Compute the fully-loaded cost of an employee: salary plus all benefits, taxes, and overhead.
Fully-loaded annual cost
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Employer payroll tax (FICA)
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Benefits + overhead
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Salary is the sticker price, not the cost
When a founder budgets a hire at the salary number, they are off by a third before the person even starts. Salary is roughly 70% of what an employee actually costs you. The rest is employer payroll taxes you are legally required to pay, the benefits you offer to compete for talent, and the overhead of giving someone a place to work and the tools to do the job. This calculator adds those layers back so your headcount plan reflects cash that will actually leave the bank.
The build is transparent. It starts with cash compensation, salary plus bonus, then applies the employer share of FICA at 7.65%. That 7.65% is 6.2% for Social Security and 1.45% for Medicare. One nuance to keep in mind: the 6.2% Social Security portion only applies up to the annual wage base, which the Social Security Administration set at $176,100 for 2025. Above that ceiling the employer rate drops to the 1.45% Medicare piece, so for very high earners the flat 7.65% here slightly overstates the tax. For salaries under the wage base, like the $100,000 default, 7.65% is exact. On top of tax, the tool adds employer health insurance, the 401(k) match, and a catch-all bucket for workspace, software, equipment, and training.
The true cost of a $100,000 hire
Take a typical role: $100,000 base, a $10,000 bonus, $12,000 of employer-paid health insurance, a $3,000 401(k) match, and $6,000 for a laptop, software seats, and a desk. Cash compensation is $110,000. Employer FICA on that cash is $8,415. Benefits and overhead add another $21,000. The fully loaded annual cost lands at $139,415, which is 1.39 times the base salary. That multiplier is the number to carry into a runway model, not the $100,000 on the offer letter.
| Component | Annual cost |
|---|---|
| Base salary | $100,000 |
| Bonus | $10,000 |
| Employer FICA (7.65% of $110,000) | $8,415 |
| Health insurance | $12,000 |
| 401(k) match | $3,000 |
| Workspace, software, equipment, training | $6,000 |
| Fully loaded cost | $139,415 (1.39x salary) |
Why the multiplier swings
The 1.25 to 1.4 range you hear quoted is real, but where you land inside it depends on choices. A generous health plan and a rich match push you toward 1.4. A lean benefits package and remote work with no office footprint pull you toward 1.25. Equity is the wild card this tool leaves out on purpose, because stock compensation is not a current cash outflow and muddies a cash budget. If you want to model the full economic cost including equity, track that separately. One judgment call worth flagging: employer payroll taxes also include federal and state unemployment insurance, FUTA and SUTA, which this tool folds into the overhead bucket rather than the FICA line. They are small in dollar terms but real.
Who reaches for this
Founders sizing a hire against a fundraise, finance leads building a headcount budget, and anyone comparing the all-in cost of an employee against a contractor rate. A practical tip: when you compare an employee to a contractor, remember the contractor invoice already includes their self-employment tax and their own benefits, so the right comparison is the contractor's annual billings against this fully loaded number, not against base salary. The most common mistake I see is approving a salary band against runway without grossing it up. Do that across ten hires and your burn rate is understated by hundreds of thousands of dollars a year.
Does the fully loaded cost include the employee's own taxes?
No, and it should not. The fully loaded cost is what the employer pays out. The income tax and the employee half of FICA come out of the worker's gross pay, so they are already inside the salary figure. Adding them again would double count. This tool captures only the employer-side costs that sit on top of gross pay.
Should I use base salary or total cash for the FICA calculation?
Total cash. Employer FICA applies to bonus as well as base, up to the Social Security wage base, so the tool taxes salary plus bonus together. If you pay a large bonus that pushes total cash over $176,100 for 2025, only the Medicare portion applies above the ceiling, and the true employer tax will be a little lower than a flat 7.65% suggests.