Employee Cost Calculator
Calculates the fully loaded cost of each employee by adding salary, benefits, taxes, equipment, and overhead. Aggregates by department and computes effective cost per hour so you can understand the true expense of your workforce.
HR - Employee Cost Calculator.xlsx
Excel (.xlsx) — No macros — Works in Excel, Google Sheets, LibreOffice
What This Spreadsheet Solves
- Salary alone understates true employee cost by 20-40%
- No visibility into fully loaded cost per department
- Cannot calculate effective hourly rate for project costing
- Benefits and tax burden vary by employee but are not tracked per person
- Headcount requests lack accurate cost data
Who This Is For
- HR managers building compensation analyses
- Finance partners modeling headcount costs
- Operations leaders pricing internal resources for projects
- Founders understanding true team costs
Inputs
- textEmployee Name / ID
- textDepartment
- $Annual Base Salary
- $Benefits Cost (Annual)
- %Employer Tax Rate
- #Annual Working Hours
Outputs
- Fully loaded cost per employee
- Effective cost per hour
- Department total cost
- Benefits-to-salary ratio
- Tax burden per employee
- Average fully loaded cost across company
How Calculations Work
Fully loaded cost equals base salary plus benefits plus (salary times employer tax rate) plus any additional overhead allocated per employee. Cost per hour divides the fully loaded annual cost by annual working hours. Department totals sum all employees within each department. The benefits-to-salary ratio flags employees with unusually high or low benefit loads.
Example Use Case
Scenario: An engineer earns $95,000 salary, $12,000 in benefits, 7.65% employer tax, with 1,880 working hours/year. A sales rep earns $65,000, $10,000 benefits, same tax rate and hours.
Result: Engineer: fully loaded $114,268, $60.78/hour. Sales rep: fully loaded $79,973, $42.54/hour. Engineering department (5 people): $571,338 total. Company average fully loaded cost: $97,120.
What You Get — 5 Sheets
Technical Details
Frequently Asked Questions
What costs should I include in benefits?
Health insurance, dental, vision, retirement contributions, life insurance, wellness stipends, and any other employer-paid benefits.
How do I handle part-time employees?
Enter their actual salary and pro-rated benefits. Set working hours to their actual annual hours.
Should I include equipment and office space?
The CONFIG sheet has an overhead allocation field. Add per-employee equipment and space costs there for fully loaded calculations.
What employer tax rate should I use?
In the US, use approximately 7.65% for FICA (Social Security + Medicare). Add state unemployment tax if applicable. Non-US employers should use their local rate.
How often should I update this?
Update after salary adjustments, benefit renewals, or new hires. Quarterly reviews are typical.
Download Employee Cost Calculator
Ready to use immediately. Enter your data in the INPUT sheet, see results in OUTPUT.