Construction cost workbench

Labor Burden Calculator helps contractors and employers estimate the true cost of labor — wages, payroll taxes, workers' compensation, benefits, paid time off, and other labor-related costs — as one dependable productive-hour figure for bids, job costing, and hiring decisions.

Free planning estimateNo employee data neededEvery assumption is editable

Quick start

Choose a crew profile

Load a realistic starting point, then tune every number to match your operation.

Enter employee costs

Essential assumptions

Estimate setupProject state OptionalReference label only. It does not change taxes, insurance rates, or this calculation.Reference tax yearSaved as context only. It does not automatically update the editable rates below.Estimate name OptionalUse this when saving the estimate later.Trade cost presetAdjusts workers' comp, liability, tools, and safety defaults.

Worker pay

Hourly Salary

Hourly wageAmount paid before employer taxes and benefits.

Annual salaryUse salary only when the worker is paid an annual amount.

Regular hours per weekTypical paid straight-time hours in one week.Weeks paid per yearUse 52 unless the role is seasonal or unpaid part of the year.Average overtime hoursAverage overtime hours paid each week.Overtime multiplierCommonly 1.5x, but enter the rate that applies to this estimate.Bonuses or commissionsAnnual incentive pay included for planning. Some nondiscretionary bonuses can affect overtime regular-rate treatment.

Payroll taxes and insurance

These values are editable planning assumptions. Verify rates, wage bases, and classifications before relying on the result.

Employer Social Security rateEmployer-side Social Security percentage. Verify wage bases and rules for the year.Employer Medicare rateEmployer-side Medicare percentage.Effective FUTA rateFederal unemployment rate after credits, if applicable.SUTA employer rateState unemployment varies by state and employer history.Workers' compensationEstimated insurance cost as a percentage of wages.

Paid time not billed to jobs

These hours are paid but reduce time available for job costing or billing.

Paid holidaysPaid days that are not billed directly to jobs.Paid vacationVacation days paid by the employer.Paid sick leaveSick days paid by the employer.Paid training daysTraining days paid but not billed to jobs.Administrative hoursAnnual paid hours spent on meetings, shop time, or paperwork.

Additional benefits and job costsReview optional assumptions

Advanced assumptions

Health insuranceEmployer monthly contribution, charged for the months the worker is paid.Dental and visionEmployer monthly contribution, charged for the months the worker is paid.General liabilityAnnual cost allocated to this employee.Other insuranceAny other annual insurance cost to include.Retirement contributionEmployer contribution as a percentage of wages.ToolsAnnual tool cost or allowance.UniformsAnnual clothing or uniform cost.Safety equipmentAnnual PPE and safety equipment cost.Vehicle allowanceAnnual vehicle allowance or assigned vehicle cost.Training expenseAnnual training expense.CertificationsLicenses, testing, and certification costs.Other annual costAny other annual employer cost.Social Security wage baseAnnual wage cap used for this estimate. A wage base of $0 removes Social Security from the estimate.FUTA wage baseAnnual wage cap used for federal unemployment. A wage base of $0 removes FUTA from the estimate.SUTA wage baseMaximum wages per employee taxed for state unemployment. SUTA is $0 in this estimate until you enter your state's cap.Other employer payroll taxOther employer payroll tax percentage, if any.Other payroll wage baseAnnual wage cap for the other payroll tax. The tax is $0 in this estimate until you enter a cap.Hours per paid dayUsed to convert paid days into paid hours.Pricing markupMarkup is pricing, not labor burden.

Additional employer-paid costs

Enter an annual, monthly, or hourly amount.

0 added

No additional costs added.

Your estimate

True productive-hour cost

Your result will appear here

Enter an hourly wage or annual salary to calculate the employee's true cost.

Base pay + employer costs / productive hours

Planning estimate, state-specific rates not applied automatically, not payroll, insurance, tax, or legal advice · laborburdencalc.com

Saved in this browser

This draft is available only on this device. Sign in to save it to your account.

How the calculation works

From base pay to billing rate.

Every assumption can be edited in the calculator. Use this summary to understand the flow, then review the complete methodology when you need details.

Calculate annual compensation

Regular pay, overtime, and bonuses establish the wage base.

Add employer-paid costs

Payroll taxes, insurance, benefits, tools, vehicle, and custom costs are added separately.

Remove non-billable paid time

Paid holidays, vacation, sick time, training, and admin hours reduce productive hours.

Divide by productive hours

The result is the estimated cost of one productive hour of labor.

View complete methodology

Learn labor burden

Understand what really goes into the cost of an employee.

From employer payroll taxes and workers' compensation to benefits, paid time off, and productive hours — the complete guide to how labor burden works for U.S. contractors.

Read the complete labor burden guide →

Saved estimates

Reopen saved labor estimates.

Use the calculator without an account. Sign in only when you want account-backed estimate history.

SearchSort

Saved estimates are temporarily unavailable.

Anonymous users can still calculate and keep a browser draft on this device.

Choose a crew profile

Essential assumptions

Additional employer-paid costs

From base pay to billing rate.

Calculate annual compensation

Add employer-paid costs

Remove non-billable paid time

Divide by productive hours

Understand what really goes into the cost of an employee.

Reopen saved labor estimates.

Assumption details

Copy manually

Save this estimate

Reopen your saved estimates.

Keep your estimates available on every device.

Sign in

Create an account

Save estimate

Calculate your true labor cost.Know what one hour truly costs you.

Choose a crew profile

Essential assumptions

Additional employer-paid costs

From base pay to billing rate.

Calculate annual compensation

Add employer-paid costs

Remove non-billable paid time

Divide by productive hours

Understand what really goes into the cost of an employee.

Reopen saved labor estimates.