friction

Turnover is modeled as expected hires = headcount × annual turnover × period fraction. Each hire can include recruiting fees, background checks, and signing bonuses. Vacancy days and ramp settings do not change cash cost, but they inform the productivity-aware metric used to estimate effective capacity during backfills. For example, 20 vacancy days equals about 8% of a work year, before ramp is considered.

Tools, workspace, and inflation assumptions

Software, HRIS, insurance allocations, workspace, stipends, and travel are treated as monthly per-employee costs. You can apply an annual inflation rate to these non-comp items; the calculator uses a mid-period factor for totals and a month-by-month factor for the trend chart to show rising run-rate. At 6% annual inflation, month 12 non-comp costs are roughly 3% above month 1 under linear growth.

Overtime and blended hourly rate

Overtime uses an estimated hourly rate derived from annual salary divided by weekly hours × 52. Only the premium portion is counted: overtime hours × hourly rate × (multiplier − 1). This avoids double-counting base pay already included in payroll, while still capturing schedule pressure. If weekly overtime averages two hours at a 1.5 multiplier, the premium is about 2.5% of base pay.

Scenario planning outputs for finance teams

Use total cost, cost per month, cost per FTE per month, and fully loaded annual per FTE to compare scenarios. The cumulative chart highlights runway impact, while the breakdown chart reveals the biggest levers. Export CSV for review and attach the PDF summary for approvals and audit trails. Start sensitivity with turnover, benefits, workspace.

FAQs

1) What does “fully loaded” staffing cost mean?

It combines pay, employer taxes, benefits, overhead allocation, hiring costs, tools, workspace, and contractors. This gives a budgeting view closer to cash and operating impact than salary-only estimates.

2) How are turnover and hiring costs calculated?

Expected hires are estimated from headcount, annual turnover, and the selected period. Recruiting, background checks, signing bonuses, and replacement loss are applied per expected hire and spread across the period for charts.

3) Why does the calculator include PTO, holidays, vacancy, and ramp?

They affect capacity, not cash cost. The tool uses them to compute an effective FTE-year estimate and a productivity-aware cost per effective FTE-year, which supports staffing and delivery planning.

4) How is overtime handled?

It estimates an hourly rate from annual salary and weekly hours. Only the overtime premium is added using overtime hours and the multiplier, preventing double-counting pay already included in base payroll.

5) What inflation setting should I use?

Use an annual rate for non-comp monthly items such as software, workspace, and stipends. If you already budget these as fixed monthly amounts, set inflation to 0% and adjust the monthly inputs directly.

6) Can I model multiple roles with different salaries?

Yes. Enter role headcounts, salaries, and bonus rates in the multi-role section. If the combined role headcount is greater than zero, the calculator uses the role mix instead of the simple average salary fields.

Formula used

This calculator estimates a fully loaded staffing cost over a selected period:

• Pay = BasePay + Bonus + OvertimePremium.
• EmployerCosts = Benefits + PayrollTaxes + RetirementMatch + WorkersComp + FixedHealthcare.
• HiringCosts = ExpectedHires × (Recruiting + BackgroundChecks + SigningBonus + Salary × ReplacementRate).
• ToolsAndFacilities = MonthlyPerEmployeeCosts + Training + Equipment (amortized).
• Overhead = (Pay + EmployerCosts) × OverheadRate.

How to use this calculator

1. Choose a period and currency code for reporting.
2. Use simple mode, or fill multi-role headcounts and salaries.
3. Enter benefits, taxes, and overhead allocation assumptions.
4. Add fixed healthcare, retirement match, and workers comp if needed.
5. Set turnover and hiring costs to capture churn impacts.
6. Fill monthly tools, workspace, HRIS, insurance, and travel costs.
7. Click Calculate to view totals, breakdown, and charts.
8. Download CSV or PDF for sharing and approvals.